[texbirds] New Nesting Species for Brazoria County
- From: Ron Weeks <ronweeks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 09:19:54 -0700 (PDT)
TexBirders,
While counting coots of all things, I stumbled onto a Tree Swallow nest site
this morning at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. I had two birds with one
disappearing into a broken off snag and the other perching on a nearby stick.
This is the first nesting attempt for the county to my knowledge. The snag is
in the middle of the second cell west of the observation deck at Wolfweed
Reservoir. I left the deck's observation scope focused on the snag. I hiked
out the dike and it appeared the bird was entering the snag from a recessed
area at the top of the snag. Will be back to try and confirm successful
breeding.
This comes three years to the week that Ken Hartman and I found the first UTC
nesting site at Brazos Bend SP (May 16th 2009). Since that time this species
has returned to nest at Brazos Bend, at Bay Area Park and likely also at
Anahuac
NWR. Birds have also been seen the past few years at Choke Canyon SP. So, it
appears that these birds are becoming a annual breeder in the south and
southeastern parts of the state.
One of the things I find interesting is most all these south Texas nesting Tree
Swallows have been found in late May. Typically, southern breeders of a given
bird species return and nest earlier than their northern brethren. But Tree
Swallows return to Michigan, for example, by late March and often begin
breeding
in April.
Ron Weeks
Lake Jackson
Other related posts:
- » [texbirds] New Nesting Species for Brazoria County - Ron Weeks
