A Green-tailed Towhee in Haller’s Haven

Post by Wayne Meyer, PhD

Photo by Jack Chiles

Last December, while I was participating in the Tishomingo NWR Christmas Bird Count, I saw a photo that absolutely astounded me.  Someone had found a Green-tailed Towhee on Pennington Creek, just north of town.  A truly beautiful bird, one I have seen only a few times but always in the sagebrush country of California or Colorado, I never expected one to be in dense, riparian shrubs in southeast Oklahoma.  I would have loved to chase after the bird later that day, but I had to get back to Denison because it was my wife’s birthday and I figured I was already lucky to have been able to spend half a day birding.  I lusted over the photo one more time and went back to Texas thinking, “there’s a bird I won’t be putting on my year list”.

Later in the winter, I noted with interest that several more Green-tailed Towhees showed up on Texbirds and OKbirds, the listserves for Texas and Oklahoma birders.  All those birds were showing up in far western Oklahoma and northwest Texas.  Apparently several of these birds had been forced to leave the hills in Colorado by the lack of seeds due to last summer’s drought.  The winter of 2011-2012 was very special because of a number of sagebrush species wintering far east of their normal wintering country combined with a near record irruption of Snowy Owls after an unusually good year for lemmings in the Arctic.  Since I had to teach a Janterm class this year, I was again prevented from chasing after any of these birds.

Fast forward to March.  It was spring break at Austin College and I had 5 days to myself.  On the 12^th I decided to join Jack Chiles and Dick Malnory on a Monday version of the usual Tuesday bird census at Hagerman NWR.  The refuge was going to be closed on Tuesday for invasive species control work, so we braved the fog and rain to get in a morning’s birding when we could.  I had hopes of making up for some of the regular winter species I had missed in the first two months of the year.  The weather hadn’t been great, it had rained all weekend so I was really aching to go birding.  We walked along the Haller’s Haven trail toward Dead Woman Pond to see how many species of sparrows we could find.  We had gone as far as the dam and were searching the dense brush where sparrows are always pretty common when I saw a big one jump up into view.  My first thought was Fox Sparrow.  Once I got the binoculars onto it, however, I saw a red cap and yellowish-green back and tail.  I recall saying, “Here’s a … oh my gosh, Green-tailed Towhee. Green-tailed Towhee!”  All three of us starting clicking off photo after photo, knowing that most of them wouldn’t be any good, but maybe one or two would be usable. 

Later that day Jack and I posted the bird to Texbirds, thinking at the time that we had a Grayson County first record.  Later Jack found that there had been one previous record at Hagerman NWR in the 1980s, but it was still a very surprising find and all three of us had gotten very good looks at a bird that was a lifer for both Jack and Dick.  Apparently the bird stayed around for about 5 days until the area flooded.  Jack returned for more photos and several birders from the metroplex and Tulsa found it before it left.

So what’s my moral here?  Always be prepared for anything.  You never know when the next oddball will be showing up.  And when it comes to birds, oddballs will show up any time of the year.

Ed. Note:  Be sure to visit friendsofhagerman.com for up-to-date lists of birds sighted and the Photo Gallery that includes albums for waterfowl, waders, songbirds and more.

Effects of Drought at Refuge

Photo: Harris Creek bed, looking north from Wildlife Drive at the bridge.

Visitors who have not been to the Refuge recently will be amazed at the changes in the landscape brought about by the drought. We contacted Refuge Manager Kathy Whaley, Dr. Wayne Meyer, and Dr. George Diggs, while doing research for a presentation on the impact of the drought on Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Here is what we learned.

Whaley told us, "If you walk or drive through Hagerman NWR, it is easy to see that the Texas drought has not bypassed the Refuge. Wetlands are dry. the lake is at a 32-year low. Hiking trails are full of cracks in the soil - some more than two feet deep. Shorebirds passing through this fall will find mudflats, but they will be much farther out than normal, making the birds very difficult to see."

She continued, " The ditch we normally pump water from to fill some impoundments is dry. The Refuge staff is working hard to install the water pipeline from Big Mineral Creek to all water to be pumped into the wetlands along Wildlife Drive, but it is a slow, time-consuming process."

"So far," Whaley reported, "staff has rescued two wading birds and one deer that were stuck in the mud. One of the birds, a Snowy Egret, actually had a turtle hanging onto its right leg. Assistant Refuge Manager Rick Cantu found this out while working to free the bird when he grabbed the turtle that was buried in the mud, trying to free the bird. The good news is that Rick still has all his fingers and we saw both legs and two feet as the Egret flew away. The only loser of the day was the turtle."

Whaley said that the lake level is dropping by as much as one inch per day. Ponds, if not already dry, are also getting drier and wildlife are having to travel to the lakeshore to get water. Feral hogs are creating wallows in creek beds where a few pockets of mud remain. Raccoon, bobcat, coyote, and deer tracks are visible along many areas that have not yet been covered by growing grasses and weeds. Plants are suffering - many trees and shrubs are turning brown and only time will tell if they have simply gone dormant or are dying. Numerous grasses and wildflowers are now dormant also, leaving many shades of tans, grays, and browns throughout the Refuge.

Whaley added, "Rain will come again - but when is anyone's guess. There is no doubt that the lack of precipitation will have a negative impact on some species and their numbers will decline. But native wildlife have evolved to withstand drought, and for the most part, they will survive. With any luck, non-native species such as the feral hog will also be impacted and perhaps reproduce in fewer numbers."

Dr. Wayne Meyer, Associate Professor of Biology at Austin College, added, "Drought has certainly affected the food supply and several summer breeding birds stopped early this year. The lake still provides drinking water for most species, so the real crunch as been the loss of seed crops and fruits, plus the insects that would have been feeding on green plants. Since the drought is not terribly widespread (I know, Texans want everything to be big, but east of north of us there has been excess rain), migratory animals like birds and insects will probably not be too badly affected. I expect their numbers to be near normal next year."

Like Whaley, Meyer says, "I'd like to think that the feral hogs will decline a bit, but I'm not holding my breath. Deer have been more visible lately, presumably because they are having to come to the lake or ponds that still hold water to drink every day. I don't know how their food supply has been affected but I should think they would be able to find sufficient browse around the the water sources. There may be a bigger dip in their numbers just because there is less food scattered across the drier parts of the Refuge.

Meyer added, "By the way, we are expecting a bumper crop of waterfowl this year; the prairie potholes got lots of rain and duck and goose reproduction was high. The question will be whether they will be able to find enough forage to make it through the winter. If Lake Texoma rises over the next few months to inundate all the dry ponds that are now full of smartweed, it will be a fabulous year for waterfowl - but if the lake level does not go back up, the waterfowl will probably have to go elsewhere by the end of December, much as they did last winter."

The third person we contacted, Dr. George Diggs, Professor of Biology at Austin College, pointed out that droughts occur with some frequency on the long term-scale, referring to the Dust Bowl ear and the bad drought of the 1950's. "Plants in this area therefore must have adapted for such occurrences. This adaptation does not rule out tree death or even the elimination of some species from certain areas or a dramatic decrease in animal populations."

Diggs continued, "When this ecosystem was intact ( a couple of hundred years ago) such occurrences would probably not have had significant long-term consequences because the ecosystem had enough resilience to recover over time. However, now, with so little native vegetation left and much of the best habitat converted to a variety of uses by humans, drought damage to the small remnants of native vegetation may have more serious consequences. Most of the habitat at the Refuge is so modified by natural conditions that I simply don't know what effect the drought will have."

On September 18, the elevation for Lake Texoma was 609.95'. Lake level information is available at http://www.swt-wc.usace.army.mil/DENI.lakepage.html.

For Refuge information see the official website, and for information on the Friends, see friendsofhagerman.com.

Photo by Dick Malnory