This Recipe is for the Birds

Last week we blogged about the thousands of geese that have arrived at Hagerman NWR to spend the winter. Today we are narrowing the focus to our own backyard, where winter weather is bringing more birds to our feeders; all the songbirds we get love this homemade bird food. The recipe originally came from a co-worker, years ago, who showed me how to take a section of tree branch, 1-1/2 inches or more in diameter, drill some holes in it, add a screw eye on one end, and hang near your other bird feeders. Then you pack the holes with the mix. For a time we also spread it on an old flat plastic grater with a handle for hanging - that worked well until a raccoon or possum departed with it one night. And some people simply slather it on the rough bark of a tree trunk.

The easiest method to make the bird food is to use a food processor, but you can use a mixer or simply work with your hands to blend the ingredients in a large bowl:

Basic ingredients: flour, cornmeal, lard, peanut butter

Optional add-ins - peanuts or other nuts, raisins or other dried fruit (chop these before adding, if not using a food processor)

Start with about 1 cup each of flour and of cornmeal, 1/4 cup each lard and peanut butter and mix well. Add more of the fats if too dry, or more dry ingredients if too soft. Blend in optional add-ins once you have the desired consistency, a "dough" that is not sticky. Store in a sealed container. We use it quickly enough that we have no problems with the mix becoming rancid but you could make smaller batches until your bird visitors get “hooked” on it.

Making the feeder and a batch of the mix for a gift is also a good holiday project for children. Similar feeders and dough can also be purchased ready-to-use in specialty bird retail stores.

Winter birds abound at Hagerman NWR, witness the bird survey highlights posted each week on the Friends Facebook page and website. The annual Christmas Bird Count for Hagerman NWR will be held Saturday, December 18; for details and to participate, see the December edition of the Featherless Flyer, http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/images/articles/20101201124109_foh_flyer_dec__2010.pdf

The official site for Hagerman NWR is http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html ; for information about activities and programs of the Friends, please visit http://www.friendsofhagerman.com .

This week's post contributed by blog editor, Sue Malnory. Photo of Carolina Wren at feeder, by Dick Malnory

Great Blue Rescued through Team Effort

By Jana Singletary

Saturday, January 2, 2010 - Phil and I took Braden, age 5, to Denison Dam today in search of Eagles. Instead we were shocked and saddened to find a Great Blue Heron in a very desperate situation. It had been snagged by several lures on a fishing line that dangled down from a power line over the river. We watched in horror as the heron struggled unsuccessfully to free himself.
As we watched, a fisherman kept throwing rocks in an attempt to break the line. To our amazement, the line finally snapped, and the bird plunged into the river. It managed to swim to shore, but it was obvious that it was badly injured. The fisherman attempted to get close enough to help the bird but quit when he saw that the bird was becoming more stressed by his efforts.
I called my daughter Kim, who located a wildlife rehab organization in Dallas. After some good advice from them and volunteers Michael and Grace Haight at Hagerman NWR, I contacted a local expert, Steve Armstrong, Grayson County Wildlife Rehabilitation, who quickly rescued the injured heron and transported it to a rehab facility. Hopefully they'll be able to save the bird. It was the best possible ending to a very stressful day.

Photo of Great Blue Heron taken by Becky Goodman at Hagerman NWR.

Editors Note: This episode underlines the importance of taking lines and lures home, not leaving them to snare or hook waterfowl and other creatures. Metal can tabs and the plastic loops that hold six-packs are other common hazards to wildlife. Please, please, pay attention to the adage, in nature, leave behind nothing but your footprints!

A source of information re injured wildlife is http://www.dfwwildlife.org/. For more information about Hagerman NWR see http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html, and for information about programs and activities at the Refuge, see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com.

Christmas Bird Count

Time once again for the annual Christmas Bird Count. At Hagerman National WIldlife Refuge, birders of all levels of ability are needed for the 2009 count on Saturday, 19 December. Meet at the refuge headquarters, 6465 Refuge Rd., Sherman, TX, at 7:00 AM to divide into teams. Anyone interested in searching for owls is welcome to meet Dr. Wayne Meyer at the headquarters building at 4:45 AM. The Friends of Hagerman NWR will be hosting a compilation social at 5:00 PM. All participants are encouraged to attend as the day’s results are added. If you want to participate you can just show up on count day, but it would help in planning if you let Dr. Meyer know you’ll be coming ahead of time. He can be reached at wmeyer@austincollege.edu or you can leave voice mail at 903-813-2254.


Reporting for the 2008 count, Dr. Meyer said "The count wasn’t blessed with as many interesting species as 2007 but we got 112 species this year, which is a very high count in comparison to several of the previous years. Probably because of the number of participants, we managed to see pretty much everything that was around this year, only one species was found on the count circle during count week that wasn’t located on count day (Lincoln’s Sparrow). You can see our results at the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count page (and the results of previous years) at
http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/. A summary of the count for this year is also included below.

Our most unusual species was Barn Owl, our first since 1992. We also got Fish Crow, two on the Oklahoma side of the circle. We set record high numbers for Bufflehead, Common Loon, Great Egret, Cooper's Hawk, Barn Owl, Downy Woodpecker, Pine Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Chipping Sparrow and Vesper Sparrow. We had 21 participants, the most we've had in many years, plus we got 6 feeder watchers to join in.

Results for 2008:
Checklist
Species Number or cw Flags, Max Number, Number of counts
Greater White-fronted Goose 82, 1120 in 100 23
Snow Goose (white form) 5510, 10480 in 102 12
Snow Goose (blue form) 800, 1611 in 102 23
Ross's Goose 1400, 3100 in 104 23
Cackling Goose 162, 553 in 107 4
Canada Goose 609, 4249 in 86 15
Wood Duck 2 LC, 41 in 105 20
Gadwall 58, 632 in 101 23
American Wigeon 13, 88 in 108 20
Mallard 379, 3523 in 99 23
Northern Shoveler 59, 356 in 89 23
Northern Pintail 79, 2172 in 99 23
Green-winged Teal 385, 3081 in 106 6
duck sp. 2, 954 in 106 22
Canvasback 7, 69 in 107 13
Ring-necked Duck 55, 1227 in 106 23
Lesser Scaup 9, 81 in 96 22
Bufflehead 29 HC, 29 in 107 18
Common Goldeneye 2 ,10 in 90 15
Hooded Merganser 14, 48 in 89 23
Ruddy Duck 5, 27 in 107 12
Wild Turkey 8, 61 in 99 12
Common Loon 83, HC, 35 in 99 20
Pied-billed Grebe 7 LC, 35 in 87 23
Horned Grebe 1, 128 in 87 18
American White Pelican 11 LC, 285 in 108 23
Double-crested Cormorant 462, 2199 in 102 23
Great Blue Heron (Blue form) 69, 142 in 99 23
Great Egret 14 HC, 8 in 108 10
Black Vulture 320, 268 in 108 23
Turkey Vulture 242, 305 in 103 23
Bald Eagle 6, 32 in 99 23
Northern Harrier 6, 31 in 101 22
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3, 10 in 105 22
Cooper's Hawk 3 HC, 3 in 105 16
Red-shouldered Hawk 15, 24 in 105 23
Red-tailed Hawk 62, 101 in 95 23
Krider's Hawk 1, US, 0
American Kestrel 37, 63 in 93 23
Sora 3, 9 in 108 4
American Coot 143 ,724 in 106 23
Killdeer 23, 252 in 100 23
Greater Yellowlegs 19, 74 in 104 20
Least Sandpiper 34, 118 in 99 16
Wilson's Snipe 8, 35 in 103 5
Bonaparte's Gull 105, 3540 in 87 23
Ring-billed Gull 855, 31568 in 97 23
Herring Gull 7, 18 in 99 20
Forster's Tern 61, 338 in 107 23
Rock Pigeon 1, 43 in 108 3
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1 LC, 13 in 108 5
Mourning Dove 102, 297 in 97 23
Inca Dove 8, 9 in 106 4
Greater Roadrunner 2, 19 in 88 20
Barn Owl 2 HC, US, 1 in 93 1
Great Horned Owl 1, 7 in 86 12
Barred Owl 5 ,16 in 87 22
Belted Kingfisher 8, 23 in 105 23
Red-headed Woodpecker 4, 16 in 94 15
Red-bellied Woodpecker 54, 88 in 99 23
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 17, 39 in 105 23
Downy Woodpecker 57 HC, 55 in 99 23
Hairy Woodpecker 4, 7 in 87 21
Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker 90, 157 in 93 23
Pileated Woodpecker 5, 10 in 105 20
Eastern Phoebe 16, 22 in 105 21
Loggerhead Shrike 12, 87 in 87 23
Blue Jay 116, 343 in 102 23
American Crow 394, 8492 in 95 23
Fish Crow 2 US, 3 in 103 3
Horned Lark 73, 196 in 93 22
Carolina Chickadee 243, 341 in 99 23
Tufted Titmouse 132, 92 in 86 22
White-breasted Nuthatch 11, 15 in 102 20
Brown Creeper 9, 19 in 91 23
Carolina Wren 59 HC, 69 in 95 23
Bewick's Wren 6, 15 in 89 22
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2, 36 in 87 21
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 45, 78 in 108 23
Eastern Bluebird 293, 480 in 102 23
Hermit Thrush 5, 23 in 86 22
American Robin 572, 16763 in 93 23
Northern Mockingbird 77, 154 in 105 23
Brown Thrasher 5, 23 in 88 23
European Starling 783, 101388 in 87 23
American Pipit 10, 104 in 95 19
Cedar Waxwing 333, 1710 in 93 23
Orange-crowned Warbler 4, 9 in 105 10
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler 162, 730 in 93 22
Pine Warbler 9 HC, 6 in 101 9
Spotted Towhee 2, 8 in 89 16
Eastern Towhee 3 HC, 3 in 107 9
Chipping Sparrow 272 HC, 184 in 108 21
Field Sparrow 45, 287 in 100 23
Vesper Sparrow 27 HC, 23 in 96 21
Savannah Sparrow 46, 252 in 108 23
Le Conte's Sparrow 1 LC, 22 in 96 16
Fox Sparrow 14, 72 in 100 23
Song Sparrow 27, 211 in 99 23
Lincoln's Sparrow cw 25 in 93 21
Swamp Sparrow 3, 42 in 87 21
White-throated Sparrow 103, 289 in 86 23
Harris's Sparrow 90 512 in 93 23
White-crowned Sparrow 151, 278 in 93 23
sparrow sp. 69, 275 in 96 19
Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco 693, 933 in 94 22
Northern Cardinal 381, 521 in 93 23
Red-winged Blackbird 149, 13332 in 87 23
Eastern Meadowlark 2, 892 in 94 23
Western Meadowlark 1, 8 in 103 19
meadowlark sp. 254, 3125 in 92 23
Brewer's Blackbird 40, 639 in 93 19
Common Grackle 5, 21230 in 88 22
Brown-headed Cowbird 77, 1132 in 88 22
blackbird sp. 305, 9895 in 88 23
House Finch 2 LC, 177 in 99 16
Pine Siskin 6 LC, 83 in 108 12
American Goldfinch 438, 960 in 102 23
House Sparrow 95, 260 in 88 23
TOTAL INDIVIDUALS COUNTED 19304
TOTAL SPECIES REPORTED 112 +1 cw
cw = Reported count week;
US = Flagged as an unusual species;
HC = Flagged as an unusually high count.
LC = Flagged as an unusually low count.

For more information about Hagerman NWR, see http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html, and for information about programs and activities at the Refuge, see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/.

Welcome, and Van Tours of Refuge Begin in November

We're so happy to present to you the official blog for the Friends of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Located in North Texas, on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, Hagerman NWR offers an 11,000 acre plus habitat - water, wetlands, prairie and woods - for wildlife. The primary mission of the Refuge is to offer a safe resting and feeding area for migratory waterfowl.

The Friends’ main focus is helping Refuge staff in providing our visitors a first-class experience in education, conservation, appreciation of nature, and fun. We plan to use this blog as a way to keep everyone informed about the activities and events at the Refuge as well as bird sightings.

Huge flocks of geese will soon be arriving to spend the winter at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, and human visitors to the Refuge will have the opportunity to take a free van tour to view these geese as well as other wildlife at the Refuge, starting in November. Two-hour tours will be conducted by Refuge staff on the first and third Wednesday in November, December, January, and February. There will also be a tour on December 30. During the tour, visitors will learn the process of creating and maintaining the 11,000 acre habitat for resident and migratory wildlife, particularly birds.

Visitors can expect to see pelicans, numerous species of ducks, four species of geese, several species of sparrows, as well as white - tailed deer and wild turkeys.
Reservations will be required for the tours and can be made by calling the Refuge, 903 786 2826. The Tours will depart from the Visitor Center at the Refuge at 10 a.m. on the designated days. Each trip will be limited to twelve people. Binoculars will be available on a free loan-basis.

We hope you've enjoyed this introduction to the Friends of Hagerman NWR blog! You can bookmark our page for easy retrieval. We also want to hear from you, so feel free to click the comment button below to let us know what you think.

We're planning to post a new blog entry every week, so stay tuned for our next post, which will feature events coming up on our Second Saturday Nature Program Series.

For more information about activities at the Refuge, see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com . To learn more about Hagerman NWR, see http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges/texas/hagerman .