In the 1800s, early-American ornithol-ogist John James Audubon stepped off his boat onto Galveston Island,

eyeballing the predominant habitat on this barrier ecosystem: miles and miles of coast-al prairie. Bluestem stretched for endless distance, with its companion meadowlarks, harriers and Le Conte’s Sparrows.

That was a long time ago. Since that time, acreage of grassland has been lessened al-most completely, mirroring the mainland for hundreds of miles. Today, only the State Park reflects even a shadow of Galveston’s former self, despite being riddled with un-desirable vegetation (though much better off than five years ago!). [The control burn of 2008 was welcomed by any who understand and care about the environment.]

What covers much of the island, though, is concrete and asphalt, predictable with de-velopment. Still, within the city, there are greenspaces such as Kempner Park, with massive oaks opening their canopies to wea-ry avian travelers. Even in winter, Neotropi-cal species such as Black-throated Green Warblers sometimes overwinter, making participants on the Christmas Bird Counts happy.

Between the Spaniards and other visitors, Live Oaks were introduced to Galveston over the past few centuries, creating forests, providing cover for migrating birds, and, of course, helping to hide Laffite’s treasure. Today, the preserve named for this thief is one of the top songbird migrant locations on the Gulf coast.

These small forests are called by different names in various places. Back east, they are called hammocks, part of the inspiration for the GOS property called Heartbreak Ham-mock. In neighboring Louisiana, with its French influence, these woodlots are termed cheniers, but are effectively the same as hammocks. “Chen” means “oak” in French; thus the name. Thanks, Joy. ;)

In Texas, they are called motts, and Laf-fite’s Cove has a pretty large one. Many motts grow, in part, because the early Na-tive Americans had “trash piles” where they discarded their “garbage” – seashells left over from their mollusk dinners. The cal-cium in the shells breaks down over time and becomes “plant food,” encouraging tree growth. [Shells are made of calcium carbon-ate, CaCO3.] Scientists call these growths of trees “middens.”

Along with oaks came other non-native trees that continually increased the forested

acreage of Galveston Island. Chinaberries, a rather weak wooded tree similar to West-ern Soapberry, colonized certain locations, including the predominant species on the raised butte where Heartbreak Hammock stands.

Another Asian immigrant, the Chinese Tallow, is the scourge of the entire Gulf coast. Nearly impossible to kill, it spreads west like lightning, erasing prairieland in its wake. Lost are prairie chickens and other grassland species, and all too often conser-vationists are too slow in attempting to curb its menacing growth. Many of us are hop-ing Hurricane Ike killed large numbers of tallows.

Few birds eat the fruit from tallows, except generalists like mockingbirds and Mourning Doves – species which hardly need the help. The former, though, spreads the seeds west-ward in its circum-Gulf “fall” migration, actually accomplished mostly in late sum-

mer. Birds requiring what the tallows crowd out disappear, and the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That’s an old theme.

What the increase in forests have done

on Galveston is to gradually transform it from a prairie ecosystem to an extension of the Eastern Deciduous Forest. If you look at the maps of birds in a field guide, you’ll see a great many whose range stretches from the At-lantic Ocean to the edge of the Great Plains. F o r m e r l y , Galveston had not been in this huge biome, but with the for-estation of the Island, we are becoming just that.

Obviously, this is affecting the spe-cies composition of Galveston. Common eastern birds like cardinals and Blue Jays are increasing, while grassland birds are disappearing. Joining the incoming birds are animals from other groups, like Green Anoles (incorrectly termed “chameleons”), Five-lined (“blue-tailed”) Skinks, Green and Squirrel Treefrogs, Ground Skinks (the shiny little lizards that people incorrectly call salamanders), Bullfrogs, Gray Squirrels and a plethora of arthropods.

One interesting non-taxonomic group of birds is that of non-migratory species that are just now trying to get a foothold in Galveston, but since they don’t normally cross watery expenses like Galveston Bay, it’s hard for them to get reinforcements. This would be species like Carolina Wren, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers and Carolina Chickadee. Lately, we’ve even had a Pileated Woodpecker!

They “get started” in Galveston (appar-ently) with very strong north winds from

The Official Newspaper of the Galveston Ornithological SocietyVolume 10, Issue 1 Spring 2009

Greening...Cont. on page 2

Ike alters, re-sets Ecology of Upper Texas CoastThe morning of Friday, September

12, even the animals knew some-thing was up. Winds were blowing

hard out of the east, skies were becoming ominous and tides were rising at an alarm-ing rate. And most importantly to many animals, the barometer was falling like our October stocks.

There may have been some mentally challenged people who decided to ride out the storm, but the real natives of the Galveston area knew better. They’ve been dodging hurricanes for nearly two million years, and survival bells were ringing.

Many birds rode the strong east winds ahead of the gargantuan storm, heading toward places such as San Antonio. Others simply moved northward, in the direction of Dallas. And migrating birds intending to follow the Texas coast down to the Tropics

passed around Ike and wound up in Central Texas.

Animals that couldn’t fly faced tougher challenges. Many like snakes and mammals sought higher ground, but often even that wasn’t high enough. Thousands were swept inland, clinging on to any board, limb or Styrofoam boat they could find. Following the storm, these cling-ons are scattered to the four corners of the Upper Texas Coast – never to return.

This displacement of animal populations is part of a process of morphing the pre-Ike ecology of the Galveston/Houston area. For instance, for decades, the genes of Gulf Salt Marsh Snakes will mix with Broad-banded Watersnakes that reside inland, thus pro-ducing hybrids with stripes and bands.

Of greater consequence, untold tons of seawater washed inland, loading up small bodies of freshwater with brine. Many ani-mals cannot live in this saline mixture and will perish. Many others will disappear as the plants they rely on die, or are replaced by more salt tolerant species.

The marine waters that flooded the near coastal areas took a heavy toll on various groups of sedentary creatures. Treefrogs, for instance, seemed to have disappeared. Warm, humid evenings seem acoustical-ly naked without their barks and honks. Narrow-mouthed Toads may have suffered even worse, and even the tough Gulf Coast Toads may take many years to build up their bug-eating numbers.

Reptiles probably fared only slightly bet-ter. Having watertight skin certainly is an advantage over the porous skin of the amphibians of the last paragraph, but wide scale (no pun intended) damage has been done to reptiles regardless. Green Anoles, the cute little lizards that can turn to brown or green, have been decimated in many places. The island’s unique Ground Skinks, which may well have been a separate race from the mainland population, have likely been nearly exterminated. Only the intro-duced geckos, hiding behind the boards of dwellings, may have escaped Ike’s fury without too significant losses.

There has been much to do about snakes since Ike, and indeed, various species like Cottonmouths are a hazard when cleaning up debris. But the majority of the island’s snakes are probably somewhere from La Marque to Dickinson, wondering where the beach went. How this affects future rat populations on the coast is yet to be seen.

Curiously, though, the abundant, native Cotton Rat seems to have all but disap-peared, and their chief predator, the White-tailed Kite along with them. Northern Harriers, which also eat rats, have adapted to hunting Black and Norway Rats, such as along roadsides where trash piles are found.

Waves Crashing onto the Seawall Friday Morning

Hybrid of the Above two Watersnakes Gulf Coast Toads: Tough little Creatures Ecology...Cont. on page 5

The Greening of Galveston

Eastern Meadowlark: Love the Prairies

Heartbreak Hammock: Where the GOS Resides

Green Anole: Can Actually Change Color

Young Mockingbird: Mid-summer Migrant

The Official Newspaper of the Galveston Ornithological SocietyVolume 14, Issue 3 Winter 2013

G u l l a u t h o r p u b l i s h e s B o o k o n G a l ve s t o n B i r d s ! Jim S`tevenson, who has published six book during his 18-year tenure as Director of the Galveston Ornithological Society, now has published his seventh and most exciting: Birds of Galveston. It’s a tabletop book for peoples’ living rooms and offices, complete with huge, color plates of everything feathered that’s graced Galveston’s shores, ponds, fields and woodlots. It will help novices identify our many birds, but will provide far more information than that, for the inquisitive minds. Aside from huge, color plates of our birds, taken by the author, and a color-pictorial table of contents, there is a long section of every species having occurred on the Island, with pictures, who saw it and where, plus the season they occur. There are many varied chapters on topics such as how to get started birding, a history of Galves-ton’s birds, maps of the best birding areas and special species to look for, explanation of avian classification, with heavy emphasis on families and species, breeding birds, winter residents and spring/fall migrants, how to ID birds, climate and weather, hawk-watching, cold fronts’ affect on bird-watching, locations for morning or afternoon birding, how to attract birds in your yard, closer looks at Galveston’s waterbirds, ways to become involved with birds, such as photography and conservation, a yearly “calendar” of the comings and goings of our 400 species, information about where to bird off the Island, neat secrets about birds, such as color adaptations, genetic ab-normalities seen in local species, what the birds are eating, an in-depth chapter on bird migration in Galveston, courtship and reproduction, plumage change, birds and the sargassum (sea weed), and several of the real heroes of Galveston ornithology, past and present. Every section is replete with the author’s photographs, including a chapter on Galveston’s “other” animals, such as mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

The purpose of this edition of the Gull is to alert people interested in birds and nature to Birds of Galveston. To order, send $40 per book to the GOS, Rt. 1 Box 185C, Galveston, TX, 77554 (no S&H). All copies will be signed by the author (unless otherwise stipulated), plus any phrases you wish included with the signa-ture. Your book will be mailed quickly before Christmas, but the office will be closed from 27 December to 15 January. E-mail Jim at galornsoc@earthlink.net

In an open area near the sea, nature provides an abundance of wind, and that moving air provides the impetus for some of nature’s most amazing fliers. Almost all birds fly, with a few being pretty slow, others average or better on the wing, but those of us living on Galveston Island get treated to amazing wing-masters on a simple drive to the cor-ner store. Jonathan Livingston Seagull has a lot of rivals, as Laughing Gulls dip in and out of traffic, Forster’s Terns drop head-first into the surf, Peregrines make short work of city pigeons and huge frigatebirds stand still on inshore breezes, watching for jelly-fish. But other species less renowned have their aerial secrets as well, and Galveston is a great place to watch them.

During the migration, largely spring and fall, several species of swallows zip up and down the Island like miniature guided mis-siles, following the shoreline for literally thousands of miles. Led by the ubiquitous Barn Swallow at the top, they race along at breakneck speed, snatching insects as they follow the coast to the Tropics. Below the Barn Swallow are its brethren of flight school, the Purple Martin, plus Cliff, Bank and Tree Swallows. And considering many of these bred in Alaska, it’s hard to imag-ine several of them are only halfway to their destination. Can you imagine how many fly-ing insects they will consume in the thou-sands of miles they fly each season? I only hope it’s mostly mosquitoes and sand gnats!

Swallows don’t have the corner on the mar-ket in flying ability, though. Swifts, like the Chimney Swift down and to the left of the top swallow, are incredible in their own right. Relatives of hummingbirds, swifts beat their wings far faster than swallows and zip across the Gulf of Mexico in spring nearly an hour before any other species. One truly amazing thing about swifts is that they can take quazi-naps in the air, as one side of their brain “sleeps” while the other steers the ship – then vice versa. And of course, their relatives, the hummingbirds, fly like the wind and hover as well. Both have sa-ber-like wings and amazing wing-beats. So, who’s the better fliers, between these two and the parades of swallows migrating?

Well, let’s not forget the flycatchers, na-ture’s true master of bug-catching. Darting from a loyal perch, snagging a fly in midair and returning to the same spot and pose, all in an instant. Galveston is surely the wheel-house for the flycatcher family, especially in late spring and early fall. The incomparable Scissor-tailed Flycatcher swoops, sails and banks for a myriad of doubting bugs, rarely missing and loving Galveston so much they even nest here some summers. Eastern and Western Kingbirds are regulars as well (up-per left), along with the aerially-gifted Ol-ive-sided Flycatcher. And don’t forget the fantastically aerodynamic Common Night-hawks of late spring and early fall, bouncing around on the top right.

Plate 80 of Birds of Galveston: Galveston’s airways are Full of Flycatchers, Hummingbirds, Swallows and Nighthawks!

The following businesses are carrying Birds of Galveston by the weekend of December 21: Galveston- Galveston Bookshop (on the Strand), Peak Nutrition off 61st Street, Dolphin World and La Rumba on Seawall and on the Strand, Hummel’s in Pirate’s Beach, Galveston Island Sate Park, Seven Seas Grocery in Jamaica Beach; Dickinson- Paperback Swap Shop; League City- Book Haven; and Gulf Coast Market on Bolivar. Other businesses who may offer it soon include: Stores of the Galveston Historical Foundation and Armand Bayou Nature Center. Please support our friends who help conservation and public environmental education!

Winter 2013 Page 3Gulls n HeronsWinter 2013Page 2 Gulls n Herons

or the top of the Bay Bridge, getting a fast angle on a slow-thinking pigeon. Merlins are also seen in the migration and winter, often near towns where they nail starlings, House Sparrows and other unlucky species. Kestrels are grassland winter visitors, arriving in late September and hunting mostly from phone wires, sailing to the ground to kill small rats and mice. Falcons usually kill with their bill, as their feet are lightweight and delicate, giving them greater speed. Other rare species of falcons have been recorded in Galveston as the open country favors the family’s speed. Kites are considerably slower than falcons, though built with rather similar, long, pointed wings. White-tailed Kites are residents, only moving around a little as the rodent population waxes and wanes, and often nesting in times of plenty. Most are fairly wary and rarely call. The elegant Swallow-tailed Kite migrates down the Texas Coast in fall to the Tropics, and back again in April. Their bold, black and white shape is unmistakable and their slow flight, breathtaking. Mississippi Kites cross the

Raptors and Their Kincontinued from page 4

We service the computers of the Galveston Ornithological Society

Page � Spring �009Gulls n Herons

Very often, the birds one sees are no ac-cident. This winter, like some in the past, we had a special group grace us, that usually doesn’t come our way. I call them the winter drought birds.

They are basically birds of the moist forests, and normally winter in places like Oklahoma. But in drought years, when ar-eas to the north are too dry, they continue to venture south, until they reach the Upper Texas Coast. And the winter of 2008-09 was one of their years.

Who are we talking about? Well, it’s often birds like Winter Wrens, Rusty Blackbirds, woodcocks, Hooded Mergansers and a few others. And by the time you read this article, they will probably be long gone, back to their nesting grounds.

Winter Wrens are not only scarce in our area, they are very secretive. We had them on our GOS property for the first time, pho-tographed at our pond. Their soft calls were also heard at some other localities by our observers, such as Brazos Bend State Park.

Rusty Blackbirds are becoming more scarce every year, for reasons of which scientists are ignorant. They nest in the far north and winter throughout the south, in appropriate habitat. They sometimes mix with Brewer’s Blackbirds in fields, or red-

wings in swamps.A small group spent the winter at Brazos

Bend State Park.Woodcocks are hard to pin down, because

they are both secretive as well as practically nocturnal. They were also not as common this winter as some in the past, but were seen a few times by lucky observers.

Hooded Mergansers are far more conspic-uous, and frequented several areas this win-ter. They especially seem to like canals near salt water, and presumably eat “minnows” of the genus Fundulus, and others like kil-lifish.

If weather patterns remain status quo next fall and winter, these four and their allies might make a return trip to our area.

Winter Birds Reflect Drought Further North

Hooded Merganser strutting for his Gal

Winter Wren in the GOS Pond

Rusty Blackbird inside the Artic Circle in June

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In an effort to keep overpopulating cats from being humanely euthanized by ani-mal shelters, cat lovers have created areas in many counties where they “rescue” cats from certain death and release them into the wild.

Much has been written by these people to justify the release of such cats, along with the official name of trap, neuter and release programs. According to them, the colony eventually peters out, if no new cats are released, and these feral felines are allowed to live out their lives.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. First, many of the cats are not, in fact, neutered at all. Many of them, including the famed Mama Cat of San Luis Cat fame, are as fertile as they are feral, and kittens are spring up like weeds. The TNR people are as irresponsible as they are misguided, and feral cat colonies become breeding grounds for cats for years to come.

The result of the colony is an environmen-tal holocaust, where birds, supposedly pro-tected by State and Federal laws, are killed wholesale by cats, just doing what cats do. Just as bad is the loss of lower vertebrates from our natural heritage, like lizards, small snakes, amphibians and wild rodents which feed raptors.

Some individuals attempt to feed the cats, often pouring hundreds of dollars of kitty litter into colonies. This does not keep these cats from killing wild animals, though; it just makes them healthier hunters. There is no bell on these acts, they are not de-clawed,

and the toll they take on our native species is enormous. This has been documented in scientific studies all over the world for de-cades.

The other myth, though, is that these peo-ple are somehow doing the cats a favor. Cats are not euthanized in laboratory conditions; they are killed by awful diseases such as fe-line leukemia, mauled by predators such as Coyotes, struck and mortally wounded by

automobiles strikes, and many more starve to death where food is not available, or they are driven out by other cats.

The TNR people solicit donations from citizens to maintain these programs, and kind, generous people give of their funds in

ignorance, hoping to help out kitty cats. Lit-

tle could they know the pain and suffering these colonies have caused cats, as well as the wholesale slaughter of native species of vertebrates and invertebrates.

Saddest of all is that our State and Fed-eral agencies have been entrusted to protect our native species have turned a blind eye to the environmental destruction of cats. Texas Parks and Wildlife and the US Fish&Wildlife Service have both cowered to the political pressure of cat lovers, despite being sworn to protect our nation’s migratory birds.

Cat colonies are bad for suffering cats, bad for the animals they brutally kill, and bad for kind hearted people who donate money to the lie of helping rescue animals. Don’t encourage these misguided people by supporting their colonies.

Cat Colonies: Money Wasted and Birds Killed

Piping Plover killed in Cat Colony at San Luis Pass

Jim StevensonPublisher/Writer/Photographer/

Editor/Comedian

Barbara HamiltonLayout/Design/Graphic Art

Island in late spring, headed in to nest over much of North America. The gray body with a light head is obvious, and while they are rare on the Island, the north end of Brazosport has quite a few nesters. Five North American kites total, representing five disparate genera not closely related! Accipiters are bird-eating hawks with long tails and rounded wings. Both are highly migratory but Cooper’s Hawks, particularly, winter on the Island in very low numbers. The smaller Sharp-Shinned has a bowed front to the wings, a squared-off tail and blotchy streaking. We mostly get immatures of both species. Northern Harriers may be gray as males or brown as females and immatures, and winter over much of the uninhabited low areas of Galveston. And it’s the adult females which are streaked underneath – not the young! Caracaras nest and reside on Galveston, curiously eating rats, but one pair has learned to forage the beach for their more typical diet of carrion. Speaking of carrion, both vultures show up on the Island, Turkeys migrating and Blacks eating dead mammals.

abundant duck, though many pass through on their way further south. Also common are shovelers (flying far left), poor on the table but a streak in the sky. Above and to their right are a Mallard pair, scarce on Galveston except as domestic stock. Our last flier is a hen pintail, flying over her mate. Three pairs of “puddle” or “dabbling” ducks remain: From left to right, the gray Gadwall, American Wigeon with the white cap, and diminutive Green-winged Teal. A Fulvous Whistling-duck sits alone. Most North American freshwater ducks are in good shape, despite being hunted for their meat and trophies. First, Federal and State agencies manage their populations exhaustively, owing to the popularity of these birds. And second, organizations like Ducks Unlimited have bought and set aside untold numbers of acres for waterfowl reproduction up North. Great places around to view relatively tame freshwater ducks include the area around Stewart and 8-mile Road on the Island, Brazoria, San Bernard and Anahuac NWR and Brazos Bend State Park.

Freshwater Duckscontinued from page 5

Terns of eight species are seen much of the time on Galveston, but most folks hardly know them from gulls. They are basically more slender and have a dagger bill, but they fly and sit with gulls almost incognito. But as always, behind a group of bird’s structure is a very different function. Gulls patrol the beaches waiting for dead fish and other marine “life” to wash in, basi-cally playing the vultures of the sea. Terns are quite different, flying low over the water and diving headlong into the briny surface, spearing fish with their pointed beak. But there is tremendous variation among terns with regard to size, as well as where they feed. Our two largest terns are the Caspian and Royal. The latter is large but slender, resting on the Gulf beach but flying out very deep to fish. They are built a bit like the smaller Sandwich Tern which also makes the long flight to deep water. Together they spear pelagic fish and other marine creatures near the surface. Sandwich Terns have an even shaggier crest than Royals, and depart the area in winter. Caspian is on the far right, with Royals next, and two Sandwich standing on the beach to the left of the flying Royal Terns.

Often mistaken for Royals are the rarer Caspian Tern, amazingly as large as a Ring-billed Gull. The thick bill is redder than the Royal’s and they are more heavy-bodied. Caspians patrol the inshore waters and even wander far inland, a far cry from the total dedication to salt water of the former two species. In fact, Caspians are found all across Equatorial regions of Earth, from Australia to Europe, where they nest in the Caspian Sea, of course! Sometimes mistaken for the Sandwich Tern is the Gull-billed, also with a black bill (but lacking the yellow tip of the Sandwich). Gull-billed Terns feed over salt marshes and other bayside waters, in search of fiddler crabs and other arthropods like grasshop-pers and dragonflies. There’s a flying Gull-billed to the right of the diving tern, and a winter bird standing in the surf under him. Like our other terns, Gull-billed have a full, black cap in breeding plumage and far less black in fall and winter. Neither Gull-billed nor Sandwich really winter in any numbers on the UTC. Smaller still are Forster’s and Common Terns, the Forster’s diving straight down and four others of both species directly below it. Winter Forster’s has less black

on the head while breeding Commons have a darker underside. Forster’s join the two big guys on the right as year-round residents, but Commons join the other four as spending the winter in the Tropics. In April, May, August and September, all eight species may be found with a little looking on Galveston. The small Black Tern is common in spring before it flies inland to nest over much of the US, and then returns abundantly in early fall. Even the young or winter birds which are white below are much darker on top than our other terns, so that and their small size are great field marks. The unique adults

actually join several Old World species as nearly black, and they are also unique in eat-ing quite a few insects. Least Terns, lower left, breed on open beaches such as Bolivar Flats and faithfully disappear in mid fall. They have yellow bills with a black tip, exactly opposite from the Sandwich Tern beak. A threatened species, Leasts have disappeared from much of their breeding grounds due to beach traffic and animals, plus flooding on bars in the Mississippi River. There are no longer any terns, gulls or skimmers nesting on Galveston’s beaches, a sad fact for a bird-crazy island.

Shorebirds are mostly the two families of sandpipers and plovers. Plovers are usually hardly larger than sparrows, although three species are grackle-sized. Sandpipers may be even smaller (peeps) but several kinds tower over plovers. This collage represents mostly basic-plumaged (fall and winter) shorebirds, without the larger birds that are unmistakable. Plovers are very different from sandpip-ers in several ways, which is why they are in a different family. ‘Pipers have longer bills,

smaller eyes and head, and are generally a bit more slender. The plovers feed by pick-ing up small bugs and such off the beach, so there’s no need for a long bill, and their eyes are larger and more acute than the probing sandpipers. What they give up in unneces-sary bill length they make up for in great vision. Sandpipers have longer bills for probing the beach sand or bayside mud for worms and other life below the surface. This doesn’t require great vision, though, so they tend

to have smaller eyes than plovers, whose heads are even larger to accommodate the large eyes and optic nerves. Most sandpip-ers also migrate further than most plovers, so being slender is a help. However, the golden plover you see landing flies from the Arctic to the southern end of South America – the second longest migration of any bird! Most of our sandpipers breed in the Arctic as well, wintering from here to the pampas of southern Argentina. A few win-

ter in our area, though, such as the ones seen on both ends of Galveston. It’s really neat seeing them in spring when they are achiev-ing their breeding colors, and some like dowitchers, Dunlins, Ruddy Turnstones and Red Knots get really beautiful. Sandpipers have great diversity, with roughly around the same number of species as warblers. We have four small plovers, plus the Killdeer and two larger species. Shorebirds not in these two families in-clude oystercatcher, stilts and avocets.

Seven species of Gulls seen on the Texas Coast: Left to Right are Smallest to Largest: Read about them Below Gulls vary greatly in size, as you can tell from the above collage. They also tend to be more northern than terns, as most terns are here in the warm months when our winter-ing gulls are way up North. Only the Laugh-ing Gull nests here in the Deep South. The head color of gulls is an interest-ing thing. Smaller ones like Bonaparte’s, Franklin’s and Laughing (left three) have black heads in breeding plumage, but just a little dark in fall and winter. Large gulls like the next three (Ring-billed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring) have white heads in the breeding season up north, getting speckled in the cool season when down here. Up north, there is a third group of gulls, almost the color of snow. They are largely white gulls, although their annual plumages vary from species to species and year to

year. The largest one is the Glaucous Gull, and immatures like the one in the collage visit here most winters. Most rare, northern gulls that migrate to the South are imma-tures. Smaller than the Glaucous is the Ice-land Gull, a very rare bird in the deep South.

Skimmers feed through a bill-snap reflex, like the Storks

Winter 2013Page 4 Gulls n Herons Winter 2013 Page 5Gulls n Herons

The Great Eight , Plate 88 in the Book, was coined by the Author to recognize the four pairs of songbirds that emblazon our trees in spring

These are the famed “Great Eight,” two pairs each of tanagers, orioles, buntings and grosbeaks. Included is a pair of cardinals, somewhat scarce on Galveston. These eight trans-Gulf migrants are a large portion of the colorful songbirds we love to see in spring and fall, peaking from mid-April to early May. With each pair, one species nests on average further north than the other, so visi-tors from the northern United States visiting at FeatherFest would recognize the Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting and Baltimore Oriole as breeding birds from back home. The more southern four, Blue Grosbeak, Summer Tanager, Painted Bunting and Orchard Oriole, nest in the Deep South, and either on or very close to Galveston. It’s interesting how various groups of birds, which are classified by trademarks like the beak, are separated ecologically by those same characteristics. It shows ecol-ogy as sneaking into classification, although not directly. Grosbeaks have huge bills, but that’s necessary for their fruit of choice, as

well as large seeds. Buntings have smaller bills for grass seeds and such, and the small food feeds smaller birds. Orioles have sharp beaks for piercing fruit (like my peaches), but would have a hard time cracking the bunting’s and grosbeak’s seeds. And the tanagers have huge bills – not for cracking seeds – but for chomping fruit. They also don’t hesitate to snag wasps with their long, thick bill, something those with shorter beaks stay away from. Another topic many find interesting is how certain color schemes are reflected in various families. Red is a huge part of the two tanager males we have in eastern North America, with their females more of a yellow hue. Orioles are famous for their orange, although some females or immatures are hardly more than basic yellow. Buntings are blue, though some have other colors as well. And speaking of blue, our Blue Grosbeaks are unusual as most grosbeaks are multi-colored. The much larger group of warblers claims green as one of their top colors, while the flycatchers are large gray and

brown. Sparrows are brown, too, but most have streaking, and bear little resemblance to flycatchers. And wrens are brownish with thin bills, kinglets are greenish-gray with tiny bills, thrushes are brown with spots below and blackbirds are, well, black. These eight songbirds migrate in a bit of a loop, with many more of their num-bers heading south in fall through Florida, returning in spring to light up our trees. In April, especially, they arrive on southerly winds from South and Central America, as well as the West Indies. Many begin arriv-

ing midmorning, with longer flights bring-ing in travelers well into the afternoon. Males migrate before females, on average, so they can find a territory and stake it out with practiced song. Some of the males may still be molting when they arrive, so a few patchwork individuals (like the Summer Tanager shown) may be seen. The sexual dimorphism allows females to sit safely on the nest and allows males to gain their favor with their bright colors, lovely songs and constant trips to the grocery store. How nice this arrangement works for the birds!

As the caption indicates, these freshwater ducks are different from those usually found in salt water, like scaups and mergansers. These need to be able to spring up off the water, as in small ponds, as predators could suddenly appear out of nowhere. Saltwater ducks have to paddle across the surface to take off, since they are heavier, an advantage to their habit of diving below the surface. Of course, hunters prefer freshwater ducks, since they eat vegetable matter mostly, and their meat is far better than the marine spe-cies that eat mollusks and other animals.

Galveston has a tremendous wealth of waterbirds, from loons and grebes to peli-cans and cormorants, herons, egrets and odd waders like spoonbills, plovers and sand-pipers, gulls and terns, and rails, skimmers, and more. But if you like beautiful birds, Galveston has some ducks that will melt your eyeballs. Even in the warm season we have stunning Black-bellied Whistling-ducks (top, middle) and lovely Mottled Ducks (back right), but in the winter, some areas bloom with exquisite drake waterfowl of incomparable beauty.

Most ducks are considered winter resi-dents, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. The Fulvous Whistling-duck, with its tawny body sitting right of center, is nor-mally seen in our area only in large skeins flying east in early spring, migrating toward Louisiana, out over the water. Its cousin the Black-bellied Whistling-duck, seen flying with the long, white wingstripes, has be-come a permanent resident on Galveston, though it can’t find proper nesting holes as a cavity nester. And the similar-sexed Mottled Ducks, walking top right, are here

Plate 24 of Birds of Galveston: Freshwater Ducks are Lightweight, jump up off the Water and Taste Good

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from late fall through summer, breeding in marshes and becoming very tame. Even Blue-winged Teal and American Wigeon, casually thought to be winter residents, are really far more a spring/fall migrant, head-ing much further south, with only a relative-ly small portion of their population winter-ing in the Deep South, like Galveston. This is why there are special fall hunting seasons on teal. Blue-winged Teal (far right) are our most

continued page 2

Reddish Egrets are famous on Galveston Island as they are quite common and breed ex-tensively on the Islands in the Bay. And to nest, the males have to court, and there’s nothing quite like the courtship of a dark-morph Reddish Egret! The shaggy neck, cobalt blue legs and flesh-colored base of the bill make it as improbable as it is beautiful. Back around fifteen years ago a group of birders banded together into the Galveston Island Nature Tourism Counsel and decided to form birding clubs on the Island, even beginning a birding festival, FeatherFest. Hotels and restaurants are still benefitting from the ecotour-ism, and the push to preserve natural areas has been amazing. Along their other chores was picking an Official Island Bird, and the choice of the Red-dish Egret is obviously understandable. It has two color morphs – dark and white – it races after fish with its long legs and even creates shade to see the minnows better, even attracting them into the aquatic darkness. This is no ordinary bird, and Galveston is no ordinary place!

Reddish Egret doing its Dance

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Page � Fall �008Gulls n Herons

Jim Stevenson: Executive DirectorPublisher/Writer/Photographer/Editor/Comedian

Rt. 1, Box 185CGalveston, Texas 77554

Phone: 409-370-1515E-mail: galornsoc@earthlink.net

Galveston Ornithological Society Board MembersRichard Mayfield: Chairman

Brenda Donaloio, Kurt Mauer, Pat Horn

Jerry Ambroze: Director of MarketingDiane Jolley: Creative Director/Graphic Designer

Tom O’Neal: President of Mainland Bird ClubJane Smith: President of Island Bird Club

Distribution: Dave Allen, Frenda Sheets, Gloria Rubac, Jenny Shuffield, Helle Brown,Beth Black, Janet Giles, Richard Mayfield, Tom O’Neal and Pat Horn

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In America, when we say “waders,” we mean long-legged birds with long necks that hang around water for their food. In Europe, they include birds we call “shorebirds,” but we stick to herons, egrets, and their close cousins in the Order Ciconiiformes.

Much about these birds is pretty obvi-ous. They have long necks for stabbing fish and other aquatic prey items with lightning speed. Their long legs are, of course, for wading, and it keeps them away from nas-ties like Cottonmouths. Most also have dag-ger bills, although this order includes some whose bills are pretty creative.

First, what is the difference between her-ons and egrets? The answer is, “not a lot.” It’s true herons are usually dark and egrets often white, but there are exceptions. Young Little Blue Herons are white, and 85% of our Reddish Egrets are dark.

There is certainly huge variation in herons and egrets in size, with the slender Snowy Egrets being only a little larger than the tiny Green Heron. Even their close cousins the bit-terns have a dwarf in the ranks, the Least

Bittern. But American Bitterns are pretty hefty, Great Egrets are very large, and Great Blue Herons are the giants of the waders.

One misconception about waders is the belief that they only eat fish. Not true!

There are all kinds of aquatic creatures they take, from frogs and salamanders to reptiles like small snakes. Great Blues and Great Egrets even venture into fields in search of rats, and Cattle Egrets make

a living catching (mostly) arthropods like grasshoppers that cows scare up.

Speaking of varied diets, the two night-herons have thick bills for crunching crusta-ceans, and often make no secret of their cui-

sine by day. In winter, yellow-crowns stand along tidal creeks looking for swimming crabs, and black-crowns do the same at

night from docks, posts and such. And many people are familiar with the yellow-crowns in the Houston area who spend spring and summer working the ditches for crayfish

(crawdads).Bitterns eat about the

same diet as tradition-al herons and egrets, although they often catch large tadpoles while skulking through reeds. They are most famous for practicing mimicry, where they imitate the reeds by pointing their neck, head and bill up into the air and “freezing.”

Ibis have a very different bill than their cousins; it’s round, thin and decurved. They share this trait with curlews, which are sand-pipers, and curiously, it’s because of their delicious meat. Having a decurved bill allows them to feed while watching for predators, as even hawks and Bobcats know just how great their meat is!

The rather dark and iridescent White-faced Ibis (really, a poor name) spends most of its time in freshwater marshes, while White Ibis have a penchant for salt marshes.

In fact, they are often quite dirty looking, when they’ve been sticking their head and neck into the murky water. They eat a lot of fish and marine invertebrates, and all

ibis pull up worms out of the mud.

Roseate Spoonbills are distant relatives of herons, but their appearance is as dif-ferent as night and day. Their pink color comes from the caro-tene found in shrimp, with more pink in adults than young. Their flat bill (called “spatulate”) is lined with many tiny “teeth” like ducks, called “lamellae.” This allows them to filter out all kinds of marine invertebrates from the water, and even sometimes in freshwater.

Flamingos also have lamellae, but their bill is shaped more like a banana. They are extremely rare in our area, with most sightings actually being escaped birds. The closest colonies are in Yucatan, although Everglades National park in southern Florida sometimes has a small flock.

Flamingos also gain pink from the shrimp they eat, and fade without a fresh supply. Even some gulls and terns get pink while

SecretS of our WaderS migrating across the Gulf eating surface shrimp, like Sandwich Terns and Franklin’s Gulls. Of course, the Roseate Tern on the Atlantic is named for this phenomenon.

Of the herons, there is more variation than just size. Little Blues are largely freshwater, only

being spotty on the Gulf coast. The inter-mediates between the white juveniles and the dark adults are sometimes called “pond gannets” as subadult Northern Gannets are speckled between the brown immatures and the white adults.

Little Blues also are curious in the way they often stand. Far more than any other wader, they fre-quently pose with their neck in a 45-degree angle, not erect and not lateral. They are breeders in the great swamps of the Deep South – many in Louisiana – probably where Ivory-billed Woodpeckers used to whack trees.

Tri-colored Herons are the slenderest of waders, with long, skinny necks and bills. They get very close to the surface and snap up surface-feeding, tiny minnows with their forcep-like beaks. Adults add some color, but all ages have the characteristic white belly. They are also not found over a lot of America, being mostly on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

This species, along with Snowy Egrets, have a tendency to copy the dance and canopy behavior of the Reddish Egret, though they seem to forget it when sepa-rated from the teacher. This allows them to locate fish in the shade

of their own wings, and they occasion-ally even chase fish in clear water.

Green Herons are the smallest, but they make up for it by being the most clever. They are actually tool users, dropping vari-ous food items on the water’s surface, luring

unsuspecting fish to the dangerous surface. Some have even been seen defecating on the surface and turning around to grab the curious fish. Now, that’s really some

The diminutive Green also navigates the Gulf of Mexico in spring, rather than cir-cum-Gulf routes, and knocks hundreds of

miles off the dis-tance in the process. The vast majority of waders follow the coastline instead, but Green and (curious-ly) Least Bitterns are trans-Gulf. Perhaps there is just too much energy expended for

these midgets to fly all the way around. Great Egrets are early nesters in our area,

setting up shop at places like the spoon-bill rookery in February. Like many waders, they have colorful soft parts (bill and legs) in high breeding plumage, and Greats have green ceres (skin on bill base) when they are fertile. This is a beautiful thing to see!

The Great Egret is the symbol of the Audubon Society, and is reflec-tive of Audubon’s long and bitter struggle to protect both waders

and many life forms. First, it was the plume trade, where warden Guy Bradley was

Waders...Cont. on page 7

Black-crowned Night-heron hunting Crayfish

Green Heron stalking fish

Great Blue Heronseven feed in our surf

Little Blue Heron in its characteristic

pose

Yellow-crowned Night-heron with

a Crayfish

Tri-colored Heronshowing its white

belly

American Bitterns

skulk and freeze

Snowy Egrets are elegant and dainty

Great Egrets: a tall drink of water

White Ibis with its black wing-tips

Roseate Spoonbill with its spatulate

bill

Flamingo with its foraging bill upside down

Reddish Egret dancing to its own

tune

Page � Spring �009Gulls n Herons

Very often, the birds one sees are no ac-cident. This winter, like some in the past, we had a special group grace us, that usually doesn’t come our way. I call them the winter drought birds.

They are basically birds of the moist forests, and normally winter in places like Oklahoma. But in drought years, when ar-eas to the north are too dry, they continue to venture south, until they reach the Upper Texas Coast. And the winter of 2008-09 was one of their years.

Who are we talking about? Well, it’s often birds like Winter Wrens, Rusty Blackbirds, woodcocks, Hooded Mergansers and a few others. And by the time you read this article, they will probably be long gone, back to their nesting grounds.

Winter Wrens are not only scarce in our area, they are very secretive. We had them on our GOS property for the first time, pho-tographed at our pond. Their soft calls were also heard at some other localities by our observers, such as Brazos Bend State Park.

Rusty Blackbirds are becoming more scarce every year, for reasons of which scientists are ignorant. They nest in the far north and winter throughout the south, in appropriate habitat. They sometimes mix with Brewer’s Blackbirds in fields, or red-

wings in swamps.A small group spent the winter at Brazos

Bend State Park.Woodcocks are hard to pin down, because

they are both secretive as well as practically nocturnal. They were also not as common this winter as some in the past, but were seen a few times by lucky observers.

Hooded Mergansers are far more conspic-uous, and frequented several areas this win-ter. They especially seem to like canals near salt water, and presumably eat “minnows” of the genus Fundulus, and others like kil-lifish.

If weather patterns remain status quo next fall and winter, these four and their allies might make a return trip to our area.

Winter Birds Reflect Drought Further North

Hooded Merganser strutting for his Gal

Winter Wren in the GOS Pond

Rusty Blackbird inside the Artic Circle in June

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In an effort to keep overpopulating cats from being humanely euthanized by ani-mal shelters, cat lovers have created areas in many counties where they “rescue” cats from certain death and release them into the wild.

Much has been written by these people to justify the release of such cats, along with the official name of trap, neuter and release programs. According to them, the colony eventually peters out, if no new cats are released, and these feral felines are allowed to live out their lives.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. First, many of the cats are not, in fact, neutered at all. Many of them, including the famed Mama Cat of San Luis Cat fame, are as fertile as they are feral, and kittens are spring up like weeds. The TNR people are as irresponsible as they are misguided, and feral cat colonies become breeding grounds for cats for years to come.

The result of the colony is an environmen-tal holocaust, where birds, supposedly pro-tected by State and Federal laws, are killed wholesale by cats, just doing what cats do. Just as bad is the loss of lower vertebrates from our natural heritage, like lizards, small snakes, amphibians and wild rodents which feed raptors.

Some individuals attempt to feed the cats, often pouring hundreds of dollars of kitty litter into colonies. This does not keep these cats from killing wild animals, though; it just makes them healthier hunters. There is no bell on these acts, they are not de-clawed,

and the toll they take on our native species is enormous. This has been documented in scientific studies all over the world for de-cades.

The other myth, though, is that these peo-ple are somehow doing the cats a favor. Cats are not euthanized in laboratory conditions; they are killed by awful diseases such as fe-line leukemia, mauled by predators such as Coyotes, struck and mortally wounded by

automobiles strikes, and many more starve to death where food is not available, or they are driven out by other cats.

The TNR people solicit donations from citizens to maintain these programs, and kind, generous people give of their funds in

ignorance, hoping to help out kitty cats. Lit-

tle could they know the pain and suffering these colonies have caused cats, as well as the wholesale slaughter of native species of vertebrates and invertebrates.

Saddest of all is that our State and Fed-eral agencies have been entrusted to protect our native species have turned a blind eye to the environmental destruction of cats. Texas Parks and Wildlife and the US Fish&Wildlife Service have both cowered to the political pressure of cat lovers, despite being sworn to protect our nation’s migratory birds.

Cat colonies are bad for suffering cats, bad for the animals they brutally kill, and bad for kind hearted people who donate money to the lie of helping rescue animals. Don’t encourage these misguided people by supporting their colonies.

Cat Colonies: Money Wasted and Birds Killed

Piping Plover killed in Cat Colony at San Luis Pass

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Winter 2013 Page 7Gulls n HeronsWinter 2013Page 6 Gulls n Herons

Louisiana’s State Bird, the Brown Pelican, is abundant on Galveston Island, often seen in feeding frenzies over schools of baitfish. Rescued from near-extinction from DDT in the 60s, they now are common nesters on the Bay Side. Here you see white-headed adults and all-brown immatures diving after a piscine lunch with Laughing Gulls looking for scraps.

Laughing Gulls breed in marshes on the west side of Pelican Island and off the north edge of San Luis Pass, plus other places in Galveston Bay. Brown Pelicans nest on Little Pelican Island, North Deer Island and also other spots further from the Island. Pelicans are joined by certain of the herons and egrets nesting, and make quite a spectacle for the cruises at FeatherFest.

This bird is the majestic symbol of the National Audubon Society, while its name has morphed from “American” Egret to “Common” Egret and now to “Great Egret.” The black legs and yellow bill combine with its large size to separate it from other

smaller, white waders. They are as common in freshwater ponds on the Island as they are on the Bay Side of the Island, and they and Great Blue Herons even venture into the Island’s pastures after rats. And there is one individual that has learned to walk through

Laffite’s Cove chasing lizards (anoles and skinks), and possibly rats and snakes. Egrets, herons and bitterns have similar builds, with dagger beaks for stabbing their prey, long legs for wading and/or staying out of harm’s way with poisonous snakes

and a long neck for terrific spearing dis-tance. Egrets and herons are renowned for their plumes in the breeding season, as seen on this bird’s back, but those nearly led to their extinction over a century ago at the hands of plume hunters for lady’s hats.

Great Egret

landing in Galveston

Winter 2013Page 8 Gulls n Herons

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Raptors are a large group of predators that largely feed on fellow vertebrates. They have epignathus bills that curve downward, sometimes to kill their prey and more often to tear meat. The real business end is their wicked talons, which most raptors kill with. Raptors are terrific fliers, either soaring with the thermals and breezes, dive-bombing on unsuspecting prey, or with accipiters, chas-ing down small birds, matching them move

for move. All have immature plumages which are often brown and/or streaked, and juvenile mortality is high. Note the different shapes of raptors, the varying hunting styles and differentiation of cuisine. Buteos, like the abundant Red-tailed, plus scarce Broad-winged, Swainson’s and White-tailed, are soaring hawks with long, wide wings and powerful beaks and talons. They are usually brown or gray atop and

young are considerably different in appear-ance. Our abundant Red-tailed Hawk is ac-tually just a winter resident, floating here in late September and departing just before the rush of April songbirds. Red-tails range all over North and Central America, and most have a bit of a belly band that’s as good a field mark as the adult’s red tail. The com-mon Red-shouldered Hawks on the Main-land prefers forests and therefore avoid

Galveston. Broad-wings and Swainson’s are spring and fall migrants, while the White-tailed Hawk is a Texas Coastal resident who visits Galveston on occasion. Falcons, like the American Kestrel, Merlin and Peregrine, are pointed-winged dive-bombers. Peregrines are generally rare, although a few pass through in fall. In winter, one occasionally sits atop the grain elevator

continued page 3

Plate 74 in Birds of Galveston: With many acres of open land and untold numbers of wild rats, Galveston draws rave reviews from Raptors and their Kin