GTBC Reaches $686,000 for Conservation

The 13th Annual Great Texas Birding Classic was, as always, filled with fun and surprises. The California Thrashers, pictured above, reminded us how much fun the Classic can be by allowing everyone to follow them on twitter.  Their adventures birding in an unfamiliar state were a hoot and a testament to the fact that out of state teams can succeed and really have fun in the Classic.  How about this - Jesse Huth and the TAS/TOS Towhees single-handedly raised $5,000 to support conservation!  If you didn't get to share part of the Classic with us this year, mark your calendar for April 25 - May 2, 2010 so you can join the fun. This year the Awards Brunch was held at the Omni Bayfront Hotel in Corpus Christi.  We had many things to celebrate including reaching $686,000 total Classic contributions for habitat conservation along the Texas coast. Thank you to each of you who participated or played some part during one or more of the Great Texas Birding Classics. Your contribution is appreciated and an important reason for the success.  We encourage everyone to recruit a new sponsor or a new team for the Classic next year!  Click here to see winning team totals, checklists, and chosen conservation projects.

Quintana Spring Migration Fling Hosts Birds and Birders Galore

Our Spring Migration Fling at Quintana was a big success thanks to both the birds and the birders that showed up in numbers.  We had many special birds this year including the Western Tanager shown above that stayed for a couple weeks enjoying the bounty of oranges donated by many of you.  Other special birds include Yellow-headed Blackbird, Bobolink, Clay-colored Sparrow, Yellow-green Vireo, Black-billed Cuckoo, and of course, the 31 species of warblers that graced us with their appearance.  We hope you all enjoyed the spring fling as much as we did and we would love to hear your comments and/or suggestions (e-mail Sue).  We look forward to seeing everyone again next year when we will hopefully have expanded hours.

GCBO Prairie Update

Remember our Saums prairie rescue plot?  Well it's looking great this summer!  Several of our volunteers (Warren Pruess and Dr. Ray Jordan) have been busy cataloguing the plants and have come up some humdingers.  Slim-lobe Celery, Slender Fleabane, False Dandelion, Spring Forget-me-not, and Red-seed Plantain to name a few.  The Pink Gaura shown above is one of the more beautiful flowers in bloom right now and they are really tall, some approaching 4 ft. They are also covered with pink aphids which illustrates the good bird food provided by native plants.  You can see them in this picture if you look closely.  We would like to extend our thanks to Warren and Ray for their hard work identifying the plants for us.  If you want to see what a native prairie looked like before suburban expansion gobbled most of them up, come by and imagine our prairie plot covering thousands of acres.  Incredible!

GCBO Receives Houston Endowment Grant

We are thrilled to announce a recent Houston Endowment, Inc. grant of $100,000 for program support for our 2009-2010 efforts to enhance the 65 member Site Partner Network, to design and conduct much needed avian field research, and to boost our education outreach efforts by providing unique volunteer service opportunities that educate as well as build strong healthy environs for birds and people.  Thank you Houston Endowment!

Join Us For Bird Banding

Join us from 8:00 until noon on Saturday, June 20th for our monthly bird banding session.  Watch as Robert & Kay Lookingbill band the birds and explain how to determine the species, age, and sex of birds in the hand.  It's breeding season and we may catch the first crop of youngsters this month.  Come out and see what surprises are in store for us. This is a great way to get kids excited about wildlife, but all ages are welcome.  See the map on our webpage for directions.  Note that mapquest and googlemaps will not guide you to the right place using our address.