Turn out your lights during spring bird migration

Turn out your lights during spring bird migration

green jay

Turn lights out at night to protect birds. A green jay perches on a branch in the Rio Grande Valley. Pam LeBlanc photo

The spring migration is peaking in Texas, and that means it’s time to turn off lights at night to protect passing birds.

Up to a billion birds die after hitting glass windows each year in the United States, according to the American Bird Conservancy. Some of the deaths occur after birds fly into commercial high-rise buildings, but about half the deaths happen when they smash into the windows of private homes.

That’s why the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is encouraging homeowners to turn their lights off at night through mid-May as part of their Lights Out campaign.

Bright lights can confuse birds as they pass through Texas on their way up north. And birds don’t understand the concept of glass as an invisible barrier, so they try to fly into lighted windows.

Houston Audubon and the American National Insurance Company launched the original Lights Out initiative in 2017. A nationwide program sponsored by BirdCast began around the same time.

It’s especially important in Texas. An estimated 2 billion birds pass through our state on their way to nesting grounds up north each spring and fall.

To make their trip safer, turn off all nonessential lights from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. each night until mid-May. Close blinds at night. Don’t use landscape lighting to illuminate trees or gardens where birds may be resting. And if you must keep a light on for security purposes, aim the beam downward and use lighting shields to avoid casting bright light into trees or the sky.

Learn more about bird-friendly window decals that can reduce collisions here.

 

 

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Stalking the big birds at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center

Stalking the big birds at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center

The South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center features a boardwalk over the wetlands of the Laguna Madre. Pam LeBlanc photo

 

I used to chuckle at birders I’d see at parks and preserves, tiptoeing through the brush with a camera in one hand and a pair of binoculars slung around their neck.
Now I’m becoming one of them.

I find myself pulling my car off the side of the road to admire a red-tailed hawk, or easing my canoe along a riverbank to get a better glimpse of a great blue heron. Last weekend I spent a glorious two hours armed with my camera, long lens locked into place, lurking on the wooden boardwalk at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.

At the center, visitors can walk more than half a mile along a boardwalk through 43 acres of ponds, marshes and scrub, pausing in five blinds to watch ducks fledge, fish spawn, butterflies flutter by and exotic-looking birds make an appearance. There’s even a five-story observation tower which serves up a birds-eye view of the Laguna Madre.

A roseate spoonbill comes in for a landing at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center on Jan. 24, 2021. Pam LeBlanc photo

During my visit, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the roseate spoonbills, big, Pepto-Bismol-colored birds with beaks that look like they’ve been ironed flat. They seemed to be doing some kind of dance, wagging their feathery hips and splashing in the water.

An osprey circled overhead, diving headfirst into the bay now and then and popping up with a fish in its talons. The brown pelicans seemed awkward and uncoordinated, zooming in for splash landings and raising their heads to show off their big pouches. A great blue heron silently stalked its prey, a flock of seagulls made a racket, and a skimmer flitted past, flying low over the shallow water and scooping up its prey.

A great egret hovers just over the water in the Laguna Madre at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center on Jan. 24, 2021. Pam LeBlanc photo

I’ve got a couple of birding books, but the best is “The Sibley Guide to Birds,” and its companion checklist. I’ve been scribbling notes in it since I got back to Austin.

Birds aren’t all that’s on display at the center, which has expanded to include an alligator sanctuary. About 50 juvenile gators, each measuring between 3 and nearly 6 feet long, are housed in a marshy wetland behind the facility. They’ve been rescued from backyard ponds, pools, piers and other situations where they’ve become nuisances.

A 750-pound, 12-foot 7-inch gator named Big Padre, who was transported here after becoming acclimated to eating fish scraps near a boat ramp in Port Arthur, lives in a separate, adjacent enclosure. (Never feed wild alligators.)

About 50 rescued alligators also live at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. Pam LeBlanc photo

If you go: The South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center is located at 6801 Padre Boulevard. Admission is $8 for adults; $7 seniors and students ages 13 to 18; $5 ages 4 to 12; and free for ages under 4. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Masks must be worn indoors and whenever you’re within 6 feet of people not in your group. For more information go to www.spibirding.com.

 

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Join a Backyard Bird Count on April 15

Join a Backyard Bird Count on April 15

A flock of cedar waxwings perch in a tree near Blanco. Pam LeBlanc photo

Here from the quasi-confinement of my Allandale home in Central Austin, I’ve been noticing the birds lately.

One reason? Less traffic hum means I actually hear nature. I woke up a 5 a.m. and instead of the buzz of traffic on nearby MoPac, I listened to a chorus of tree frogs and early-rising birds. During the day, I’ve spotted flocks of noisy, electric green Monk parakeets (a non-native species started by escaped pets in the 1970s), a few red-tailed hawks scanning for rodents, a screech owl or two, and a high-flying blue heron.

During these shelter-in-place days, Travis Audubon is encouraging people to take a closer look at what’s perched in the tree branches just outside their doors.

A cardinal in an oak tree near Castell, Texas. Pam LeBlanc photo

The non-profit organization’s annual spring Birdathon – during which avid birders team up and compete to see how many birds they can spot in a single outing – has been postponed until the fall migration. Instead, they’ve scheduled an hour-long Backyard Bird Count for Wednesday, April 15. From 8-9 a.m., head out onto your back porch, or a nearby green space, and make a list of each species you see. Include the location where you saw each bird, the number of individuals you saw or heard, and email it to volunteer@travisaudubon.org.

The submissions will be compiled to create  a snaphot of the birds seen around Central Texas at the same time on the same day in 2020.

Even beyond the backyard bird count, now’s a good time to pay attention to the birdlife. (This New York Times story explains how the bird population of North America has dropped by 29 percent in the past half century https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/science/bird-populations-america-canada.html.)

“The good thing about birds is they’re really kind of all over the place,” says Rich Kostecke, director of research and planning at the Nature Conservancy in Texas. “Even if you just got out into your backyard, you’re likely going to see some birds, and we’re hitting the beginning of spring migration. Any day a new species could pop up as they start pushing north.”

One rarity that’s made an appearance in Austin this year? A white wagtail, common in Europe and Asia with a small population that lives along sea cliffs and in man-made structures in Alaska. A single specimen, apparently blown off its migration route, has been observed at Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Metro Park several times in recent weeks.

About Pam

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