Welcome to the Visitor Center

Did you ever stop to think about the hours that the Visitor Center is open?  We understand that many years ago the Visitor Center at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge had been manned by volunteers on weekends, but somewhere along the way that effort ended.  Then, in 2004 then Refuge Manager Johnny Beall held a meeting to recruit volunteers for starting up again.  The new weekend hours were 9 am – Noon on Saturdays and 1 - 4 pm on Sundays.

Volunteers hoisted the OPEN flag each weekend at the old Visitor Center.

This schedule continued until early in 2009, when the Saturday hours were extended – 9 am – 3 pm.  Sunday hours remained the same at that time.

The Temporary Refuge Office was open on weekends, thanks to volunteers, during construction of the new Visitor Center/ Refuge Office

Now, fast forward to September, 2011 and the opening of the new Visitor Center and Refuge Office.  Volunteers not only manned the new Visitor Center on weekends, but the weekend hours were extended, becoming 9 am – 4pm on Saturdays, and 1 – 5 pm on Sundays.

2011 - Brand new Visitor Center/Refuge Office; photo by Ken Day

AND – volunteers started the Nature Nook book and gift shop also, with weekday hours - Monday through Friday, from 10 am – 3 pm.  The Visitor Center and Nature Nook has remained open year around since except for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, “iced-in days” and during the government shutdown.*

SOON – volunteers will be there to serve visitors and assist the staff even longer hours during the week, from 9 am – 4 pm, Monday through Friday, beginning on March 10.

This would not be possible without the large team of over 50 individuals - friendly and capable volunteers who agree to work one or more shifts each month at the Refuge.  These folks prepare by becoming familiar Refuge rules and regulations, location of points on the Refuge of interest to visitors, Refuge history and more.  In addition they become proficient in the sales process and operating the gift shop.

Please remember to give the volunteers on duty at the time of your next visit special thanks, and if you would like to join their ranks, contact us  and we will add you to the list for the next Volunteer Orientation and Training event.

*The Nature Nook will be closed for inventory on Friday, February 28; the Visitor Center will be open usual hours.

The Martins Are Coming

The Martins Are Coming!

      

All the way from South America!  Yes, our largest common North American swallow, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Purple Martins should be arriving in North Texas neighborhoods any day now, for the summer breeding season.  You can follow their migration progress on the Purple Martin Conservation Association site’s 2014 Scout Arrival Page.

For the third year, the welcome mat is out at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge for Purple Martins, at the big Martin house just outside the Visitor Center at the Refuge, purchased by the Friends of Hagerman and installed by Refuge staff and volunteers.

Jack, Kevin and Rusty installing Martin house at HNWR, 2012

Some “Cool Facts” about Purple Martins, from Cornell Lab of Ornithology  include:

·        Native Americans hung up empty gourds for the Purple Martin before Europeans arrived in North America. Purple Martins in eastern North America now nest almost exclusively in birdhouses, but those in the West use mostly natural cavities.
·        European Starlings and House Sparrows often push Purple Martins out of local areas by taking over all of the nest sites, including houses that people put up specifically for the martins.
·        Purple Martins roost together by the thousands in late summer, as soon as the chicks leave the nest. They form such dense gatherings that you can easily see them on weather radar. It’s particularly noticeable in the early morning as the birds leave their roosts for the day, and looks like an expanding donut on the radar map.
·        Despite the term "scout" used for the first returning Purple Martins, the first arriving individuals are not checking out the area to make sure it is safe for the rest of the group. They are the older martins returning to areas where they nested before. Martins returning north to breed for their first time come back several weeks later. The earlier return of older individuals is a common occurrence in species of migratory birds.
·        The Purple Martin not only gets all its food in flight, it gets all its water that way too. It skims the surface of a pond and scoops up the water with its lower bill.
 

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macauley Library offers a variety of recorded songs and calls for birds; hear a sample song of the Purple Martin:  http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/176246/autoplay  In addition the library offers videos; here is one selected for the demonstration of  the Purple Martins’  flight, described as a mixture of flapping and gliding:  http://macaulaylibrary.org/video/403105/autoplay.

Another resource for those who would like to host a Martin colony is The Purple Martin Society of North America, which, with a wealth of information  on  Martins and Martin houses,  is “dedicated to Purple Martin landlords.

Finally, are Purple Martins “skeeter eaters”?  Here is the definitive answer, from the the Purple Martin Conservation Association:

“Martins, like all swallows, are aerial insectivores. They eat only flying insects, which they catch in flight. Their diet is diverse, including dragonflies, damselflies, flies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, bees, wasps, flying ants, and ballooning spiders. Martins are not, however, prodigious consumers of mosquitoes as is so often claimed by companies that manufacture martin housing. An intensive 7-year diet study conducted at PMCA headquarters in Edinboro, PA, failed to find a single mosquito among the 500 diet samples collected from parent martins bringing beakfuls of insects to their young. The samples were collected from martins during all hours of the day, all season long, and in numerous habitats, including mosquito-infested ones. Purple Martins and freshwater mosquitoes rarely ever cross paths. Martins are daytime feeders, and feed high in the sky; mosquitoes, on the other hand, stay low in damp places during daylight hours, or only come out at night. Since Purple Martins feed only on flying insects, they are extremely vulnerable to starvation during extended periods of cool and/or rainy weather.”

Great Backyard Bird Count this Weekend

The Great Backyard Bird Count, a nationwide citizen science project set this year for February 14-17 will be observed at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge with a guided bird walk on Sunday afternoon, February 16, at 1 pm.   Dr. Wayne Meyer, Associate Professor of Biology at Austin College, will lead the  walk at the Refuge, along one of the five trails at the Refuge, and bird sightings will be reported to the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Bewick's Wren by Dick Malnory

The first Great Backyard Bird Count was held in 1998 and since then Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports "more than 100,000 people of all ages and walks of life have joined the four-day count each February to create an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds". 

Participants will meet at the Hagerman NWR Visitor Center.  There is no charge for participation, but walkers should dress for the weather and bring binoculars, etc.  Some binoculars are available for loan, at the refuge.  

In keeping with the GBBC, Hagerman NWR will also offer the opportunity  to learn more about the birds that are coming to your backyard feeder, as well as considerations for purchasing a bird field guide or a pair of binoculars.  The Refuge will offer Begin to Bird, a free class for beginning birders, starting on Saturday, February 15, from 10 am – Noon, and finishing on Saturday, February 22, again from 10 am – Noon.

Led by long-time birder Dick Malnory, the class is recommended for adults and teens.  Malnory will address strategies for learning to identify a number of songbirds.  Participants may register online at friendsofhagerman.com/Activities, by calling the Refuge, 903 786 2826, or at the door, on February 15.  The class will meet in the Multi-purpose Room in the Visitor Center at the Refuge, which is located at 6465 Refuge Road, Sherman 75092.  

For additional information about Hagerman NWR and activities of the Friends of Hagerman, visit www.friendsofhagerman.com.

Bluebird - Symbol of Happiness

Bluebirds, a favorite songbird, will the topic for Second Saturday at Hagerman NWR, with Refuge Manager Kathy Whaley, speaker.  Since Kathy will be educating us about Bluebird traits and behavior, today’s post will focus on some Bluebird trivia.

Bluebird on Harris Creek Trail by Bert Garcia

This Navajo song, referring to the Mountain Bluebird (a spirit animal connected with the rising sun) is sung at dawn:

Bluebird said to me,

"Get up, my grandchild.

It is dawn," it said to me.

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back,” wrote Henry David Thoreau.

An early 20th century Nobel–prize winning play forchildren  is a fairy tale in which children are sent on a world journey to search for the Bluebird of Happiness, only to discover it close to home. 

The song, “Bluebird of Happiness”, was composed in 1934 by Sandor Harmati, for his friend, opera singer Jan Peerce, with words by Edward Heyman and additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies.  Here’s a link to a performance of the song by Peerce. 

"The White Cliffs of Dover" is another popular song  with a Bluebird symbol of cheer, written by Johnny Mercer with lyrics by Nat Burton;  the World War II song represented the feelings of the Allies about protecting Britain from the planned German invasion.  The song, popularized by Vera Lynn, starts :

There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover,

….. 

Then we find “Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder” in the lyrics to “Zip a Dee Doo Dah” from Disney’s Song of the South.  

A 1940 fantasy film starring Shirley Temple was The Blue Bird – “The blue bird of the title was paid $50 a day, and flew away from a Los Angeles aviary soon after the movie was finished.”

For a 1976 film produced jointly by American and Russian film companies, The Blue Bird, “No bluebirds could be readily found, so several thousand pigeons were hand-dyed blue for the climactic scenes.”  Neither of the two films brought any happiness to audiences or producers; they were both “bombs”.

If you ever rode on a school bus you were probably riding on a Blue Bird bus.  

The “Original Bluebird of Happiness” is a registered trademark for the familiar blue glass bird, originally created by Leo Ward at Terra Studios in Arkansas and sold in gift shops across the nation and around the world. 

The Eastern Bluebird has been designated as the state bird for both New York and Missouri; the Mountain Bluebird is the state bird for Idaho and Nevada.

Here is an online Bluebird Trivia Quiz you can take, perhaps before AND after the presentation Saturday!

Red-tailed Sentinel

According to Cornell’s All About Birds, the Red-tailed Hawk, (Buteo jamaicensis) is the most common hawk in North America.  In our own experience at certain times of year, for example, while traveling to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge you will see one after another, perching in trees or on light poles, along Refuge Road. You can judge the size of their territory by the distance between them.

Red-tailed Hawk at HNWR, by Carl Hill

These large birds are easily identified when sitting, by the white front with the belly band, and the red tail.   In Hawks in Flight, (2^nd Edition) by Dunne, Sibley and Clayton) we read that the basic ID for the Red-tailed is “big, broad, lumpy winged, and short-tailed.”  Weighing up to three pounds, the Red-tailed hawk’s size allows it “to soar and glide, with little or no wobble”.

In the hawk family, Red-tailed hawks show the most variation in plumage – example - Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk,  and the highest incidence of  partial albinism - example -  Krider’s Red-tailed Hawk.

Red-tails are either resident or migrate short distances: “Most birds from Alaska, Canada, and the northern Great Plains fly south for a few months in winter, remaining in North America. Birds across the rest of the continent typically stay put, sharing the countryside with northern arrivals”. 

They feed primarily on mammals, and we recently read somewhere that some hawks have adapted to life along the “fast lane” and hang about highways waiting for speeding vehicles to deliver freshly killed or wounded “dinner”.

The term "hawk-eyed" is based on the fact that in members of the Family Accipitridae, Hawks and Allies, visual acuity is 4 - 8 times that of humans, and some raptors can spot small prey more than a  mile away.  In relation to the head-size, some birds of prey have eyes larger, relatively, than human eyes. (The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior).

Red-tailed hawks may be found in any open habitat.  They nest in tall trees or cliff edges, building or re-using a substantial nest of sticks that is 3’ across up to 6.5’ deep.  A pair will have one brood, with 1 - 5 eggs.

According to Cornell, the shrill cry of any raptor in a movie is probably the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk.  To hear various Red-tail calls, you can go to http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/sounds.

Pale Male is the most famous Red-tailed Hawk; this New York City resident has been the subject of a PBS documentary and has his own website (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Male).

Posing with Puddles

Last December we blogged about Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling and the Blue Goose logo he designed, which became the national symbol of the refuge system.

The refuge system owns a number of Blue Goose costumes which can be borrowed for special events. The Blue Goose  appeared in the Texoma area at the first ever Red River Birding and Nature Festival, in 2005, and subsequently has been seen at a number of area events, including Earth Day Texoma 2010, and the Grand Opening for the new Refuge Office and Visitor Center at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge  in 2011.

The Blue Goose has even appeared on local television, KXII, accompanied by Refuge Assistant Manage Rick Cantu and Friends president, Dick Malnory.

Folks enjoy having their photo taken with the Blue Goose, whose name is Puddles, by the way.  So – as the costume is not always available nor  is  a person to wear it always available, the Friends hatched a plan to create their own Blue Goose for photo purposes.

The costume was sent for, and local photographer Wyatt Spurgeon donated his skills to photograph a Friend whom shall not be named,  as the goose.  Wyatt helped the Friends locate a photo lab that could print a life size version mounted on foam core, as the photo-prop Blue Goose.

Now cardboard Puddles stands ever ready to be photographed at special events (Texoma Earth Day 2011, shown below) and  with refuge visitors, who receive the photo, with "Hagerman NWR" and the date added, by email, as a free souvenir of their visit to the Refuge.

Keep It Clean

Keep it clean! There are more than twenty species of vultures in the world, according to an article in National Wildlife, “By A Nose”, by Michael Lipske (August/September 2013).   Two species can be seen at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, and thanks to waste management by these two - Turkey Vultures  and Black Vultures, carrion  is soon disposed of at the Refuge.  You can see them on the job daily, in their search for food, soaring in circles over the Refuge fields or occasionally feeding along roadsides.

Turkey Vulture at HNWR

You can distinguish the two by looking up at their wings; for Turkey Vultures, the trailing edges are white, while for the somewhat smaller Black Vulture, only the wing tips are white.  Of course, if you get a close look, the Turkey Vulture has a red head, and voila’ – the head of the Black Vulture is – black (always an exception – the immature Turkey Vulture also has a black head).

Black Vulture at HNWR

Turkey Vultures breed in the U. S. and are year around residents in primarily the southeastern U.S. and  in Central and South America. 

Some "Cool Facts" about Turkey Vultures, or “TV”s” as they are familiarly known, from Cornell’s All About Birds:

·      

 The Turkey Vulture uses its sense of smell to locate carrion. …Its heightened ability to detect odors—it can detect just a few parts per trillion—allows it to find dead animals below a forest canopy.

The National Wildlife article states that  John James Audubon “proved” in an experiment that Turkey Vultures  were unable to smell; the science of birds’ sense of smell has advanced in the last century and  has shown that birds indeed can smell and that while Turkey Vultures prefer carrion, they want it fresh!

More "Cool 'TV' Facts" from Cornell:

The Turkey Vulture maintains stability and lift at low altitudes by holding its wings up in a slight dihedral (V-shape) and teetering from side to side while flying. It flies low to the ground to pick up the scent of dead animals.

In cowboy movies the bad guy usually threatens to leave the hero in the desert for the buzzards, meaning the vultures. Although buzzard is a colloquial term for vulture in the U.S., the same word applies to several hawks in Europe. In fact, the Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus) of Europe is the same species as the Rough-legged Hawk of North America.

Some "Cool Facts" from All About Birds about Black Vultures, which are found in South and Central America and the southeastern United States,  including parts of Texas, are:

       In the U.S., Black Vultures are outnumbered by their red-headed relatives, Turkey Vultures, but they have a huge range and are the most numerous vulture in the Western Hemisphere.

Turkey Vultures have an excellent sense of smell, but Black Vultures aren’t nearly as accomplished sniffers. To find food they soar high in the sky and keep an eye on the lower-soaring Turkey Vultures. When a Turkey Vulture’s nose detects the delicious aroma of decaying flesh and descends on a carcass, the Black Vulture follows close behind.

         The oldest Black Vulture on record was at least 25 years, 6 months old.

Thanks to Dick Malnory for photos for this post.