Photographer of the Month

February, 2010, marks the beginning of the third year for the Friends of Hagerman Photographer of the Month program. Each month, beginning in February, 2008, a photographer has been chosen and his or her photos, all taken at the Refuge, have been featured in a virtual album on the Friends website during that particular month.

Here is the roster of the Photographers of the Month, for the first two years:

2008-2009 - Jack Chiles, Rick Cantu, Johnny Beall, Kenneth Jeffcoat, Donna Niemann, Michael and Grace Haight, Carol Pfeiffer, Joe Blackburn, the Earley Family - Diane, Mark, Jimmy, Mariam, and Joshua; Ronnie Barron, and Dana Handy.

2009 -2010 - Eileen Sullivan, Cinda Benton, Tony Dean, Jim Gay, Robert and Mary Ann Cummings, Randall Lantz, Dick Malnory, Kay Karns, Bill Adams, Chris Jennings, Callie Evans, and Laurie Sheppard.

Some interesting trivia to note about the albums - all five members of the Earley family contributed to their album; two couples, Michael and Grace Haight and Robert and Mary Ann Cummings, each collaborated on their albums, and Joe Blackburn, who is a regular visitor to the Refuge, shot all the photos in his album in a single visit.

These photographers have made a great contribution to the photo resources of the Friends and have allowed many viewers to enjoy the Refuge through their vision and skill. Many thanks to each of them for their generosity in sharing their talents and their work!

To view the Photographer of the Month's album, please go to Photo Gallery at http://www.friendsofhagerman.com. (Photo - Hagerman Landscape, by Rick Cantu)

Let's Look at Birds' Nests, Part II, by Helen Petre

This week we will look at some nests you might find at Hagerman NWR.

Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) Nests of moss lined with hair or grass, sometimes rabbit, deer or squirrel fur. They like to build their nests in forest with shrubs and canopy.

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) Nests of moss, similar to Carolina Chickadee. They add dried leaves, grass, and even pieces of snakeskin or cellophane on top of the moss, and line the cup with fur to cover the eggs when the hen is away. Sometimes there are earwigs living under the moss. They build in deciduous forests and swamps, but like to feed at bird feeders, so you may see this bird at the Visitor Center.

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Big, bulky, messy nests. Wherever there is food, there are starlings. They use grass, weeds, stems, twigs, corn husks, leves, and pine needles. Sometimes they add paper, plastic, cloth or string. They line the nest with feathers and green plants. Starlings are non native, invasive birds. They do use boxes if the hole is larger than an inch and one-half, but it is ok to remove their nests so that native birds can use the boxes.

Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) Big messy nests like European Starlings. They like dense shrubs and thick underbrush or woods with tangled, brushy undergrowth. They use leaves, hay, grass, twigs, moss, roots, weeds, bark, plastic, snakeskin and feathers. The nest has a dome with a tunnel for an entrance; the inside is lined with hair and grass.

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) Eastern bluebirds use the boxes around the Refuge. They like open grasslands and open canopy with no understory. The nests are cup-shaped and made of grass, or sometimes pine needles and even hair. The neat little nest is a deep cylinder, unsual three or four inches deep withthe cup two and one-half inches in diameter and about that deep.

Bluebirds will be the topic for our Second Saturday program and March 13, and All About Bird Nests will be the topic for Second Saturday for Youth, on that same date.

For more information about programs and activities at Hagerman NWR, please visit http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/. For information about nest boxes, see Cornell Lab of Ornithology Nest Watch site, http://www.livingbird.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=945

(Photos - Empty Nest, by Denise Stephens, top, and Whose Nest? by Donna Niemann)

Let's Look at Bird Nests

By Helen Petre

Winter is the perfect time to walk the trails and look for bird nests. During the year, when the green leaves cover the trees, the nests are hidden, but in winter, we can find all kinds. Hagerman National wildlife Refuge has 11,320 acres of food and nesting habitat, so there is plenty of space for birds to choose a perfect home site. Nesting songbirds prefer the upland habitat along the trails away from Lake Texoma on the Hagerman Refuge.

On Saturday, February 13, at Second Saturday for Youth at Hagerman, youngsters aged 6 - 12 will be learning how to make gourd birdhouses, and in March "All About Nests" will be the youth program focus. In addition, "Bluebirds" are the topic for the Second Saturday general program on March 13. Make the most of your trail time to learn about how birds build their homes and then come to the programs to learn more.

Most birds build a nest of sticks or rough materials and line the cup, or inside where the eggs will be, with softer material. You can figure out which species of bird built the nest by noticing the materials and the shape of the nest. There are samples of bird’s nests at the Refuge Visitor Center, so you can go in and look at them and then see if you can find matching ones along the trails. There is often considerable variation in a nest of a particular species, but in next week’s post I will give a few clues for some common birds on the refuge.

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

Photos: Great Horned Owl recycling a hawk's nest, by Eileen Sullivan, and Kildeer Nest with Eggs, by Dick Malnory

Go Take a Hike!

There are five hiking trails at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, ranging in length from less than one mile up to 5.5 miles. The trails are Crow Hill, Harris Creek, Haller’s Haven, Meadow Pond, and Old Trains and Terry Lane.

Last year, Doug Raasch, Refuge volunteer, put together an excellent trail guide series that is available on the Friends website. The following is a brief summary about each of the five trails:

1. Crow Hill Trail is ¾ miles, round trip, and is an interpretive trail, not handicap accessible – uneven terrain with steep grade. There is a 16’ observation tower. From the Visitor Center parking lot, travel west on Wildlife Drive for one mile from the concrete bridge. Turn south and follow the gravel road for ¾ of a mile.

2. Haller’s Haven Trail offers a choice of hikes: ½ mile to Dead Woman’s Pond, a 4 mile loop, or a 5-1/2 mile loop which takes you past Hagerman cemetery and to the Cedar of Lebanon. Wildlife is almost guaranteed around Dead Woman’s Pond. To reach the trail, from the Visitor Center, go north across the low water crossing, the road will turn left, just north of intersection with Hagerman Road; then take the first right turn, you will see a yellow gate that is the beginning of the trail. The longer loops include a mowed grass trail and an old road.

3. Harris Creek Trail is an earthen path, uneven in places. There are two loops: the lower loop is approximately 1¼ miles and is located in a wetland area; the upper loop is 2¼ miles. The entrance is just southwest of the Visitor Center, look for the rail fence marking the parking lot

4. Meadow Pond Trail is a gravel surfaced road; it is 3 miles from the beginning to end, for a 6 mile round trip. To reach the trail, from the Visitor Center, follow Wildlife Drive west to the yellow gate, where the road T’s. Parking is available at the trail head or in day use area to your right. Some consider this the best “all-around” trail.

5. Old Trains and Terry Lane Trail - three-mile round-trip trail is an old railroad bed with a level, gravel surface all the way. The trail entrance is at east end of Wildlife Drive; pull off the road and park by yellow gate.

Detailed guides to these five trails are available in print at the Visitor Center and online on the NEWS page at http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/ Trail conditions vary according to rainfall received and mowing schedule. During warm weather you will want to use insect repellant and watch for snakes.

Photo: One of two benches on Haller's Haven Trail, built and installed recently by Eagle Scout candidate Brian Scott.

Second Saturday for Youth Begins at Hagerman NWR

Nine youngsters and their parents and grandparents braved sub-freezing temperatures earlier this month to attend the first Second Saturday for Youth program at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.

Led by Ed Supina, the children crafted bird feeders from natural materials, to take home, a perfect activity for a winter morning as well as a treat for the backyard birds. Popcorn, peanut butter, pine cones, bird seed, corn cobs, and natural fiber rope all went into the making of the feeders.

Future programs, geared for youngsters ages 6 – 12, will include more nature related crafts such as making gourd birdhouses, which will be led by Sandra Haynes on February 13, and wildflower seed balls, led by Mary Ann Kelley on March 13.

On April 10, Kay Karns will lead the youngsters in creating butterfly feeders, and on May 8, Katie Palmer will lead a session on Animal Adaptations and their Environments.

Part of each session will include outdoor nature fun, weather permitting, according to. Supina, a Friends of Hagerman NWR board member and Education Committee Chair.

These events begin at 10 a.m. and end at noon; they are free and open to the public, but reservations are necessary due to limited space. The programs are sponsored by Hagerman NWR and the Friends of Hagerman; to reserve a spot in the next session, call 903 786 2826.

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

Photo by Kay Karns

Weekly Bird Survey at Hagerman NWR

On Tuesday morning at 8 a.m., an eager crew of birders rolls out in the Refuge van to do a bird survey at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Refuge Volunteer Karl Haller has been the “designated driver” each week for many years, for these bird census outings at Hagerman, and he also recorded sightings on both Tuesday and Thursday surveys. While Karl continues to drive, the survey is now conducted once weekly and Jack Chiles is the official recorder. Here are highlights from the count January 5:

2,500 geese, 20 gadwall, 70 pintail, 50 green winged teal, 20 bufflehead, 15 hooded merganser, 15 canvasback, 12 turkey, 20 horned grebe, 5 pied-bill grebe, 3 eared grebe, 6 red shouldered hawk, 8 coot, 12 yellowlegs, 4 killdeer, 4 least sandpiper, 700 ring billed gull, 12 flicker, 2,000+ horned lark, 7 cedar waxwing, 3 American pipit, 40 Harris’s sparrow, 50 chipping sparrow, 250 meadowlark

With Jack’s help, Grace and Michael Haight are creating a computerized file of the records from past years, as well as current data.

Wondering how you count 2500 geese or 2000 horned larks? There is a method – isolate one area of geese with say, 15-20 birds in that area, count them, then estimate the number of similar size areas taken up by the flock; multiply the count from the first area x the number of similar areas = bird count. Birds not in large flocks are counted individually.

Local birding volunteers are joined from time to time by birding visitors from all over the country. These groups complete their rounds by 1 p.m., but there is no rush to lunch, as the crew is well fortified with homemade cookies by the end of the ride. There is also some history behind the statistics. For example, the number of trips per year was reduced in 2007, 2008, and 2009 by the flooding of Lake Texoma, and the most unusual bird sighting has been the pair of whooping cranes that visited the Refuge in December, 2007.

Hats off to these volunteers for recording bird history at Hagerman NWR. To keep up with the weekly survey highlights, visit the Friends of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge Facebook page or http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/. Reports are usually posted each Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning For information about Hagerman NWR, see http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html.

Photo Collage by Grace & Michael Haight

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.