Refuge Office/Visitor Center Turns 4 This Month

Ribbon-cutting at Grand Opening

Four years ago this month, actually on September 8, 2011, the Refuge Office and Visitor Center at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge held its grand opening.  And how grand it has been since!

Visitors at Grand Opening

In late March 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Refuge Staff and the Friends were excited to learn that the new Visitor Center had been awarded Silver  Certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.  More than 20 different design aspects helped reach this level. 

Building under construction

LEED highlights for the facility include super thick insulation sprayed inside all walls and on ceilings, solar panels that produce about 1/3 of the power required to operate the building with a high-efficiency HVAC system.  Windows contain energy efficient glass that does not allow heat penetration, and  windows in the observation area are tilted to reduce bird strikes.  Motion sensors on all lights  turn them off when the room is unoccupied, and energy star appliances have been installed in the breakroom.  Other features include the use of low-odor paints and other chemicals used throughout the building, carpets made from 65% recycled content, and recycling of all construction debris and unused materials.  Light colored exterior materials and roof metal  reflect light rather than absorb it, and the building is situated  in an east/west fashion to maximize natural sunlight.   

Transportation/energy costs were reduced by use of locally available materials, for the most part, including Texas limestone for much of the construction.  

There are five “green” plaques in the Visitor Center that describe other LEED features.  Be sure to look for them the next time you visit!

In the new venue, the Friends of Hagerman NWR has sponsored  Second Saturday programs, two Super Saturdays, and Youth First, the expanded program for youngsters.

Additional programs offered have included a screening of the Aldo Leopold story, Green Fire, History Day at Hagerman,  a Bow Hunting Seminar, and  Wild Wednesday story hours in 2012; 3-day BirdFest Texoma in 2013; a Fun Friday on January, a writers' workshop, a birding workshop, a photography workshop, Snakes at Hagerman NWR, and FAQ's for Workampers in 2014. Spring Family Fun activities have held throughout the week of  spring break, starting in 2013.

All aboard the Carlos & Eulalia Cardinal Express!

The Visitor Center also serves as a departure point for tram tours and guided walks throughout the year, as well as the "front door" for the annual High on the Hawg Friend-and-Fund Raiser. 

Gathering in Visitor Center for bird walk

School groups, clubs and other groups, including the Bluestem Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists, have enjoyed tours and presentations in the Visitor Center as well as out on the Refuge.

Officer Kevin with school children.

In 2014,  the Nature Nook hours were expanded from the original 10 - 3 on weekdays, to 9 – 4 Monday through Saturday and 1- 5 on Sunday, with a dedicated group of volunteers to provide information to visitors and make sales in the book and gift shop daily,  except on federal holidays.

 The new Butterfly Garden has augmented the landscape adjacent to the building and serves as a "model" for native pollinator plants typical of the Refuge surrounding area.

The saying, “If you build it they will come” has held true at Hagerman – the total number of persons checking in at the previous Visitor Center for all of 2010 was 7,065, compared to 14,514, for 2014. Visitors from outside the local area are pleasantly surprised to find such a beautiful facility, and many local visitors have stated, “I have been to the Refuge before but I never came to the Visitor Center – this is great!”

So Happy 4th Birthday to the Refuge Office/Visitor Center!

Visitor Center, 2011, by Ken Day

Grand Opening photos by Skip and Melinda Hill.

Information on green building features provided by Kathy Whaley.
Garden photo by Donna Rogers.

Fall Shorebird Migration

American Avocet by Bill Powell

At summer's end, each week in Jack Chiles'  bird census for Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge you will find various species of shorebirds  being reported. These birds are arriving in increasing numbers on the fall migration.The following is a reprint of an article by Wayne Meyer, PhD, that appeared in the September, 2009, issue of the Featherless Flyer.

Most people know that there are thousands of geese at Hagerman NWR each winter, but not many know that shorebird migrations bring at least twice that many birds through our refuge. North American shorebirds breed in the northern tier of states, Canada or the high Arctic. Most of them spend the winter in the tropics, although some species will travel into South America.This means that they must fly thousands of miles, a feat requiring a great deal of fuel. Wetlands located along the migration routes, therefore, are important places for the birds to stop and refuel. Since Hagerman NWR is on the southern end of the Central Flyway and close to the end of the Mississippi Flyway, it gets lots of traffic each spring and fall.

Solitary Sandpiper by Bill Powell

The spring migration is rushed. Birds travel quickly to get to their breeding grounds and claim the best territories. A few early migrants arrive in late March and the big rush is over by the second or third week of May. Within that period the individual species tend to occur in waves, each species having its own peak period of just one or two weeks within the 6-8 weeks of spring migration.

In fall, however, the situation is quite different. A few birds appear in late July but the last ones don’t arrive until November. For any particular species there may be two or even three waves in one season.

Breeding success helps explain the reason for these multiple waves. The first migrants are failed breeders and nonbreeders. Injured birds, young birds that didn’t collect sufficient resources to breed, and birds whose young were lost to predators head south early. We see them in July and August. Advantages to coming south early include fewer predators and less competition for food.

The adults who raised young will remain on the breeding grounds until their young are able to care for themselves. They take advantage of the long hours of summer sunlight to collect energy for molting and to store fat prior to their long flights.These birds usually begin showing up at Hagerman NWR in late August or September and peak prior to October. This is an interesting time to observe the birds as some wear breeding plumages that we rarely see.

The third wave is usually made up of juveniles who hatched during the summer and are making their first migrations. Since they used food energy for growth, they need more food than their parents did before they can store enough fat. They begin to arrive in mid-September and peak in mid-October, although a few slow-pokes will not pass through until November. Some overwinter at Hagerman NWR.

Take a few visits to the refuge this fall and watch the shorebirds moving through. Each visit is sure to show you different things and you’ll get all the challenge you could ask for in identifying the many birds that use our favorite fueling station.

Cedar of Lebanon

Cedar of Lebanon at HNWR, 2014 (Refuge file photo)

By Jack Chiles

I have been observing this tree at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge on an almost weekly basis for the last 25 years. Planted in 1916, this tree has been in its death throes for quite a few years. Several years ago it produced a huge crop of cones and I remember a botanist from Maryland, Zeeger DeWilde, stating as we drove by and observed the tree that it was on its way out and that dying trees of this type often produce a lot of cones when they are near the end of their life. 

Green tips, Spring, 2015 (Photo by Kathy Whaley)

As to the specie of the tree, that has been brought into question by Karl Haller a naturalist who led bird tours on a weekly basis at the refuge for more than 50 years. He feels that it is possibly a Deodar Cedar, a tree of Afganistan and the Himalayas because the lower branches grow down and then gracefully turn up.  


I am including an excerpt about the Cedar of Lebsnon and the Deodar Cedar that I found on line.

Deodar cedar, or just deodar, is known botanically as Cedrus deodara and is used in the landscape along with Cedrus libani, or cedar of Lebanon, and the Cedrus atlantica, or Atlas cedar. Deodars can reach more than 150 feet tall, but we typically see them maturing in the 50- to 70-foot range after 30 to 40 years. Lower branches bend gracefully downward and then up again. The stiff, needle-like, silvery blue green leaves are about 2 inches long and borne in dense whorls.

When you think Afghanistan, plant material is probably not the first thing to come to mind. Yet this is precisely where one our landscape’s most elegant and beautiful trees originates. The tree I am referring to is the deodar cedar, and to be honest it is not just from Afghanistan but the Himalayas as well.
The flood waters did not reach this tree, although it is possible that the 50 + inches of rain received in the spring did not help it any. Karl Haller told me that he once saw a Golden Eagle perched in the top of this tree. Golden Eagles used to be seen here years ago. Over the years we have seen a lot of different birds perched in this tree using it as a lookout point. It will be sad to see this old friend gone. Hopefully the woodpeckers will still get several years of use from it. I am not aware of any plans to replace it.

Stop Invasives in Your Tracks

From Friends NewsWire:

Everybody has a role to play in stopping the advance of invasive species – those plants, animals and microorganisms that are not native to a particular area and wreak havoc outside their normal range.

NOTE: Not all nonnative species are harmful.  Many agricultural crops are non-native. An example is corn - a nonnative whose introduction has been very beneficial. The term "invasive" is reserved for the most aggressive nonnative species capable of changing site or living conditions for the worse where they establish.

According to the PlayCleanGo website,

"Invasive species are found in water and on land. In fact, invasive species can occur in just about every habitat type you can imagine: lakes and streams, cities, fields and farms, all of the native areas of the state. A few of the common species found on land include Canadian thistle, common buckthorn, wild parsnip, and the two fungal species that cause Dutch elm disease and oak wilt. Another one that folks are becoming aware of is the emerald ash borer."

Locally, invasive species such as zebra mussels, feral hogs and Johnson grass come to mind!

The site goes on to say that each species has evolved to have several means of expanding a short distance in its home territory, where plants and animals have come to coexist more or less peaceably.

A problem occurs when humans knowingly or unknowingly assist increase the distance a species is or can spread:

"Long distance spread is almost always human assisted. Because long distance spread takes the species a long way from home, the resident plants and animals are not often prepared to cope with their new neighbor. Natural enemies are missing and host species often lack the natural defenses necessary to survive an attack by the introduced species. Once introduced, aggressive species are free to expand their range using their short distance dispersal mechanisms with a competitive advantage over native plant and animals due to the lack of natural enemies."

A new campaign called PlayCleanGo: Stop Invasive Species in Your Tracks is a clear call to action to people who are regularly outdoors, whether working or recreating. PlayCleanGo complements the ongoing Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers campaign.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a partner in PlayCleanGo, along with more than 160 conservation groups nationwide. Together they are calling on the public to:
Be informed, attentive and accountable for preventing the spread of terrestrial and aquatic invasive species.
Arrive to recreational sites with clean gear.
Burn and use local or certified firewood, mulch, decorative rocks and soil.
Use local or weed-free hay.
Stay on the trails.
Clean gear before leaving, including removing mud and seeds.

Homeowners are encouraged to learn about and use native plants in their yards. Workers are advised to burn wood waste that may harbor plant pests from another part of the country or world. Together, we can do it!

Snow on the Prairie

Snow-on-the-Prairie, by Courtney Anderson

It must be August when you see Snow-on-the-Prairie! Driving along Refuge Road, en route to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, this plant with cool appearing green and white leaves actually does look like a light dusting of snow where it is growing en masse. This white flowering plant can blanket a prairie in no time at all, hence the name. Because livestock stay away from the poisonous sap that the plant emits, it doesn't take much for it to cover a field.

There are actually two plants, Euphorbia bicolor Engelm. and A. Gray, and Snow-on- the-Mountain, Euphorbia marginata Pursh; NPIN, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database, notes that the two are often confused.

As members of the Spurge Family, both plants have a milky sap that is irritating to humans with sensitive skin, as well as to the eyes, and is toxic to cattle.

Poinsettias are members of the same family. Growing 1 - 4 feet tall, in poor soils, the plants multiply by throwing seed, described by Dorothy Thetford in Wildflowers-of-Texas. Thetford says, “This ballistic dispersal of seeds explains the scattered arrangement of plants on the prairie.”

Both plants are annuals in the spurge family. The actual flowers are tiny white blossoms, surrounded by the green and white bracts. The bract of bicolor (in photos) is narrower than that of marginata. According to Texas A & M Agrilife Extension Snow-on-the-Mountain grows mainly in Central Texas, as well as north to Montana and Minnesota and south to Mexico, and Snow-on-the-Prairie mainly in the eastern third of Texas. NPIN shows a range including Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. The bloom time is July – October. We'll take anything that even helps us think "cool" at this time of year!

This blog was originally published August 23, 2012 and again on August 21, 2014; thanks to Courtney Anderson for top photo and additional information in this edition.

It's All in the Interpretation

By Courtney Anderson

Interpret:  1. Explain the meaning of; 2. Conceive of the meaning of; 3. Represent by means or art or performance; 4. Orally translate for speakers of different languages

In science, an interpreter is a liaison between science and the public, educating on a myriad of subjects by making them exciting and enjoyable.

I have had the pleasure this summer of becoming a National Association for Interpreters (NAI) Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) through training at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It was a rigorous one week program that led to many friendships. Everyone I met had bright eyes and was spewing with creativity, and the excitement in the room was tangible. We learned how to craft programs around topics that ranged far and wide - I had the pleasure of listening to a topic all about dung!  Then everyone waited patiently while I gave a talk about my specialty, algae.

Courtney leading  hike at HNWR during Spring Break.

The training was essential for my work every day at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. When I came back, I had a greater understanding of how to reach and entertain a variety of audiences. That was part of the motivation for planning the Hiking for Habitat program every third Saturday, now torpedoed by the flooding! The goal of this program was to educate about the different habitats we have here on the refuge, while being  out in nature. Habitats are dynamic, and ever changing; especially at Hagerman, which is managed in order to provide suitable areas for wildlife. I am still looking forward to leading some hikes at the Refuge once the trails are clear, so stay tuned!

Test Your Wader IQ

"Stop Following Me" by Paul Martin

A look at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge Bird Check List will give you an idea of the many different wading birds that can be seen at the Refuge, at various times of year.  At Second Saturday, on August 8, Dr. Wayne Meyer will give us the complete low down on these birds, and in the meantime you can test your wader IQ:

1. Largest of the North American herons: ______  _______  ________

1. The White  __________ has a long down-curved red bill, long red legs and black wing tips.

1. A ___________  __________, only seen at HNWR every few years,  is a huge, long legged bird with a bald head.

1. Tall, long legged white birds with black feet, S-curve necks and yellow/orange bills are ________ Egrets.

1. The _________ Egret sets off immaculate white plumage with black legs and brilliant yellow feet. 

1.  Early conservationists rallied to protect __________s, nearly driven to extinction by plume hunters by the early twentieth century. 

1. The _________  __________  _________  is a small, dark heron with  rich purple-maroon head and neck and dark slaty-blue body.          

1. The __________-_____________  ___________   ___________ is  a nocturnal heron of the southern swamps and coast, has a yellowish crown stripe.

1. A stocky and well-camouflaged heron of dense reed beds is the American  __________.

1. A member of the heron family that spends most of its time in fields rather than streams is the __________   _________.

Thanks to Cornell’s All About Bird for bird facts.  To learn more, check out

http://blog.nwf.org/2011/03/is-this-a-heron-egret-or-crane/

Answers: 1.  Great Blue Heron; 2.  Ibis; 3.  Wood Stork; 4.  Great; 5.  Snowy; 6.  Egrets; 7.  Little Blue Heron; 8.  Yellow-crowned Night Heron; 9.  Bittern; 10.  Cattle Egret