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Birdwatching
with Phyllis Yochem
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Tuesday, August 22, 2000
Audubon Outdoor Club volunteers help keep Blucher Park birder-friendly
Mockingbirds, cardinals and woodpeckers can be seen nesting in the small preserve
In spring, Blucher Park is where the action is. Migrating passerines know it as a reliable first stop when they hit the Texas coast. But what happens there when migrants have gone north and the unrelenting South Texas heat sets in? The pace is slower, but there still is plenty of action.
Human participants in the summer action call themselves the Blucher Bunch. They are volunteers, many of them members of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi, who work in the park every Monday evening, planting, watering and keeping it alive.
Hard-working flock
They perspire a lot, but have the enviable camaraderie of an elite team with a strong sense of purpose. In the last five years, they have transformed the park into a birder-friendlier small preserve.
They maintain paths, eliminate unwanted plants and nurture native species that are better able to survive our inevitable droughts. They would say that what they do most is pull hoses from one needy plant to another. Anyone with energy is welcome to join the group.
Leader and director of activities has always been Emilie Payne, a woman with a vision and incredible know-how. (She also has the reputation of a merciless taskmaster.) She is aided and abetted by Leah Pummill, president of the club; Judith Reader, vice president; and club faithfuls Jimmy Swartz, Jo and Bob Creglow, Barbara and Art Olsen, and Carlene and Willard Johnson. Also Larry Jordan, David Chenvert, Karen Smith, Ann Lee, Richard Gibbons, Joyce Penney and others.
Thanks to the efforts of Pat Suter, who helped the Park and Recreation Department write a proposal, a grant recently was awarded that allowed the purchase of additional land adjacent to the park.
Diligent nesters
Birds that appear to be anxious and upset at so many drop-ins during migration accurately predict the summer bird population of Blucher Park. This year there have been many diligent couples of nesting northern mockingbirds. Cardinals, less militant, are also present in numbers. The next largest group, probably, is made up of golden-fronted woodpeckers. Mourning, Inca and white-winged doves are resident nesters. Several hummingbird mothers nest in the park or across the street on Junior League property. They are probably black-chinned. Since buff-bellied are seen during the summer, they may be nesting also.
A pair of brown-crested flycatchers selected the yard in Blucherville for their summer home. They and a pair of reclusive brown-thrashers were the most distinguished residents. At any season, an hour or two of happy birding is always available in this unique oasis of green behind the Central Library in uptown Corpus Christi.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi
resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.
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