I have been going to reply to this for some time but forgot.
Just after I moved to Houston in 1981, the Houston Post? printed a detailed
full page soil map of Harris County. I used it for a good while to track
where to look for particular bird species in town and found that it
actually tracked the spread of "invasive" species and also where to find
the last of the vanishing species.
White-winged dove made a good test with the first main population tracking
with the ringed-turtle doves in Bellaire. You sort of had to make a special
trip to find them for a few years until they started spreading west well
south of westheimer and north of the old railroad/Hardy corridor.
Western kingbirds moved east on the same corridor during dry years
following the power lines where they nested and swainson's hawks had a
series of nests along the same corridor.
Just a mile to the north at my place along buffalo bayou, the map showed
the area as an extension of the big thicket which explains the jungle mixed
with really old trees including pines which turned into a more piney area
as you went to I-10 which was considered piney woods on the map.
I have never found actual nesting white-winged doves near my house to this
date and I have to go a good ways off to find them although males do have
short-lived cooing perches which do not attract females.
The buffalo bayou corridor was the original area for cooper's hawks to
re-colonize Houston and I found 8 pairs shortly after having the first pair
near my house a couple of years earlier.
Up until the latish 1970's brown-headed nuthatches were common in the area
along I-10 just outside the loop and actually abundant around memorial
city, wilcrest and within blocks of the current Audubon sanctuary. Numbers
of other piney woods birds were also in the same area and some pine
warblers still linger but others are gone. Red-headed woodpeckers went with
the demise of old pine trees and people let dead pines stand.
Many of the old roads and railroads actually followed some of the soil
types as they provided better base and less mud. Southwest freeway provided
a target to find quail well into the 1980's.
Bear creek park was borderline piney woods/big thicket and something else.
It does provide a big enough area to hold some birds that do not do well in
an urban setting but has lost yellow-throated warbler and red-eyed vireo
fairly recently and indigo bunting may be gone. Hooded warbler may be
hanging on.
I have been going to go by the extension office for several years to see if
I can get a copy of the map as it is really a good guide to where to bird
for particular birds. Several other nearby counties also have maps and it
is fun to see which birds are restricted to soil types.
On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 2:24 PM, Stevan Hawkins <shawkins4@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Fred:
Six or seven years ago a retired Texas hydrologist told me that ecological
provinces can be defined by substrate, plant life, or animal life. As long
as things are relatively stable, the three factors work well hand in hand.
In this day and age of major range expansion of birds, that synchronicity
goes out the window like cigarette smoke from a vehicle at traffic speeds.
Substrates change over thousands or tens of thousands of years; plant life
changes over hundreds and thousands of years; birdlife changes over tens of
years. The growth of cities often obliterates eco-region boundaries. A
case can be made that cities become ecological provinces. There are
certain
species that are never found any distance from human habitation
Later!
Steve
Stevan Hawkins
San Antonio TX
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Collins, Fred (Commissioner Pct. 3)
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 2:36 PM
To: dellel1119@xxxxxxxxx; Jim Sinclair <jim.sinclair@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: sandboa@xxxxxxxxxxx; Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Ecotourism definition for "South Texas"?
Ecotourism is marketing wildlife centric tours not ecology. If your market
includes people from Britain and Japan, South Texas goes from Houston to
San
Antonio or Austin south to the border and likely includes Seminole Canyon.
Course Texas birders would find that ludicrous. I like the TPWD ecoregions
but they cannot reflect all the range expansions we have seen as so many
species spread beyond their ecological habitat cores.
Fred Collins, Director
Kleb Woods Nature Center
20303 Draper Road,Tomball TX 77377
281-357-5324
Harris County Precinct 3
Steve Radack Commissioner
www.pct3.com
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Dell Little
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 2:29 PM
To: Jim Sinclair <jim.sinclair@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: sandboa@xxxxxxxxxxx; Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Ecotourism definition for "South Texas"?
I've always liked TOS Region 7
<http://www.texasbirdimages.com/home/region-7>
On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 2:24 PM, Jim Sinclair <jim.sinclair@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Interesting comments! Thanks to all that replied, both here andmix.
privately. I'm definitely playing devil's advocate here, as my own
view has bounced around considerably over the last few years, and I
currently have no personal working definition.
Most of the replies offered definitions that are party based upon
ecosystem definitions without regard for ecotourism. But even those
were not consistent.
There are multiple definitions for dividing the state into ecosystem
or natural regions. See the two following links for examples:
<
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education/online-course/wildli
fe-conservation/texas-ecoregions
<http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152207/>
Chris touched upon another component of defining an area by mentioning
his interest in herpetology. I would even add lep and odes into that
I am in the early stages of developing an ecotour program guide for
South Texas (not for profit, David;-)) that will have the Texas state
park system as its core. It will include an economic component as well.
Again, thanks to all!
On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 8:06 AM, Chris Harrison <sandboa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
For my money, I agree with Tim to a large degree. I look at itpersonally
based on herp distributions since that is an interest of mine andare
herps
much less vagile than birds.edge
My boundaries for South Texas are Del Rio across the edge of the
hill country (roughly highway 90) to San Antonio then SE along the
southern
of the San Antonio River to the coast. The San Antonio River seems tocut
it about right and it seems to be an approximate boundary for manypermission
Tamaulipan species.
Seminole Canyon is definitely not in South Texas, it is part of the
Trans-Pecos.
Chris Harrison
San Antonio
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