Rice-Houston Audubon bird survey Apr 9, 2019

 

 

 

Jim Winn, Charles Fischer, Stuart Nelson, myself met at 7 AM this morning to conduct the first official Houston Audubon-Rice University bird survey.  We had 35 species of birds. We started at Harris Gully. Dawn is the best time for the birds. Yellow-crowned Night Herons and one Green Heron flew over. A lingering Sedge and Marsh Wren called from the reeds. Several Swamp Sparrows were in the cattails.  And for the first time ever in 18 years, a male Red-winged Blackbird in bright breeding plumage turned up in the cattails, singing his head off as he was attempting to establish territory. Red-winged Blackbirds are of course not rare at all in Texas, but getting one in the middle of Rice, an urban environment, just shows that small microhabitats can go far for birds. 

After Harris Gully, we wandered over to the oak grove and azaleas by Huff house.  This is usually where warblers find themselves if they are around.  A little bit of work produced Worm-eating, Hooded, Yellow-rumpeds, Northern Parulas, and Black-throated Green Warblers, along with a Red-eyed Vireo.

We then worked our way back to our starting point. Right about when we called it a day, we stumbled across another small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. In that flock was a Bell's Vireo, quite a rarity along the upper Texas coast. This represents only the third record ever of a Bell's Vireo at Rice. The other two records were Aug 14, 2013 and April 13, 2016.

All in all, it was a good day. The birds, wildflowers, and pollinators are only going to grow in numbers as we progress into April.  Our next official survey will be April 23. I will send out a reminder for this.

I hope you will join us next time!  In addition to birds, we will look at everything alive as we aim to document biodiversity within this little urban environment.

White-winged Dove  40
Mourning Dove  1     One flew over Harris gully at dawn. They are getting harder to find.
Killdeer  1
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  1     Flying over at dawn
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  6
White Ibis  1
Broad-winged Hawk  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Bell's Vireo  1     Drab vireo moving slowly in the trees on the southwestern edge of anderson biology laboratory. Near the road intersection. Dull yellow below. Indistinct eye ring with dull eyeline going through the eye. Long tail for a vireo. Brown or dark eye. I just barely saw the wingbars but did not get a good look to assess relative contrast of wingbars.
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  10
swallow sp.  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
House Wren  1
Sedge Wren  1
Marsh Wren  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  3
American Robin  12
Northern Mockingbird  8
European Starling  20
Cedar Waxwing  15
House Finch  15
Swamp Sparrow  3     Harris gully. Migrants?
Red-winged Blackbird  1     A singing male. First adult male I’ve seen on campus other than a few flyovers.
Great-tailed Grackle  20
Worm-eating Warbler  1
Hooded Warbler  2
Northern Parula  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  9
Yellow-throated Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1
House Sparrow  20