Texas City Prairie Preserve Receives Birding Award

The winning team from the 2008 Great Texas Birding Classic has selected Texas City Prairie Preserve to receive their $20,000 conservation award. Held during the peak of migration in late April, the Great Texas Birding Classic is a week-long team birding competition to spot most different species along the Texas coast. Other teams pick a portion of the coast and bird for only one 24-hour day and there are also competitions for youth birding teams. 

Winners in each contests get to designate which conservation project receives their cash award. This year’s winning team was the Reliant Energy Environmental Partners, sponsored by Reliant Energy. Captained by Bill Baker and manned by Lalise Mason, Greg Mason and Tom Roberts, they identified 316 species of birds during the competition. The team designated their prize to be used for the preserve’s borrow ditch wetland restoration program. The Nature Conservancy and Texas City Prairie Preserve thanks Reliant Energy Environmental Partners and all the sponsors of the Birding Classic for their support.

Galveston County Bird Count Results

On May 5, the Galveston Audubon Society’s spring bird count brought more birding success to Texas City Prairie Preserve. The weather that Saturday cooperated for birders—although the day started out hot and humid, a mid-morning front brought much drier north winds and thankfully cooler temperatures. The front may have induced migrating birds to stop and rest before continuing their northward flight. 

The preserve’s team, consisting of preserve manager Jared Judy, his wife Gina, Paula Kennedy, Ann Brinly and Tom Scarsella, found 93 species—a considerable improvement over the 73 species seen last year. Six species located that day had not been reported on the preserve in the past 10 years, including olive-sided flycatcher, bank swallow, black-throated green warbler and American redstart. Other uncommon birds found were American golden plover, bobolink, and lark sparrow. Total Galveston County numbers are not yet available, but the preliminary tally is already well above last year’s total of 200 species.

Marsh Mania Sweeps the Preserve

The Galveston Bay Foundation and Texas City Prairie Preserve hosted Marsh Mania at the preserve on May 31. This is the tenth year of Marsh Mania and the fifth year the preserve has been a planting site. Nearly 80 volunteers, including a large number of children, planted almost a mile of shoreline along Moses Lake with cordgrass in an effort to restore habitat and stabilize the shoreline. After planting, the volunteers cleaned up litter from the shoreline, collecting enough trash to fill a pickup bed and trailer. Preserve staff will be closely monitoring the marsh at the planting site in the future.

Attwater’s Prairie Chickens Update

Those familiar with Texas City Prairie Preserve know how challenging our work to restore the Attwater’s prairie chicken is. More than 1 million chickens once roamed the Texas coast prairies, but loss of habitat has reduced the species to just a handful of birds. As part of our ongoing recovery efforts, we closely supervised nesting season for a number of hens. 

The work involved in nesting is tremendous and time consuming. Hens and chicks must be placed in brood boxes that offer some protection from predators during the crucial first two weeks after hatching. Feeding and monitoring the confined birds takes many people. Thankfully, Marathon Oil organized a group of 40 people to come to the preserve to sweep net for insects—nearly 1,000 live insects are needed per box for each feeding. An ultraviolet-light trap succeeded in attracting enough insects each night for the first feeding of the day, but that’s only the first of seven daily feedings. Most of the other needed insects were collected by volunteers using sweep nets. In all, over 300 volunteer hours were spent sweeping for insects. In addition to providing much-needed manpower, Marathon Oil also generously donated $15,000 to the prairie-chicken recovery effort!

New Summer Intern Reneé Jones

Reneé Jones is the new conservation science intern for the summer. Her primary duty will be collecting data relating to the Attwater’s prairie chickens to be used in the efforts to protect this important coastal species from extinction. Reneé recently graduated with honors from Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science degree in recreation, park and tourism sciences. Reneé is from Kansas City, Missouri and has a passion for conservation and preservation that developed from multiple childhood trips to zoos and parks across the United States. She has had the opportunity to act upon her passion by being involved as an intern at the Sunset Zoo, Houston Zoo, and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Reneé will be attending graduate school at Texas A&M in the wildlife and fisheries sciences department to focus on animal behavior. She plans to implement all of her educational knowledge and hands-on experiences in a career in a zoo profession. Welcome Reneé!

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photos © Karen Cornelius (Texas City Prairie Preserve); © Lynn McBride (Attwater's Prairie Chicken); © Great Texas Birding Classic (Logo); © Ann Brinly (Marsh Mania); © Jared Judy/TNC (Marathon volunteers); © Jared Judy/TNC (Reneé Jones)