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VOLUME 11 (2015) TEXAS ANNUAL A Publication of the TEXAS ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY www.texasbirds.org TEXAS ANNUAL Volume 11 2015 Table of Contents 4 Editor’s Introduction .......................................... JACK EITNIEAR 5 President’s Message ............................................ BYRON STONE 8 Tribute To Two Past TOS Presidents ............... FROM TEXBIRDS FACEBOOK 11 TOS Sponsored Teams Finish 1st & 2nd Place Statewide In TPWD Great Texas Birding Classic .............................. MARTHA MCLEOD AND PATSY INGLET 16 Egyptian Geese In Central Texas : An Established Exotic? ............ JACK EITNIEAR 20 Annual Meeting Of The TBRC .............................. ERIC CARPENTER 21 New Directors And Officer’s Retreat 22 Puffins, Warbler, And Seabirds - TOS Goes Down East Birding ..... DAVID SARKOZI 25 Birding At The Max .................................TERESA CIGARROA KECK 30 The Woods Roamer .....................................ARTURO LONGORIA 34 Winter Birding In North Central Texas ... MIKE CAMERON AND GAILON BREHM 40 Pretty Pictures .................................................TED EUBANKS 43 Gulf Coast Bird Observatory .................................CHRIS EMBERELY 49 Red-legged Honeycreeper At Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco ................... MARY GUSTAFSON, RUBEN RANGEL, DORIAN ANDERSON, TIFFANY KERSTEN, AND JOHN YOCHUM 50 Quail Research In South Texas: A Legacy Spanning Four Generations ................. LEONARD A. BRENNAN, FIDEL HERNÁNDEZ, ERIC D. GRAHMANN AND FRED C. BRYANT 58 Birding the Sod .............................................BOB FRIEDRICHS 63 Birding The Far North Country In Winter With TOS ..................JIM HAILEY 65 Book Reviews 68 The Goose, The Egg, And The Threatened Gull .................KENT RYLANDER Winners of the TOS T-Shirt art contest included; First Place: Yellow-throated Warbler by Dennis Shepler, Second Place: Cactus Wren by John Cappadonna, Third Place: Elf Owl by Lynn Delvin VOLUME 11 3 Editor’s Introduction ith this introduction we move into Texas Birds Annual’s second decade. Several new contributors make this issue especially interesting. While we start the issue off with a sobering tribute to several TOS presidents who have departed, we quickly jump back into the driver’s seat with an W article on invasive Egyptian Geese. Then we’re off birding north central Texas with Mike Cameron and Gailon Brehm. Finally, we travel north from Texas to Maine to bird with David Sarkozi. Back in Texas, Ted Eubanks and Arturo Longoria contributed thought provoking articles on their favorite topics. We wrap up the issue with details on the recent documentation of a Red-legged Honeycreeper in Texas and informative pieces on bird behavior and quail research by Kent Rylander and Lenny Brennan and his collegues, of the Richard M. Kleberg, Jr. Center for Quail Research, respectively. This is an especially wonderful mix considering that all our writers and photogra- phers donate their works. In our age of facebook, blogs, tweets, and listservs there is no shortage of places for aspiring writers to get their material into the public’s view. I really appreciate their choosing to contribute to our publication and hope you, our readers and members, will consider writing something for a future issue of Texas Birds Annual.. Jack Clinton Eitniear Editor/Texas Birds Annual [email protected] Pileated Woodpecker. Art by Lynn Delvin Front Cover art: Yellow-throated Warbler by Dennis Shepler. To purchase a TOS t-shirt with this artwork see the advertisement on page 10. 4 TEXAS BIRDS ANNUAL 20142015 President’s Message and a new slate of officers and board mem- bers were installed. But not before then- TOS President Jim Hailey abruptly resigned from office. Jim did help with the coordination and execution of that meeting, which most participants deemed a success, even though the small passerine migrants that had accu- mulated in good numbers early in the week mostly disappeared by Thursday evening. The shorebirds, however, and the waders, terns and resident woodland birds still put on a great show and trip leaders made adjustments to their itineraries and most participants saw lots of great birds. President Byron Stone Things may have seemed to slow a bit for TOS in the summer, but your board of direc- tors has been fairly busy, meeting twice by H is for Hawk; What is TOS For? phone conference and once in person in early Greetings TOS Members, September. More on that in a bit. 2015 has been an interesting year for TOS. I just finished reading “H is for Hawk,” We started the year with a bang with what I by Helen MacDonald, and I now understand believe was our first-ever meeting in El Paso. why so many people, birders and non-birders And what a great meeting it was, with tons of alike, recommended the book to me. It is Trans-Pecos birds, including Gambel’s Quail, thoughtful, insightful and well-written. It is Band-tailed Pigeon, Lewis’s Woodpecker, not difficult to read, but the subject matter Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, Crissal is complicated and hard to condense into a Thrasher, Sagebrush and Black-chinned Spar- short statement, but I believe it is about grief, rows and a remarkable number and variety love, hawks (especially goshawks), falconry, of waterfowl. And even some avian “natural- wildness and what it means to be human. If ized citizens” in the form of Lilac-crowned you have contemplated reading it, I would Parrots. And I will never forget the accipiter encourage you to go ahead and find a copy show early in the morning when a huge flock and read it now. of roosting Yellow-headed Blackbirds began While reading that wonderful book, and its exodus from the bulrushes while various contemplating the meaning of hawks and Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks launched of humanity, I found myself thinking about attacks from low perches on the surrounding our organization and wondering what exactly hillsides. I think it is fair to say that a good TOS stands for. Of course, we all know the time was had by all. letters stand for the name of our organiza- TOS activities continued to be interest- tion – Texas Ornithological Society, but what ing in a different way in the spring during a exactly do we mean by that or what exactly contested and contentious election for officers should we mean by that name? and board members. Passions were aroused I’m sure TOS means somewhat different and tempers flared at times, although every- things to different people. For much of the one seemed to settle down after the votes were decade and a half that I have been actively tallied at the Winnie meeting in early May involved, TOS has seemed to me to be VOLUME 1011 5 primarily a statewide birding club, one that so has the membership of TOS. The state organizes periodic meetings and field trips has changed, and birding in the state has where those who are fortunate enough to be changed, but TOS may not have changed able to attend can get together with like- enough to keep up. If the organization is to minded birders from other parts of the state keep up with growing demands for statewide and share our enthusiasm for birds in the field leadership for bird conservation and advocacy, and in meeting rooms and lecture halls and it will need to become more efficient and even over drinks and dinner. But we don’t call may need to find a way to hire professional ourselves a Birding Society; we call ourselves assistance. The demands on limited statewide an Ornithological Society. Why? Our Mis- resources of water and open space have never sion Statement (referred to in the current been greater. Besides maintaining sanctuar- Constitution as “Article II. Objectives,” states ies, TOS has been involved in conservation that our purpose is to “encourage … observa- advocacy in the past, and probably needs to tion, study and conservation of birds in Tex- be involved in the future. TOS leadership has as… to encourage formation of local groups been criticized for inadequately maintaining of ornithologists … encourage cooperation its sanctuaries. I think the criticism is under- among ornithologists of Texas and the South- standable but misguided. For several years I west… and to establish such wildlife sanctu- have heard periodic grumblings that the TOS aries as the society’s means permit.” That is a board “doesn’t care” about certain sanctuar- lot! And TOS has done a remarkable job over ies. I can tell you that the board does care, the past 50 years to accomplish most of these but that we are limited by time and volunteer objectives. Local birding and conservation resources. In fact, one of the surprises to me groups are now well-established across most from our board meeting and retreat in early parts of the state, our twice-annual meetings September was to learn that a majority of the have been well-received and are increasingly current board would be in favor of acquiring well-attended. The TOS sponsors a number another sanctuary if the property was within of publications, including Texas Birds Annual, our means and appropriate in terms of bird and we also officially sponsor the Texas Bird conservation. This surprised me because our Records Committee, which is well-respected discussion to that point had already made it across the country. And we have 5 TOS bird clear that we have not been managing our sanctuaries along the mid- and upper coast. current sanctuaries adequately, but encourag- Even though most TOS members are not ing also because it indicates that the board is ornithologists, it is probably safe to say that forward thinking and willing to consider solu- most ornithologists in Texas belong to and tions to the problems we already have. In a support TOS. I think, however, that the state as large and diverse as ours, with a mem- “ornithology” in our name is intimidating bership now exceeding 1200, it is difficult for to some prospective members.

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