We have been doing an exotic bird June bus trip from Kleb for about 10 years in
a row now and we always find multiple Western Kingbirds along power corridors
within Houston and also at power plants when we visit them for Monk Parakeets.
I have not noticed any change due to annual rainfall. I have noticed that at
least 1/2 of the power transfer stations have neither kingbirds nor parakeets
but I have also noticed that if there are parakeets there are also kingbirds.
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 Joseph Kennedy
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 4:56 PM
To: Keith Arnold <kbarnold2@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Judy Kestner <jkestner@xxxxxxxxxx>; texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Brush Freeman
<brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [texbirds] Re: Western Kingbirds
The kingbirds were only along the transmission corridors combined with a
drought year following a dry year. When it turned wet, the transmission line
birds sort of died out and left birds at one of the big stations but they left
too a year or so later. The main lines they used were along the RR tracks so
there was a food corridor too. Now a freeway and no birds showed up during the
big drought and dry summers. So it was likely the towers used for nesting and
good grassy grasshopper habitat under them.
Maybe the wet years do not have the right sort of bugs. Some of the
grasshopper/crickets etc need dry to nest successfully.
On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 8:38 PM, Keith Arnold <kbarnold2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Brush,
Western Kingbirds began nesting on the A&M campus in 1970 and slowly
built up in numbers; I believe they replaced the Scissor-tails that
used to nest on campus. After a few years the birds began to also nest
in adjacent neighborhoods, including what is known as "Northgate".
I'll have to check through my records but they now nest around the
north end of Bryan Municipal Lake [where I just completed 21 years of
weekly surveys]. These birds also nest around the east end of
"restaurant row" on University Dr.
I don't know the complete extent of nesting in Bryan-College Station,
but the center of abundance remains on campus.
If I recall things correctly, in the Houston area, Western Kingbirds
used transmission line corridors to spread out away from their
original colonization.
Keith
On Fri, Jul 14, 2017 at 11:52 AM, <jkestner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It is a good year for Western Kingbirds -- Beeville is full of 'em.season.
Judy Kestner
Calallen (NW Corpus christi)
---- Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
=============
.
I always love observing and listening to Western Kingbird and I have
been especially watching these kingbirds in Leander and Cedar Park
this
Of 7 breeding locations I have monitored all but 2 are in shoppingstill
centers. As of this morning 5 pairs have completed nesting and have
left those nest sites completely....Another site has freshly fledged
birds
in the general area.. In Leander I found the first mixed familypermission
congregation of WKs numbering 14 that I could count along a stretch
of fence line.. This is what one would usually see a week or so
later and right before the big disappearing act in Cen-Tex. on Aug.
8 (though there are lingering birds after that)....Will be curious
to see if the Aug. 8 deal advances this season.
Hatch year birds are everywhere now and for some species the
breeding season is a wrap. Was at a small lake this AM and had 11
Green Herons...All but two where hatch year birds.
--
Brush Freeman
<http://www.biospatialsevices.com>
Utley & Cedar Park, Texas
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