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with Phyllis Yochem
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Tuesday, December 7, 1999
Elusive species watch birders at tournament
Nature trails and no crowds ideal at community center
Some easily accessible local birding spots were recently subjected to intense birding during the Professional Birding Association tournament. Hilltop Community Center was one place where interesting species were found. My memories of good finds there in earlier years include a nesting buff-bellied hummingbird discovered one spring by Glenn Swartz, and an olive sparrow that called interminably one fall but never showed.
While scouting before the tournament for his team, the Shorebirders, Jim Hailey saw a number of good birds that, alas, could not be found by tournament time. Since most of the species were the hide-in-the-bushes type, the rising wind may have kept some out of sight.
A member of one hard-to-find species, a lesser goldfinch, was busily feeding at the top of some dead sunflower stalks in a sheltered hollow. These bright little yellow and black members of the finch family prefer dry places, but always near water, as they need to drink frequently. They are seen south of here in Kingsville, the Sarita area and to the north in the Hill Country, but one here is a surprise.
A gray catbird took much persuasion before it was willing to come out of the thicket to a branch where, partially hidden, it could get a good look at us. Back in the underbrush, a hermit thrush became visible when it walked through a stray shaft of sunlight.
Ruby-crowned kinglets and blue-gray gnatcatchers were there as expected this time of year. We did not find a golden-crowned kinglet, but I think another team did. Not a frequenter of these parts, golden-crowneds are always a welcome sighting. They are easily distinguished from their cousins, the ruby-crowneds, by their more slender shape, different facial markings, and by the visibility of color on the crown. The ruby-crowned scarlet patch is seldom seen. Their call notes are also very different.
A spotted towhee sprang up from chaparral in the hollow where the lesser goldfinches were feeding. A wandering winter flock of warblers included a Tennessee, yellow-rumped (we saw the Audubon's form with yellow under chin), orange-crowned, Wilson's and, I think, pine.
The paved nature trails around this park make it pleasant and easy to bird. At least two bridges cross the sometime creek. For this part of the world, the terrain is hilly. Two or three joggers or dog walkers may be encountered on the way but, when I have been there, never the noisy crowd.
With the regularity of a strolling minstrel, groove-billed anis pass this way. Overhead is the possibility of turkey or black vultures or a red-tailed hawk. An American kestrel perched on a telephone pole may be surveying from the sideline. All kinds of doves, including the usually rural ground dove, may be found there.
For other good sightings call the Coastal Bend Birding Hotline at (361) 883-7410.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi
resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.
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