Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566 |
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Volunteer at Xtreme Hummingbird Xtravaganza! |
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Xtreme Hummingbird Xtravaganza is a fun event for both guests and volunteers! We are currently looking for volunteers both event days (Saturday Sept 16th and Saturday Sept 23rd) as well as set up days (Friday Sept 15th and Friday Sept 22nd). At the event, volunteers can help with kids activities, direct parking, sell tickets, and much more. If you're interested in volunteering or have any questions, please email Celeste at csilling@gcbo.org. We appreciate it! |
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Free Presentation: Raptor Migration Worldwide |
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We are pleased to host: Raptor Migration Worldwide with William S. Clark. This presentation will take place 7:30pm Friday, October 13th, 2023. The presentation is free and open to the public, with a $5 donation suggested. We will have Bill’s books on hand if you’d like to purchase a copy and have them signed.
More than half of the World’s species of diurnal raptors perform annual migrations, especially those populations in higher northern and southern latitudes. However, the entire population migrates in only a few species. Beginning with North America, Bill will show photographs of and discus some of the locations on five continents where people regularly gather to count raptors. Bill will show many of the raptors counted at each site, present some count data, and give some of his personal experiences at many of these sites. Some count sites differ in how the raptors pass. Bill will use many maps from Raptor Watch and present some data from Migration Ecology of Birds.
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Turn Off Lights for Birds at Night! |
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Excess nighttime lighting distracts and disorients migrating birds, often leading to collisions.
To protect migratory birds in your area, BirdCast and partners recommend turning off all non-essential lighting between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM during fall migration.
• turn off or dim any non-essential exterior building lighting;
• close curtains or blinds to reduce the escape of interior lighting; and
• avoid illuminating lobbies, plants or fountains that may attract birds.
If you haven't already subscribed to the BirdCast migration alerts, we recommend it! BirdCast will send you an email on days with high migration-intensity so that you can be sure to turn off your lights.
You can subscribe here:
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Donate to Smith Point Hawk Watch! |
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Smith Point Hawk Watch has been providing quality raptor migration data for 27 years! It is our longest running research project, and we are hoping it will run for a long time to come. If you would like to help fund this project, as well as maintenance of the hawk watch tower, please consider donating! We truly appreciate your support. |
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Join us in celebrating the Smith Point Hawk Watch! The celebration will feature live raptors from the Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center, as well as wild birds overhead. We will be at the Hawk Watch tower, spotting raptors with our researchers and volunteers. This event is free (including free lunch!) and no registration is required. Bring the whole family! |
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Want to Volunteer at GCBO? |
We could use some help with our flower beds! With XHX coming up, we need to trim back some of the plants blocking our walkways and clean up the flower beds.
We will be hosting a volunteer work day on September 8th from 8AM to 11AM and we would love your help! Contact Celeste (csilling@gcbo.org) to sign up.
Thanks!
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Beach Nesting Birds Project April-August 2023 |
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The Beach Nesting Bird Project was led by our Coastal Biologist, Taylor Bennett. Assisting her were GCBO interns Taylor Snyder and Ben Torres. The program helps monitor and protect three species of beach nesting birds: Wilson’s Plover, Least Tern, and Black Skimmer. These species are considered species of high concern due to loss of habitat, climate change, and human disturbance. This year they monitored three sites: Matagorda Beach, Sargent Beach, and Dow Freeport Plant A. All chicks are monitored until they are able to fly, at which point they are classified as fledged.
At Matagorda, Wilson’s Plovers nested along Matagorda Peninsula (up to 18 km) and Three-Mile Cut this season. There were very few pairs and nests this season possibly due to the drought. GCBO located 6 Wilson’s Plover nests and 2 mystery broods (pairs with chicks that we were unable to locate nests for). Most of the nests failed due to disturbance. GCBO managed to band 3 adult Wilson’s Plover and 2 chicks. The Wilson’s Plovers ended up fledging 5 (2 banded) out of 6 total chicks. The Least Terns mainly nested along Matagorda Peninsula. GCBO observed 123 pairs and 111 nests. The Least Terns fledged 9 out of 24 chicks.
Sargent Beach was divided into two areas: Sargent East and Sargent West. Sargent ended up being the most productive in terms of fledglings for both Least Tern and Wilson’s Plover. GCBO observed 23 pairs of Wilson’s Plover and 226 pairs of Least Tern. We located 23 Wilson’s Plover nests and 15 mystery broods, and managed to band 8 Wilson’s Plover adults and 22 Wilson’s Plover chicks. Two of the adult females were recaptured chicks, one from 2021 and the other unknown. Their chick bands were replaced with adult bands (P8 and C3). We also discovered a red flagged Female Wilson’s Plover which was banded in 2022 in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Wilson’s Plovers fledged 26 (10 banded) out of 51 chicks. The Least Terns ended up nesting on both sides of Sargent. We observed 518 nests and managed to fledge 50 out of 114 chicks.
Dow kindly granted access to Chemical Plant A, so Taylor was able to monitor the Black Skimmer colony once again thanks to her Dow escort, Mike Heather. The maximum number of adults observed was 2,407 with a maximum number of 295 nests, and 983 as maximum number of fledges. We banded 21 chicks with the help of GCBO staff (Rebecca Bracken, Sue Heath, and Celeste Silling), volunteers (Mike Heather and Elena Duran), and GCBO interns (Ben Torres and Ashley Van Wieren).
Thank you to everyone who helped out this season!
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Sue Heath Retirement Party |
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In August we celebrated Sue Heath's legacy here at GCBO. We had a great turnout of about 70 visitors, and we want to thank everyone for coming out! And of course thanks to Sue for her long years of hard work! It was a fun night with lots of friends and memories (including a catchy song from Board President Bob!) |
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Smith Point Hawk Watch Tower Repairs |
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This month, a wonderful crew of volunteers, Brian, Oron, George, Dave, along with Executive Director Martin, spent long hot days out at Smith Point doing some fairly major repairs on the Hawk Watch tower. Thank you so very much for your hard work on the tower!
We hope everyone enjoys this season, and comes out taking advantage of a repaired tower. And we hope hawk watch station master Bob will enjoy the shade from the newly lined roof as well!
Thank you to James A Buddy Davidson Charitable Foundation for funding this repair project, allowing us to start the season with a newly updated tower!
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Avian researchers all over the world (including our own!) band birds. Each band has a unique color and number/letter combination, allowing researchers to track individual birds. For example, terns banded in North Carolina are now migrating elsewhere. If the band numbers are reported here in Texas, we will gain information about where some tern colony members migrate for the winter. But this only works if the bands are spotted again!
If you see a bird with a band on it in the wild, try to take a good quality picture where the band number is legible. If you don't have a camera, try to read the band and write down the number, color, and the bird species. You can then report it to the bird banding lab here: www.reportband.gov
This is a great way to contribute to avian research and help out the birds! Thanks!
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Rice's Fall Course in Bird Migration: Register Now! |
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Come birding with GCBO and our Executive Director, Martin Hagne! Have a great time birding, exploring, enjoying some extraordinary scenery, dining on local cuisine, and of course seeing great birds! We always hook up with at least one local guide for the best experience. Here are our wonderful upcoming trips, but hurry, our trips are selling out fast!!
Our 2023 trips are all sold out! But take a look at our 2024 lineup! A few trips still need more information posted, so stay tune on those, or email Martin mhagne@gcbo.org to be put on list for more info! You can also go to our website to check for trip information and to register.
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October 12-24, 2023 - SOLD OUT!
February 8-13, 2024 - A few spots left!
March 4-13, 2024 -SOLD OUT!
June 16-22, 2024 - SOLD OUT!
November 15-23, 2024 – Spots open!
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Make an in-kind donation to support our sanctuary needs. |
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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.
Sugar
The hummingbirds are coming our way, and we are looking for granulated sugar donations for their sugar water. Please bring it by our headquarters: 299 Hwy 332 W Lake Jackson. Thanks!
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Corporate Matching Programs |
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Did you know that many corporations have a donation matching program? Corporations can match their employees' volunteer hours and/or donations to nonprofit organizations like GCBO! These types of programs are great because they double your contributions to the causes that you care about! If you work (or are retired from) a corporation, ask them about their matching program today! |
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Recycle Your Old Technology and Help Birds |
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The Wireless Alliance is a company that recovers and recycles cell phones, smart phones, tablets, and other consumer recyclables.
We will be collecting these items for Wireless Alliance to keep them out of landfills as well as raise money for our conservation efforts. If you have old technology such as a phone, charger, tablet, or other accessories, consider bringing it to GCBO!
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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.
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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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