Chuck,
Thanks. Knowing your expertise, I do not question your checklist.
Have you heard of or seen in the literature any references to a small
permanent population? The area you refer to might be the site of such a
population. Inaccessibility may be the reason there are few records. I
just wonder why the wiki article states a "small non-migratory population
exists.
I appreciate your comments. See you soon.
Dennis
On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Chuck Sexton <gcwarbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
TexBirders,
I have to confess to being responsible for apparently that single âwinterâ
Texas record of Botteriâs Sparrows, detected on one of the lomas east of
Brownsville on Dec. 6, 1982.
http://ebird.org/ebird/tx/view/checklist/S22137316
I have been quizzed previously and privately about that sighting. I have
no detailed notes on the two birds I encountered but I recall them vividly
because they contrasted so distinctly with the several (expected) Cassinâs
that I flushed that day. They were much buffier than the gray Cassinâs.
These were flushed from the grassy margins (typically Spartina spartinae)
or grassland âskirtâ which surrounds the dense brush on many of those
lomas. The birds popped up briefly but then retreated to the dense
thornbrush.
The lomas east of Brownsville harbor a very distinctive habitat type of
often impenetrable thornbrush with high plant species diversity. Several
of the lomas, especially those without regular vehicular access (at that
time) were nearly pristine, being generally ungrazed, uncut, and unburned
through many decades. They are certainly an understudied and
underappreciated subset of the interesting LRGV habitats. Their
inaccessibility protects them. In this sense, I was not particularly
surprised at the time to find âwinteringâ (or late) individuals of a
species which supposedly withdraws completely from Texas during the cooler
months.
I was working in the private consulting business at that time, doing
wildlife surveys for the Brownsville Navigation District. Through some
negotiations that I navigated our client through, a 99-year lease for about
5,000 acres of those lomas and mudflats was secured for the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Serviceâs Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR. That remains one of my
prouder accomplishments during my tenure in the private sector.
Chuck Sexton
Austin, TXEdit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
