Austin Trip

Congress St Bridge

I had to go to Austin for a work-related conference February 20 - 22.  I try to bird a little on my trips, even if it is just the drive to and from. My husband laughs at me because I am always asking what county we are in so I can record the birds by county along the way. Usually, I don't see much, even when I am not driving. This time I was by myself. I always thought birding while driving at 70 mph was a little tricky, but birding at the new 75 mph is definitely foolhardy--not that I seem to be able to help myself.

On the way to Austin, it was exceptionally windy--never good news when trying to sight birds. However, luck was with me. In Lampasas county, an Osprey flew across the road right in front of me. I generally am trying to remember the birds of each county until I can stop and record them--I know I had other birds in Lampasas, but the osprey pushed the rest of them right out of my brain.

When I got to Austin, I had some time and needed to stretch the kinks out from the 5 hour drive, so decided to take a walk. I didn't realize it when I registered by the conference hotel was right on the Colorado river and adjacent to Congress St. bridge, famous for the bats at sunset. Anyway, I took a little walk along the river, noting some birds that have not yet returned to Wichita Falls, as well as some ducks we have in the winter.  I took just a short walk as I had skipped lunch as was looking for someplace to eat. As I was walking downtown, I saw a mockingbird jump into a tree. When I looked up to get a better look, there was a sharp-shinned hawk! He had a small bird in his talons, enjoying his dinner--people where walking along right under his perch, not even noticing him. Without the mockingbird, I probably would have missed him too.

After dinner, I was walking back to the hotel and noticed the bat display in front of the Austin American Statesman offices. I decided to sit on the hill and watch the bats come out, even if it is not considered the best time of year for it. While I was waiting, a young man sat down nearby. He was riding a bike with several saddle bags. We struck up a conversation. Max is from Canada and was riding through the US on his way to central America. He had entered the States in August and had to be out by March 29. He had visited many cities along the Mississippi River. He too was waiting for the bats. He was a very nice young man--I hope he has a safe journey. The bats were awesome! Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, exited from under the bridge in a 15-minute span at sunset. I wish I had a good camera--my cell phone did not pick them up at all. A very inspiring sight, if you ever have the chance to experience it.

The birds I noted that afternoon were: ring-necked duck, bufflehead, American coot, double-crested cormorant, pied-billed grebe, great egret, snowy egret, spotted sandpiper, rock pigeon, white-winged dove, mourning dove, sharp-shinned hawk, cardinal, song sparrow, great-tailed grackle, northern mockingbird. The next night on the way to dinner I added some gadwall.

On the way home, I stopped to stretch my legs in a short walk in Pecan Creek Park in Hamilton, Texas. Several nice birds, to include: Eurasian collared dove, white-winged dove, mourning dove, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, turkey vulture, Carolina chickadee, Bewick's wren, northern cardinal, blue jay, northern mockingbird, eastern phoebe, cedar waxwing, orange-crowned warbler, American robin, and house sparrow.

What an nice trip! The conference was also good--I really did learn some interesting things and meet some nice people. But this is just more proof that you can bird anywhere!

Good birding!

It's Not Always the Birds

There wasn't much in the way of birds to see on my trip to San Antonio. It wasn't intended as a birding trip, but one likes to think we'd still see some good birds on the way, especially as I didn't have to drive.

The trip down was done in the heat of the day, which makes birds less likely to be out and about. However, I did see one black vulture around Mineral Wells and a Swainson's hawk in Jack County.

We went out to eat in Lytle, TX (outside San Antonio). I saw a black-bellied whistling duck jump up into a tree and then, better, started seeing bats pouring out from behind a sign on the front of a small store across the street. There were easily a couple of hundred bats. That was exciting.

We left San Antonio before light on Thursday, July 16 to head back to Wichita Falls. Going through the hill country was beautiful, and I have not seen more deer in my life. They were in every field and often yards. It was a bit harrowing driving the narrow roads with so many deer on either side of the road. But my best siting was at 7:24 AM. A cougar was in the field just off HWY 16, just north of Kerrville. This was the first cougar I have ever seen in the wild, and was I excited (still am for that matter.) I was fortunate to have a siting as clear as day.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, with few birds other than turkey vultures, which were abundant. But with bats and a cougar, I am not complaining!

Good birding!

Interesting Story on Texas Wind Farms and Birds/Bats

Thanks to Lila Arnold for this story.

Posted on Sun, Jun. 14, 2009

Texas wind farms deploy radar so birds, not feathers, can fly

By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers

Wind on the Texas coast is tempting for energy companies. Unlike other parts of Texas - the nation's No. 1 wind energy state - the coast has breezes that blow consistently on summer days, when energy demand peaks. But there's risk, too.

Millions of birds funnel through the Texas coast before they head north along the Central Flyway, one of the great bird migration routes between South America and the Arctic. This was the first year that wind farms were operating there during the spring migration.

One study near the coastal wind farms in Kenedy County, near the Laguna Madre, found that at the peak of fall migration in 2007, 4,000 birds an hour passed in a one-kilometer-wide band.

The two companies that run the first wind farms on the coast, Iberdrola Renewables of Spain and Babcock & Brown of Australia, recognized the risk bad weather could bring. Most migrating birds fly high above the range of turbines, many of them at night. But they don't fly through clouds and storms, and when bad weather rolls in, migrating birds fly down to wait it out.

The two companies voluntarily installed radar developed for the military and NASA to prevent collisions with birds by aircraft and the space shuttle. It's the first time this radar has been used anywhere in the world to shut down wind turbines if a large number of birds is headed toward them.

Conservationists said it's a good step, but they're still concerned that the companies haven't given permission to outside groups to check for bird fatalities during the migration period in April and May. Legal efforts to block the wind farms on the coast failed last year, and the federal government and Texas, like most states, don't regulate wind farms.

"We want to support wind energy wherever it goes, but we want to make sure it's safe for wildlife," said Andrew Kasner, the director of bird conservation for Audubon Texas.

"Most of the neotropical migrating birds that use that part of the flyway are already low numbers," he said. "So any impact that has the potential to take hundreds of birds in one instance or more can really be a problem for some species."

Some of the neotropical migrants (those that live in the tropics of the Americas and West Indies) that pass through are ones conservationists worry about protecting - species such as warblers (blue-winged, golden-winged, cerulean), grassland birds such as LeConte's Sparrow and others such as the Painted Bunting. Among the many others are threatened or endangered shorebirds such as the Least Tern and species of concern, such as the Long-billed Curlew.

Wind turbines everywhere can be trouble for birds, "but so far, passerine (the largest order of birds) mortality has not been high enough at any one particular site to be necessarily significant to the populations, although there may be cumulative effects," Kasner said. "That's why the coast is a concern, because of the potential to have a foggy, stormy day when thousands are flying through there. They'll already be limited in their ability to maneuver and detect any danger in front of them."

Tall buildings, communications towers, electric lines, pesticides and cats kill far more birds than wind turbines do. A recent U.S. government study found that global warming already has had an impact on the abundance and distribution of birds and could lower some species' chances of survival.

Although conservation groups such as the National Audubon Society support wind power as a way to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, they've also warned that wind farms need to be placed with care for birds and bats. Wind power could grow about tenfold by 2030, if the country is to reach a goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity from wind.
Iberdrola Renewables, the second largest wind energy provider in the U.S. after NextEra Energy Resources, has plans at all its facilities to protect birds and bats, said company spokeswoman Jan Johnson. She said it also must follow regional rules, regulations of some states and the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it a crime to kill a migratory bird.
"When you have voluntary principles and use them in a plan, you really take a step to mitigate your risk," Johnson said.

There was no need to shut down this spring because there was no bad weather, said Gary Andrews, the chairman and chief executive officer of the radar maker, DeTect of Panama City, Fla., during a visit to the wind farms in May.

Iberdrola's wind farm has 84 turbines, which produce 202 megawatts of energy, enough to power 70,000 south Texas homes, and it plans to expand on the coast. Babcock & Brown's turbines are expected to generate up to 283 megawatts per year.

The American Wind Wildlife Institute, an industry-supported group, is working on guidelines for turbine use.

"These companies really want to do the right thing," said the group's president, Kraig Butrum.
There's no good estimate of the number of bird deaths from turbine collisions nationwide - "It really does range wildly, to be candid," Butrum said.

Michael Fry, a scientist who directs conservation advocacy at the American Bird Conservancy, said the worry about bird and bat deaths would increase as the number of wind turbines across the country increases.

Fry agreed that the Texas coast is particularly a problem because it's the most concentrated area of migration in the country. Most of the risk, however, is for resident birds, he said.

There's great uncertainty in the numbers killed at wind turbines anywhere because dead bats and birds are hard even for trained searchers to spot, Fry said. Others never get counted, because ravens, skunks and other scavengers eat them first.

Experts on bird migration plan to meet soon to try to come up with ways to predict where birds are concentrated and at risk of colliding with wind turbines in bad weather, Fry said.

Some places that see large numbers of migrating birds include the Great Lakes shores, the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains and central California.

The worst known bird kills at wind farms have been at California's Altamont Pass, where some 17,000 raptors have been killed in 25 years.

There's also concern about whooping cranes, with only about 400 left. Many of these cranes migrate between Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas through the wind corridor of the central U.S. and into their breeding grounds in Canada. Fry said they're vulnerable to collisions with power lines, but little is known about the risk from turbines.

In other places, wind farms reduce bird habitat.

The risks to bats also are still being studied. Iberdrola Renewables helped fund research at its Casselman wind farm in southwest Pennsylvania in October that showed that turning off the turbines during low wind periods reduced bat deaths by 53 percent to 87 percent, with only a marginal loss of income. The research is continuing.

ON THE WEB
State of the Birds - report and video: http://www.stateofthebirds.org/