Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Black bears and man-made oasis await birders at Big Bend National Park

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Tuesday, October 3, 2000

Black bears and man-made oasis await birders at Big Bend National Park

While birding Big Bend National Park several weeks ago, I waited in the Basin in front of the park information center for my group to return from an attempt to find a lingering Colima warbler. An excited young man came from the path to the Window Trail. "I just saw a bear,'' he said, "about three quarters of an hour ago. She was hiding in the undergrowth on the hill, and she had two cubs.''
   Everyone in hearing distance converged on the young man. "Were you scared?'' asked a girl. "Yes,'' he said, "I looked up and saw her where she was hiding. I saw the hair on the back of her neck rise! I walked on down the trail.''
   Black bears from Mexico have been coming back to the park in past years. They are not the huge grizzlies of Alaska and the western states, but they are carnivores, and have become common enough that hikers and campers are warned to be on the lookout for them. Trash disposal bins are now bear proof, and notices are posted advising people not to feed the bears and how to conduct themselves should they encounter one. Alas, we did not.
   We were able to spend several hours at Sam Nail's, favorite birding spot remembered from earlier visits. Like Dugout Wells, Sam Nail's, is a man-made oasis, an old ranch where early settlers to the area erected a windmill. It still brings up a trickle of water that refills a tiny pond. Birds are lured in from the desert for a refreshing drink and to bathe under old shade trees.
   We took turns sitting on the small bench as all of us peered into the shade-dappled shallow pool. First a northern waterthrush came bobbing along the edge, picking at little water bugs. Next all binoculars focused on a messy, very wet bird on a limb above the pond. It looked bluish an eastern bluebird? A late arriving birder saw the error in our observations and set us straight. Turned out it was a lazuli bunting, so occupied with its ablutions that it was no wonder we mid-identified it. Hey, the lazuli buntings we get to see in Corpus Christi are few and far between.
   A hooded oriole then visited this lovely green hideaway. It stayed on a high branch, seemingly sensing our presence. The next arrival was a prize, at first a real puzzle. We all knew it had a bunting shape and finch beak. Its color really threw us until the ol' maestro Gene Blacklock gave us a hint ... "chocolate,'' he said, "chocolate.'' We puzzled over the field guide and were soon congratulating each other ... a female varied bunting.
   She was not bright brown like a lady indigo bunting, nor yet warm green like a female painted bunting. She was subtle, and milk chocolate colored, as befits the wife of a male with the handsome subdued multi-coloring of a varied bunting. As we hiked back to the car from the pool at Sam Nail, we added to our trip list a blue grosbeak, just hanging out in a thicket.
   A pleasant, easily accessible spot I did not remember visiting before at Big Bend, is an educational center operated by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. It combines a store where good local nature books are sold with a desert garden. Visitors may sit in the shade and watch orioles and yellow and Wilson's warblers cavorting around the small pond. We especially appreciated labels on unfamiliar desert plants.


Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

| Discuss about birdwatching | | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]