Eastern Meadowlarks have been declining at the rate of 3% per year for the last
45 years in Texas
Likely, there are many factors associated with this decline. Loss of
grasslands in quantity and size, and change is species of grasses are typically
the main issues discussed. Predation on small insects by fire ants have been
shown to reduce survival in prairie-chicken chicks.
Locally we might be seeing a negative response of meadowlarks to wet, tall and
dense grasslands created by above average rains
Brent Ortego
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 11, 2016, at 1:11 PM, Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
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E. Meadowlarks were formerly abundant summer residents and breeders in the
southern and central parts of Texas. They rapidly declined after the late
70's early 80's during a time which coincided with spread of Bermuda grass,
mowing practice the arrival of fire and and Cattle Egrets and more
intensive chemical treatments . Finding even one singing in Lavaca,
Bastrop, Travis, Fayette, Lee etc counties, in the breeding season, is
enough to make my day. When I was doing the Indianola BBS, there were
still a number of the off of 316 in Calhoun Co.
On Sun, Sep 11, 2016 at 11:02 AM, Steve Gast <
dmarc-noreply-modpost@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Five of us spent the day on Katy Prairie last Tuesday Sept 6th by driving
across most all of the protected areas seeking to count all shorebirds for
international shorebird day. The water was too high most traditional places
for many shorebirds but we had a few.
However, The most surprising aspect was a complete lack if any
Meadowlarks. This is an abundant breeder here and we get large numbers on
every Christmas count.
Does this mean that the winter birds here are entirely visitors, and that
our breeders move completely away at this time of the year? What else could
explain this?
Steve Gast
Houston TX
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Brush Freeman
Biospatialservices.com
<http://www.biospatialsevices.com>
Utley & Cedar Park, Texas
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