Mad Island Marsh Christmas Bird Count
No. 1 for a full decade?
For the past nine years, the Mad Island Marsh-Matagorda County Christmas Bird Count – which includes The Nature Conservancy’s Mad Island Marsh Preserve – has led the nation in the number of species recorded during one winter’s day. The 2005 count posted a record-breaking 250 bird species.
Will the more than 100 birders expected to participate in this year’s count continue to hold No. 1 honors for a solid decade? The upcoming 2006 count on Dec. 18 will tell the tale.
High-quality coastal-prairie habitat within the Conservancy’s 7,000-acre Clive Runnells Family Mad Island Marsh Preserve and on an additional 7,000 acres in the adjacent Mad Island Marsh Wildlife Management Area, which the Conservancy helped established, are key contributors to the high numbers of both species and individual birds recorded each year during the count.
Also important is the wide diversity of habitats contained in the 15-mile-diameter count circle – from prairies to wooded river banks – as well as the enthusiasm with which local private and corporate landowners and community residents participate. Typically, birders from around Texas and beyond take part in the Mad Island Marsh count.
Founded more than a century ago by the Audubon Society, Christmas bird counts compile data used by ornithologists to track long-term trends in birds.
Birders wishing to participate or learn more about the Mad Island Marsh-Matagorda County Christmas Bird Counts are asked to contact Jared Laing, (979) 240-4218, jlaing@tnc.org or Brent Ortego, (361) 576-0022,brent.ortego@tpwd.state.tx.us.
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The Nature Conservancy is an international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its nearly 1 million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped protect more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns 35 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 70 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved close to a million acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.
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