Spring Migration

Banding efforts for the spring songbird migration began in earnest during the first week of April. Our first efforts were often influenced by the passage of several weather fronts that brought high winds and colder that average temperatures in the Concho Valley.  In spite of the weather, we were able to encounter some migrants during the first half of the month. Our most unexpected bird during this time was a Common Ground-Dove which is not a migrant but not expected in the Concho Valley during this season of the year.  On the 19th of April, we banded our first Painted Bunting of the year which arrived several days earlier than past years. This bird was soon followed by Lazuli and Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks and Summer Tanagers. During the last week of April, the floodgates finally opened and we were rewarded with swarms of migrating Pine Siskins, wood warblers, buntings, and goldfinches. 

With the drought that occurred in the mid-west in the summer of 2012 and the subsequent low number of migrants encountered in the fall, we anticipated that the number of spring migrants would be lower than most years throughout the Concho Valley.  In fact, near record numbers of Orange-crowned, Nashville, Wilson's, and Yellow Warblers funneled through the riparian corridor along with good numbers of less common but still expected warblers. With more than two weeks remaining in the month of May, we are still encountering such species as MacGillivray's Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and Oven Bird. We expect to see other less common warblers as the season draws to a close. Winter and spring rains have been sparse across the Concho Valley. Perhaps these birds are being forced into the riparian corridor to find water and other resources as they head to their breeding grounds. The conditions and results are beginning to mirror the 2011 season when we encountered many more birds and species than a normal year. The final results will not be written until the last waves of migrants have made their way through our banding stations.

San Saba Nature Park

On May 9th, we participated in the 2nd Annual Birding Festival at the LCRA San Saba Nature Park. Our guests at the bird banding were third grade students and their teachers from San Saba and Richland Springs, children and parents from the San Saba Home School Educators Association, local Boy Scouts and their leaders, and the general public. It was a very well organized event sponsored by the San Saba Bird and Nature Club. Activities for the students included Bird Banding, Nature Scavenger Hunt, Nature Journaling and the Bird Viewing Blind. Bird banding was conducted by the West Texas Avian Research team of Charles and Nancy Floyd along with Kelly and Donna Bryan who banded Black-chinned Hummingbirds and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Songbird species banded included  Kentucky Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Lincoln Sparrow, Carolina Wren, White-eyed Vireo and House Wren. We want to express our thanks to the San Saba Birding Club for the opportunity, hospitality, and the assistance from the volunteers.

Camp Discovery at Hummer House

 On Monday, May 6, Dan and Cathy Brown of the Hummer House hosted the 2013 Camp Discovery for the 4th grade students of Christoval ISD. Students in the Wall High School Gifted and Talented program also attended. This was the second year that the Browns had hosted the event to further their dream of providing students and teachers an opportunity for learning more about nature. Students rotated through ten sessions of various topics. It was a wonderful day of learning but the temperature was much cooler than expected. Songbird banding was conducted by Charles Floyd and members of the Concho Valley banding team. Special assistants to the banding team was Don Connell, a bird bander from Austin and Bob Wray from Washington. We appreciate their help. Kelly Bryan conducted the hummingbird banding session. The most unique bird of the day was the Tennessee Warbler which is only the third bird of that species to be banded at the Hummer House in more than eighteen years of banding. Twenty-eight species of birds were banded during the day. We want to express our thanks to the Browns for the opportunity to be a part of their dream.



 

 



 

2013 HEB Camp

We were once again priviledged to go to the HEB Foundation Camp with the students from Ballinger and Bronte. We had 20 species of birds to band and show to the students. We were excited to have an Oven Bird and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker find our nets. We never know exactly what species we will find at the camp so we always approach camp with anticipation of unusual species. It was interesting to have four birds be recaptured that we had banded in previous years. We thank the schools for allowing us to be a part of their program.

2013 Winter Activities

We started the 2013 banding season on January 2nd at the Hummer House attempting to trap an adult male Rufous Hummingbird that had been there for several weeks. He remained very trap shy  which made us believe that he had seen our traps before this winter.  While there, we netted two Red-breasted Nuthatches and saw several others that had arrived there for the winter. Despite the shortfall of migrants and winter residents during the fall and early winter, we made an early January  banding attempt at the EWA (east windmill banding station). We discovered that better than average numbers of most winter sparrows had settled into that habitat for the remainder of the winter. This is very encouraging since many of these species were totally absent from that area all of the previous winter. We also banded our second Allen's Hummingbird of the winter season  at the Hummer House during January. This brings our total to three of this species  encountered this winter. The Allen's Hummingbird was a review species for the state of Texas only a few years ago.

We continued our banding efforts in February with a training day for our banding crew early  in the month and made a couple of efforts to check populations of wintering birds near the spring and river.  Populations of wintering birds in those areas were much better than the drought impacted previous season. We continued to band Red-breasted Nuthatches which do not often stay this late into the season.  We also made preliminary banding efforts at the Duff Ranch in the southwest corner of Tom Green County. We believe this ranch will prove valuable to us as a site to compare migrating and breeding populations of birds away from the South Concho River corridor and give us better insight to migration patterns across the area.

In early March, we were at Twistflower Ranch in Crockett County giving a program for the Master Naturalists from Austin. We are happy to report that bird populations in that area are also recovering from the effects of the drought . While there we banded many resident and winter birds including a very nice Green-tailed Towhee which is a bird that we seldom see.  In our first attempt at the Hummer House in March, we encountered many of the expected winter birds but also banded a Fox Sparrow for the first time in several seasons. We eagerly anticipate the beginning of the spring migration season and our busy seasons of the year.

November-December Activities

 As October drew to a close, we believed that the winter birds already on site at the Hummer House  indicated an average or better winter banding season at the East Windmill banding station.  However, our first attempts in early November were much below average in both numbers and species of birds found there. Two subsequent attempts at the South Concho River Station in early November also yielded lower than average numbers and species of birds and we ended the month as it began.  December was much like November in that we expended a great deal of effort with minimum results in numbers and species. In the second half of the month, we finally noted the arrival of White-crowned Sparrows at the EWA station and banded limited numbers of other species that in previous years were plentiful at that site. As we approached Christmas, a number of winter hummingbirds were still present at the Hummer House. We trapped and banded three of these hummers. One was a hatch year male Rufous, one was an adult female Rufous, and the last was a hatch year male Allen's Hummingbird. The Allen's was only the third of this species ever recorded at the Hummer Ranch.  An adult male Rufous was also present but was very trap shy indicating that he could have been trapped and banded previously. Other attempts to trap this bird in December were not successful. During that same weekend,  we went to a home in central San Angelo where we banded a hatch-year female Rufous Hummingbird.
 

That weekend, we received word that another winter hummingbird was present at the same location where we had banded a Rufous Hummingbird in early January of 2012.  Knowing that it was possibly the same bird that had returned for a second season, we devoted an afternoon toward  trapping this individual. This bird was also trap shy but we were able to trap the bird in mid-afternoon. It was not the bird from last season. It was a hatch year male Allen's Hummingbird. Allen's Hummingbird's are never expected in the Concho Valley. The presence of two individuals in a single weekend in late December seems very astounding to those that keep up with bird movements.  We told the homeowner that they should buy a lottery ticket. Having a winter hummingbird is unusual. Having two different birds at a single residence in subsequent seasons is pretty astounding.  The fact that this last bird is a rare visitor from California would raise the odds enough to warrant buying a lottery ticket.