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Preface
- Texas A&M University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
preface Birders have access to many excellent field guides that assist with bird identification. Because of their broad audience and short species accounts, such guides are generally limited to a few illustrations, identification tips, and brief statements concerning the bird’s biology and range. As most birders’ interests evolve and mature, we require a book that provides additional information about the birds inhabiting our particular corner of the world. Frequently, the book we are looking for has not yet been written. During the last 30 years the Upper Texas Coast (UTC) has developed a reputation as a world-class venue for traveling birders—avitourists. Each year, especially during spring, thousands of birders from around the world visit this naturalist’s Mecca. For many visitors, the UTC’s attractiveness stems from the high diversity of large waders, shorebirds, warblers , and sparrows that can be seen during a relatively brief visit. This species diversity is related to many factors, including the region’s variety of natural habitats; its position along the migratory routes of both landbirds and waterbirds; agricultural practices that attract and nourish waterfowl and shorebirds; weather patterns that often cause birds to concentrate along the coast; and the warm, insect-rich winters . Additionally, several local environmental organizations administer sanctuaries that provide special opportunities for viewing the local avifauna (appendix 1). The UTC portion of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail map series (TPWD 1999) now provides a detailed site template for visiting birders. Once immersed in the trail, many visitors who simply came to bird remain for the prehistoric-looking alligators, prairies blanketed with wildflowers, or cathedral-like forests of longleaf pines that harbor rare orchids and numerous butterflies. The dollars generated by avitourism represent an important source of local revenue. Nonetheless, the communities of East Texas are players in a tug-of-war between forces that would protect and enhance the environment for people and wildlife, and forces that would dredge, drill, and develop it from horizon to horizon, with no regard for its biological riches. Such development exacerbates the perils that already threaten our birdlife. Migratory birds especially face an array of hazards as they lose their nesting and wintering grounds to timbering, ranching, and residential development, their food base to pesticides, their nest holes to European Starlings, and their offspring to cats and cellular transmission towers. Readers who were introduced to birding during the last decade may be distressed by some of our discussions . It may be difficult to visualize the immense spring fallouts we discuss, much as we have difficulty envisioning the great herds of bison that once blanketed the prairies. Although quadruple-digit days for any kind of warbler are unlikely to occur again, the UTC still remains one of the finest places in North America to witness the spectacle of migration. Pulich (1988), Rappole and Blacklock (1985), Seyffert (2001), Wauer (1973), and White (2002) have examined the birds of north-central Texas,the Coastal Bend, the Panhandle, the Big Bend region, and northeast Texas. So far, no single work attempts to summarize what has been discovered during the last 150 years concerning the distribution of birds along the upper coast. Birdlife of Houston, Galveston and the Upper Texas Coast was written as a companion to your field guide and binoculars for your visits to Houston, High Island, Galveston, Freeport, or any of the area’s other rich and exciting birding spots. We place the birdlife of the region, a seven-county area with a longer bird list than 43 of the 50 states, into a historical and ecological context that begins during precolonial times. We discuss more than 480 kinds of birds including introduced, endangered, extirpated, extinct, and hypothetical species. The birdlife of any region is in a constant state of flux. Although we base our species accounts on more than a century of sightings, they represent a mere snapshot in biological time. Ranges expand and contract, new species appear, and well-established ones vanish—often in response to habitat changes created by humans. Acknowledging this dynamism is what makes a birder’s twentieth visit to the same hedgerow as exciting as the first. We have considered records available to us through the end of 2004, knowing that inevitably, certain accounts will be out of date by the time we go to press. We hope this book is comprehensive enough to serve as a baseline for further inquiries into the birdlife of the Upper Texas Coast. Previously unpublished...