Texas Almanac, 1980-1981 Page: 18
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TEXAS ALMANAC 1980-1981
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; cii B :Birdwatchers have a front-line view of many kinds of water and shore birds that spend the winter along the Texas
Gulf Coast.is the easternmost, the westernmost, the most north-
ern and most southern of various different biological
situations. The Texas coast is a meeting ground of a
wide variety of natural influences.
Birds of the Texas Coast
The Texas coast is a birdwatcher's paradise. Over
400 species have been identified along its broad, flat
plain which borders the Gulf of Mexico for 370 miles.
Hundreds of miles of bayshore combine to total over
600 miles of sinuous shoreline, providing a home or
migratory resting spot for one of the greatest concen-
trations of bird life in America.
Most ornithologists divide the Texas coast into
three parts: the upper coast, the central coast and the
lower coast. The upper coast runs from the Louisiana
border to Port O'Connor; the central coast from Port
O'Connor southward to Baffin Bay, and the lower
coast extends from Baffin Bay to the Mexican border.
Along the upper coast, the Anahuac National Wildlife
Refuge, an extensive marsh area where among a
multitude of other coastal birds a particularly large
concentration of marsh birds called Rails are to be
easily seen. Along the central coast, the Aransas Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge provides extensive areas to see
many other coastal birds besides the famous Whoop-
ing Cranes, which winter there annually. On the lower
coast, the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
has, among a vast number of waterfowl, the largest
known wintering concentration of Redhead ducks.
Birding along the Texas coast has certain high-
lights at any season of the year. Many people enjoy the
spring migration because of the large number of
unusual species which enter the United States by
crossing the Gulf on their northward journey. After
the Gulf crossing, warblers and other spring migrants
often pause along the Texas coast for a few days to re-
coup their strength. Usually this occurs in late April or
early May. In the winter, large numbers of ducks and
geese can be found along the coast. In summer, manykinds of shorebirds are summer coastal residents.
During December, an annual Audubon Society bird
count is held in many communities in the United
States, Mexico and Canada. The highest such bird
count is usually from the Texas coast, where at Free-
port in 1976, a record 216 species were counted in one
day!
Listed below are some of the bird specialties of the
Texas coast. It is quite impossible to make an intelli-
gent limited selection, so for more complete informa-
tion the reader is referred to a "Field Guide of The
Birds of Texas" for greater detail on the hundreds of
species.
Brown Pelican-once extremely abundant, today
only 15 to 25 breeding pairs can be found on the Texas
coast.
Magnificent Frigatebird-a large, hook-beaked visi-
tor in late summer along the entire coast.
Louisiana Heron-often called the Tri-colored
Heron because of its white, blue-grey and brown plum-
age, this heron is most common on the upper coast,
nesting on isolated islands.
Reddish Egret-a permanent resident of salt-water
areas along the central and lower coast. The only
egret which prefers brackish or salt water habitats
exclusively.
Roseate Spoonbill-a large beautiful, pink bird;
fairly common along the coast in summer and easily
spotted by its broadly flattened "spoonbill."
Laughing Gull-the only gull which nests in Texas,
although several other species visit here. This is the
most abundant gull in all habitats. It is a scavenger
feeding on all types of food.
Whooping Crane-this is probably the most publi-
cized bird of the Texas coast. The Whooping Cranes
travel 2,000 miles from their summer home in Canada
to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to winter. They
arrive at Aransas in October and are gone again by
April. In 1978, 68 adults and 6 young wintered in Texas,
an all-time high count since a low count of only 15 birds
in 1941. The Whooping Crane is still very much in dan-
ger of extinction.!-Ad
4- -"
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Texas Almanac, 1980-1981, book, 1979; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113815/m1/20/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.