Download Guide: is Glenn Olsen, GOecotours 832-517

FORT WORTH AUDUBON EAST TEXAS PINEYWOODS TRIP APRIL 12-17TH
Contact Ann Hoover at [email protected] if interested.
TARGET BIRDS: Red Cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Piliated
Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow, Fish Crows, Swallow-tailed Kites, Buffbreasted and Bairds sandpipers, and nesting warblers such as Prairie,
Prothonotary, Hooded, Kentucky, Pine Worm-eating and Swainsons Warblers,
Northern Parula
Guide: is Glenn Olsen, GOecotours 832-517-2478 and his fee is $125/person.
Meet Friday ready to bird at 1:00 pm at
McDonald’s
1100 S Magnolia
Woodville, Texas 75979
Phone: (409)283-5855
Lunch on your on before meeting.
All travel for the trip will be individual cars or car pooling.
Friday Afternoon: birding, plant, and ecology visit to the Beech Creek Portion of Big Thicket Preserve.
We will enjoy the Beech Creek Section of the Big Thicket National Preserve where we will enjoy walks along trails sheltered by
handsome, shade providing Beech trees. Here we will explore the plant and bird diversity of the Big Thicket. Nine different
ecosystems, from longleaf pine forests to cypress-lined bayous converge in this area of Texas. The Big Thicket lies in the path of
2 major migratory bird flyways. Approximately 185 bird species either live in the Preserve or migrate through it and we will be
looking for some of these such as Pine Warbler, Indigo Bunting, Easter Bluebird, Acadian Flycatcher, Hooded Warbler Barred
Owl and Red-shouldered Hawk among many others.
Later in the afternoon of Friday, we will Check into Super 8 Hotel in Jasper ( rooms 165 or 169$ total for 2 nights-already
reserved).
Dinner at a local restaurant as a group or on your own.
Saturday morning after light breakfast at hotel, we head out for various sites in the Sam Houston National Forest. Our
schedule will be very flexible for this day as we search for target birds.
Saturday Lunch should be a bag lunch or snacks as there are no places for a real meal and only a couple of convenience stores
nearby where we will be birding.
Here we will enjoy walks along trails sheltered by tall, majestic Pines. Pines are the dominant species of tree in the area and the
region is know locally and ecologically as the Pineywoods. While on our walk, we will also look for the Pitcher Plant, and
Sundew plant. These two species of plants are in the unique and rare family of Carnivorous Plants! Our target birds for the day
will be Red-cockaced Woodpecker, Bachman’s Sparrow, and Brown Headed Nuthatch. Since it will be breeding time, hopefully
each of these will be easier to find. We might even hear Bachman’s Sparrow singing from a Pine bough or from a perch on top of
a shrub. In the afternoon, we will move to areas that are more mixed hardwood and pine ecosystem. Here we are more likely to
find Yellow-throated Warbler, Yellow-billed cuckoo, other Woodpeckers, Kentucky and Hooded Warblers among many other
neotropical migrants.
Night in Jasper at the Super 8. Dinner out as a group or individually.
Sunday: we could either brown bag our lunch or eat at a local restaurant as we will be within a few minutes of several
restaurants. Group decision.
Sunday morning, after breakfast, we head toward home but with birding stops along the way. Any of the neotropical migrants
will be possible, but our target species will be the elegant and graceful Swallow-tailed Kite. However, en route we will pass field
and pastures that may hold shorebirds, depending upon the rainfall at that time. If the conditions look good, we will stop at sites
to search for White-rumped Sandpiper, Buff-breasted and Upland Sandpipers and American Golden Plovers. In a flood plain
section of the Trinity River near the Liberty-Dayton communities we will spend time searching for the migrating Swallow-tailed
Kites.
Depending upon the decision of the group, we could bird some additional areas in the afternoon if the group does not need to
drive home before dark.