Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
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Native Plant Nursery Update
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Our native plant nursery has come a long way and is looking really good! So many native and established plants for sale! Chris has been organizing workdays and doing a lot of work himself out here. Thank you if you have been volunteering already! We would love to have more help, and if you like plants come on out please.
We’d like to switch workdays to Thursdays, so from now on the standing Nursery workdays here at GCBO are on Thursdays from 9:00am to 12:00 noon.
Chris can make many of these, but he will not always be here. Our front gate will be open however, and we have a list of standing items that we’d love help with. Chris also have clipboard with additional tasks in the little plastic literature holder hanging on the fence near the nursery entry.
A few standing tasks we need your help with:
1. Bring in your favorite native or naturalized plants (as seeds, cuttings, dug plants), and pot these up. We have pots and soil here.
2. Weed all potted plants on or under nursery tables.
3. Water all plants that seem dry.
4. Pot up seedlings or cuttings into 1-gal pots, that have been queued up on the outside potting bench. (The small table just outside the fenced area next to the pile of dirt and the gravel road.)
5. Check the plastic holder for additional tasks.
Hope to see you out here on Thursday mornings! Thank you for all you do!
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Summer Bird Camp is Baaaaack!
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It's that time of year again: summer is fast approaching, bringing with it hot days and bored children. What better way to keep brain's engaged and children entertained than with GCBO's summer bird camp?! For 5 action packed days from June 3-7, campers will become certified bird investigators and nature detectives, learning all about these beautiful and engaging creatures. With activities like daily bird walks, bird banding, a visit to a local wildlife rehab, a tromp on our mystery birding trail, a take-home art project and more, this is one camp that is not just "for the birds." Days run from 9 to 1 and include snacks. Please pack a lunch. Email info@gcbo.org to sign up before spots fill up.
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Upcoming 2020 GCBO Birding Tours
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Come birding with GCBO and our Executive Director, Martin Hagne! Since we started offering birding trips last year they've been completely booked! Everyone is having a great time birding, exploring, enjoying some extraordinary scenery, dining on local cuisine, and just having a fun time! We always hook up with at least one local guide for the best experience. Now Martin has laid out some wonderful destinations for 2020!
Final plans are not in place for all trips, so if there are no date or cost details listed below please keep your eyes open for more details on these upcoming trips. If you want to be placed on a list for more info as soon as it is out,
send Martin an email.
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Duluth, MN in
January 16-20, 2020
$895.00 for Single
$795.00 for Double
We will repeat this popular trip for boreal winter species! We will have a great time exploring the snow-covered Sax Zim Bog and northern forests of the Duluth area again this year, with possible views of Great Gray Owl, Snowy Owl, Northern Hawk-Owl, Bohemian Waxwing, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Boreal Chickadee, Evening Grosbeak, and all the other boreal species one expects to see!
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Southeast Arizona in July
Southeast Arizona is legendary in the birding world as one of the must visit places for some very special birds and scenery! Elegant Trogons, Montezuma Quail, Arizona Woodpecker. Red-faced Warbler, Abert’s Towhee, Bridled Titmouse, Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Gilded Flicker, a dozen or more hummingbirds, not to mention the night birds! Just a very small sampling of the diverse birdlife living in the desert and mountainous canyons. Bird such famous sites as the Chiricahua Mountains, Patagonia, and Madera Canyon.
Dates and Costs TBA.
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Cuba in Fall
The GCBO has been working with partners in Cuba since 2005 on various avian research projects such as a hawk watch and a migratory bird banding station. With these relationships, travel with GCBO staff and our Cuban ornithological partners to visits research sites, and bird the fabulous Cuban avian diversity. Experience the rich Cuban culture, along with the local birds.
Dates and Costs TBA.
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Oaxaca, Mexico TBA
We hope to offer this fabulous birding and cultural trip again in 2020. Look for dates and more info soon!
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Volunteer Groups Working Hard
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Several groups have recently put in a lot of hard work at GCBO’s headquarters. Some much needed projects have been completed and it all looks wonderful! We can’t thank everyone enough! THANK YOU!!
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Boy Scout Daniel Duran recently completed his Eagle Scout Project here at GCBO. Daniel, with Troop 385, designed and built a foot bridge along our Owl Trail.
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The old bridge had to be removed due to damage from old age and Hurricane Harvey damage.
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Brazos Pointe Fellowship Church from just down the road held their manual Servolution Workday in March here at GCBO and spent the morning weeding, planting and mulching the large front flower bed by our handicapped parking space.
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The Epworth League from Wisconsin spent their Spring Break on a Mission Trip to Brazoria County and sent five university students each day for five days to GCBO to help out. They weeded and mulched four flower beds around the headquarters building to get the beds ready for planting. On the last day they installed about 100 tiki torches for our Brew event!
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Danielle and Elianna with Troop No. 27292 completed their Girl Scout Silver Award Project by installing a beautiful hummingbird and butterfly garden in front of the headquarters building.
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They cleaned out an old garden area, then planned and laid out the new garden and worked with Chris Kneupper to select the right plants.
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There is also a longtime Lake Jackson Garden Club volunteer project that keeps one of the front gardens by the entry ramp to our building looking great! The wonderful members of the club faithfully come out to weed, clean, and replant the garden that they adopted a long time ago. We truly appreciate their dedication!
THANK YOU ALL!!
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GCBO’s Headquarters in Lake Jackson is a beautiful building that blends so well on the 34 acres of bottomland hardwood forest. The light and open design has resulted in a few bird window strikes, however, and we need to stop that from happening. There is an easy solution, using window decals applied in long rows on the windows as in the photos on the right.
We bought some of the decals to start the project but need some help putting them up. It would take a dedicated person, or maybe a small team of a few people, probably half to the better part of a day. If you want to get involved and help save some birds, please send
Martin
an email.
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You may remember our intern from last year, Amelia Grider. Amelia is a recent graduate from Auburn University with a degree in Marine Biology. Last fall she interned with our Shorebird Use of Intertidal Reef project and our Nonbreeding Shorebirds Project, in addition to helping out around the office and in the native plant nursery. After spending a few months as a field technician with Mississippi State University, she has returned to GCBO for a term position with the Beach Nesting Birds project this summer. We are really excited to have Amelia back!
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Bill Clark Raptor Weekend
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On Friday, October 11, 2019 at 7:30pm, join us to hear Bill Clark speak on the raptors of the Rio Grande Valley. Many species of Neotropical raptor just reach the U.S. in south Texas. Additionally there are passages in the Rio Grande Valley of large number of migrating raptors, both in spring and fall, many of which also winter there. In this illustrated talk, Bill will discuss these raptors, with extensive coverage of Aplomado Flacon, Gray Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, Harris's Hawk, and Hook-billed Kite. He will show photos of many raptors in hand and will discuss their vocalizations and aspects of their biology. He will also include a discussion of four Mexican raptors that have occurred as vagrants. We will have Bill's books on hand so you can purchase a copy and get them signed. A $5 donation is suggested for attending the event.
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On Saturday, October 12th, Bill Clark will present a Raptor Identification Workshop at GCBO! He will present a series of lectures on how to identify raptors in flight. On Sunday, October 13th, participants will spend the day at the Smith Point Hawk Watch putting everything they have learned to use in the field. In addition, Robert and Kay Lookingbill will catch live raptors to show participants at Smith Point. What a great deal! The cost is $150/participant. Call Tricia today to sign up at 979-480-0999.
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Join Us for May Bird Banding!
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Bird banding returns on May 18th from 8 am - noon. Come see birds in the hand and learn about the science of bird banding. The earlier you arrive the more birds you'll see.
And while you're here, why not check out our native plant nursery and wander our trails too? We even have picnic tables set up for an outdoor lunch -- It's the perfect nature outing for the family!
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You can help support GCBO's mission in several important ways!
Save a Tree and some $!
We are trying to go as paperless as we can to save some trees and quite a bit on printing and mailing costs. We would love if you would let us email you instead of snail mailing a hard copy of any correspondence, including your future copies of the Gulf Crossings. Please
email
or call
Tricia
to say: “
Hey, GCBO, please start emailing me things! Here is my email…”
Thanks!
DONATE NOW
on our website to support our conservation programs.
BECOME A MEMBER
and receive our twice a year newsletter and a 10% discount in our nature store.
Make an in-kind donation to support our sanctuary needs.
Tents
We are in need of several 12’ x 12’ pop up tents/canopies. If you have one or more in good contention, we will put them to good use for kid’s camp, XHX, and Brew on the Bayou!
Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Chicken Scratch
We feed year-round here at GCBO, and during migration at Quintana. We stock our GCBO feeders to help augment natural foods, and this also helps our monthly banding research project.
One Gallon Plastic Pots
We can use your used 1 gallon nursery plant pots for the Growery. We go through a lot of 1 gallon pots when potting up new plants. Let’s recycle them here. We’ll take one or a hundred!
Donate Bird Seed and Oranges to Quintana
The birds are hungry when they arrive after flying over the Gulf! Help us help them by donating Black Oil Sunflower seed and oranges for Quintana.
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Now when you shop at Kroger, you can support GCBO!
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GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click
here
. Our charity number is #DN782.
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Support GCBO When You Shop on Amazon!
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Do you shop on Amazon? Did you know you can do that same shopping on Amazon Smile and support GCBO with every purchase? Just go to the Amazon Smile website and select GCBO as your charity of choice and then shop, shop, shop! GCBO will receive a donation for every purchase you make.
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All photographs are courtesy of GCBO staff unless otherwise noted.
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