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May 17, 2008
Hunstville State Park Parking lot after Pay Station
7:00 AM
Admissions Fee: $4.00
For the final trip of the OG year we will be headed up to Huntsville State Park. Local Rick Bello will be our guide for the day. Rick knows the Huntsville area and the state park well so if there are good birds around he will know where to find them. Huntsville State Park is a 2083 acre park that lies in the pineywoods of the Sam Houston National Forest, near the western edge of the Southern Pine Belt. These woodlands, dominated by loblolly and shortleaf pines typical of the East Texas Pine Belt. A dominate feature of the park is the 210-acre Lake Raven, which depending on conditions can be very attractive to ducks and shorebirds, especially in the winter. The park is most productive in the spring when migrant wood warblers, vireos and thrushes can be common in the park and the summer when up to 14 species of breeding warblers can be found in the park. Over the years 230 species of birds have been observed in the park and a checklist is available off the parks website.
While we are there we will be in search of Wood Duck, Mississippi Kite, Broad-winged Hawk, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Hairy Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Vireo, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Red-breasted, White-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches, Winter Wren, Wood Thrush, migrant warblers, Dark-eyed Junco, Painted Bunting and Pine Siskin. The species we will make a special effort to see are Hairy Woodpecker, all three nuthatches, Winter Wren, Dark-eyed Junco and Pine Siskins since those species are much less common in our neck of the wood the Upper Texas Coast. This should be a great trip and will be the last good time of year to visit this park until late fall before it gets unbearably hot. So come out and join us on what should be one of the last nice spring days before the onslaught of summer.
Directions: We will meet in the parking lot immediately after the kiosk you will stop at to pay your admissions fee to enter the state park. To get there take IH 45 north out of Houston to just shy of Huntsville and Park Road 40. Go west (left) on Park Road 40, which is exit 109 off of IH 45 to the park. Once you reach the kiosk where you will pay your admission fee look for me in the parking lot just after the kiosk. I believe it will be on the left.
Be sure to bring: Binoculars, field guide, water, hat, sunscreen, snacks, camera, spotting scope, rain gear in case of rain and a lunch if you plan to bird in the afternoon.
~ Adam Wood, OG Field Trip Coordinator, birdsondabrain@earthlink.net, 713-515-1692 |
