Greater Roadrunner

Beep Beep!   Who does not enjoy seeing the low profile of a Roadrunner darting across the road or flying up into a nearby shrub or tree? For many, a sighting bring backs memories of cartoons, specifically, Warner Brothers, that popularized the Greater Roadrunner – older generations enjoyed these with popcorn at the movies, followed by the younger  generations of Saturday morning cartoon-watchers.  Another name for this bird is Chaparral Cock.

Greater Roadrunner with Worm, taken at Hagerman NWR by Tigger Saldy

Here are some “Cool Facts” about the Roadrunner, from Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

• Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American and Mexican legends and belief systems, revered for their courage, strength, speed, and endurance. The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint—with two toes pointing forward and two backward—are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading, and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.
• Despite the cartoon character’s perennial victories over Wile E. Coyote, real-life coyotes present a real danger. The mammals can reach a top speed of 43 miles an hour—more than twice as fast as roadrunners.
• Roadrunners have evolved a range of adaptations to desert living. Like seabirds, they secrete a solution of highly concentrated salt through a gland just in front of each eye, using less water than excreting it via their kidneys and urinary tract. Moisture-rich prey including mammals and reptiles supply them otherwise-scarce water in their diet. Both chicks and adults flutter the unfeathered area beneath the chin (gular fluttering) to dissipate heat.
• Their poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, gives no ill effect, although they’re careful to swallow horned lizards head-first with the horns pointed away from vital organs. Roadrunners can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often in tandem with another roadrunner: as one distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, the other sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the snake against a rock. If it’s is too long to swallow all at once, a roadrunner will walk around with a length of snake still protruding from its bill, swallowing it a little at a time as the snake digests.

Found in all the Southwestern states, Greater Roadrunners are year-round residents in Texas.  They breed from early March to late-October.  In Spring, the male roadrunner offers choice food morsels to a female as an inducement to mating and dances around her while she begs for food, then gives her the morsel after breeding briefly.  After the pair builds a nest 3 – 10 feet above the ground, the female will lay 2 – 6 eggs; they may nest 2 - 3 times during a favorable breeding season.

From “The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas”  of Texas A&M, we learned that despite its popularity as a popular multicultural iconic bird, from prehistory to modern time, the Greater Roadrunner was one of the last bird species to be given state protection because of the mistaken belief that the birds were a threat to declining quail populations.

References:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/id; http://txtbba.tamu.edu/species-accounts/greater-roadrunner/; http://www.desertusa.com/birds/roadrunner-bird.html

Seeing Red

One of our favorite wildflowers is in bloom now – Standing Cypress.  Watch for the tall red plumes along roadsides in North Texas in May – July, and in the Native Plant Garden adjacent to the Visitor Center at Hagerman NWR.  According to the Native Plant Information Network, Standing Cypress is a biennial plant, in the Phlox family.  The botanical name is Ipomopsis rubra; additional common names are Red Texas star, Texas plume and Red gilia.  

Standing Cypress may reach 4 -6 feet in height.  The red blossoms begin appearing from the tip down.   The bloom may also be orange or yellow.  The plant grows in dry, well-drained soil.  You can collect seed in pods as the bloom dries if you want to try to propagate it, sowing in the fall – expect about  60% success, according to the Aggie Horticulture site.  Seed is available for purchase also.  From NPIN: “The first year of growth will produce a ferny rosette, followed by a flower spike the second year. When the spike has bloomed out, cut it off, and new spikes will be formed.“

Standing cypress is  attractive as a nectar plant for hummingbirds, and some sites also say it attracts butterflies.  The plant is native to Central and East Texas, and eastward to Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida.

Sharks! for Second Saturday

From the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge website:

During the Cretaceous period, 145 million years ago, what is now Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge was part of a huge, warm, shallow sea that covered much of North America. Giant turtles, huge sharp-toothed fish and sharks, and 50-foot seagoing reptiles ruled Texas’ watery world. Built-up layers of dead Cretaceous animal and plant life would later become the region’s limestone and petroleum deposits. 

Fast forward 145 million years...

Kim Snipes, Austin College Biologist, will speak on Sharks!  for the Second Saturday program, at 10 am on Saturday, June 14.  Snipes joined the Biology Dept. at Austin College in 1993.  Her professional training is in ornithology and physiology.  Her love affair with sharks and rays began when she was five and watched The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.  She shares her appreciation and knowledge about these incredibly misunderstood animals at every opportunity.  Sharks and rays are some of the most endangered yet least protected species on our planet -- most populations have declined by 80% in the last thirty years.  The free program will be held in the Visitor Center meeting room, and is open to the public.  No reservations necessary.

Kim Snipes, Photo courtesy of Austin College

For early birds, Dr. Wayne Meyer will lead a birding walk that morning at 8 am, weather permitting; participants will meet at the Visitor Center at the Refuge.  There is no charge for the event, and participants are encouraged to bring binoculars, camera, field guides and to dress for trail-walking. The Friends of Hagerman have binoculars to loan, also.

Hagerman NWR is located at 6465 Refuge Road, Sherman, Texas and provides an 11,000 acre plus habitat for wildlife.

American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day® 2014

   

American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day® will bring together outdoor enthusiasts across the country on Saturday, June 7, 2014, for the 22^nd annual celebration of America's magnificent trail system and its countless supporters and volunteers. Over 2,000 nationwide events will take place including trail maintenance, hiking, paddling, biking, horseback riding, bird watching, running, trail celebrations and more! 

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and the Friends of Hagerman will participate in National Trails Day this year, hosting a Grand Slam Hike at the Refuge.   The Grand Slam challenge is to walk all five trails for a total of 17.5 miles.  Hikers must register at Visitor Center between 8 am and 4 pm Saturday, June 7 and complete all trails in time to check in at the Visitor Center by 5 pm Sunday, June 8, to earn free HNWR water bottle and certificate.  There is no registration fee.

The Grand Slam offers the perfect opportunity to showcase the five trails at the Refuge.  Maps and descriptions of each trail can be found on both the HNWR website and Friends of Hagerman site.  Printed trail guides are available in the Visitor Center at the Refuge.

In addition, families can enjoy a Bluebird Fun Walk, approximately ½ mile round trip,  along the universally accessible loop of Harris Creek Trail.  Informative and fun Bluebird Facts will be displayed along the trail on Saturday, June 7, from 9 am – 4 pm, weather permitting.  Children completing the fun walk can obtain certificates of completion at the Visitor Center that day.

For those who are planning their first trip to the Refuge, Hagerman is located at 6465 Refuge Road, Sherman.  It is four miles west of HWY 289, on Refuge Road.  The phone number is 903 786 2826.

American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day® is a nationally recognized trail awareness program that occurs annually on the first Saturday of June and inspires the public to discover, learn about, and celebrate trails while participating in outdoor activities, clinics, and trail stewardship projects.  National Trails Day® is a registered trademark of American Hiking Society.

Founded in 1976, American Hiking Society is the only national, recreation-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting America’s hiking trails, their surrounding natural areas and the hiking experience.  To learn more about American Hiking Society and its mission and programs, visit www.AmericanHiking.org or call (301) 565-6704.

Join American Hiking Society, Hagerman NWR and the Friends of Hagerman, and the National Trails Day® 2014 sponsors: Adventure Medical Kits, Columbia, Gregory, and The North Face, for the Grand Slam Hike or a trail event near you.

Rough-leaf Dogwood

Have you noticed the shrubby plant with white blossoms growing in the fencerow along Refuge Road at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge?  It is Rough-leaf Dogwood, not quite the romantic lacy understory dogwood we see  in East Texas in early spring, but  an attractive plant in its own right.

The plant is also known as Roughleaf Dogwood, Small-flower Dogwood, Cornel Dogwood, or White Cornel and Drummond's Dogwood.  The species name is Cornus drummondii, named for Thomas Drummond, a Scottish naturalist who came to Texas in 1830, and spent nearly two years collecting between Galveston Island and the Edwards Plateau.  His collections were the first made in Texas that were distributed to scientific institutions and museums around the world, according to the Native Plant database.

Rough-leaf Dogwood will grow as a shrub or can be trimmed into a tree form, reaching about 16 feet in height.  The shrub form provides good nesting cover for small  birds.   It is deciduous, growing in the eastern half of our state, and east to Alabama and north to Ontario, with  the upper surface of the leaves appearing rough.  The clusters of white blossoms may reach 3 inches across and bloom from May - August..  It forms white fruit from August - October  which is quickly eaten by over 40 species of birds.  Fall leaf color is purplish red.  It is a nectar plant for butterflies and attracts native bees.

Rough-leaf dogwood can be propagated by seed or from cuttings.  It readily forms suckers, an asset for naturalized areas.  It is tolerant of a wide variety of soil, light and moisture conditions.

References:
Texas Native Plants - Aggie Horticulture
Native Plant Database

Wilson's Phalaropes

Wilson’s Phalarope Facts

A large flock of Wilson’s Phalaropes has been at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge for several weeks, to the enjoyment of the Refuge visitors.  Here are some facts about Wilson’s Phalarope, from Audubon  and the NationalZoo/Smithsonian Park websites:

Wilson’s Phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor,  is named after the great early American ornithologist, Alexander Wilson , and is the only one of the three phalarope species confined to the New World.

Wilson's Phalarope  is a slender, delicately built shorebird with a small head, and thin, pointed bill; medium-sized shorebird averaging 2.1 ounces in weight and 8.5 inches in length, with pointed wings that span 17 inches.

Females are substantially larger and can weigh as much as 40% more than males.

In winter, both sexes have grey-white plumage.

Breeding females (photo below) -  colorful, with a gray cap, white eyebrow, and dark crimson mask that extends from the bill to the back of the head and then swoops down the nape toward the back. The throat is white; a rusty wash colors the neck and chest, otherwise whitish below and grey above.

Breeding males (photo below) - pale grey above and whitish below, with a light rusty wash on the nape of the neck.

Winter range – from Peru  to the tip of South America

Breeding range -  Great Plains of North America

Feeding – a number of Refuge visitors have commented on the Phalarope’s spinning behavior during feeding.  Note circular ripples in the photo of the female phalarope.  “Like other phalaropes, the Wilson's often spins in the water, at speeds of up to 60 turns per minute. The purpose of this whirling behavior may be to churn the muddy bottom, excite small aquatic creatures, and condense them in the swirls, where they can be picked off the surface. Wilson's phalaropes consume flies, beetles, brine shrimp, and other tiny marine creatures."

Reproduction – sexual roles are reversed with the female displaying bright plumage and aggressively  courting males They often mate with more than one male, have more than one nest and, after egg-laying, they leave their families to the sole care of the males.

The female lays four eggs; incubation time is 18 – 27 days. The young are fully feathered and  can walk, swim, and feed independently within an hour after hatching, but require brooding to keep them warm.

After the breeding season , Wilson’s Phalaropes are one of the few birds to undergo a post-breeding, molt migration, traveling to large western lakes in the US to molt and build up fat reserves for the 54 hours flight to South America.   According to  The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, they can gain up to 55% of their body mass at this time; some become too fat to walk, and have to "take off" swimming.  

Blog originally published May 23, 2013.  Photos taken at Hagerman NWR by Dick Malnory

Eagle Week at HNWR

We are unofficially designating this week as Eagle Week!  Two eaglets are in the first ever eagles’ nest at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, definitely worth celebrating, and we were invited to give a program on the Bald Eagle this week for the Pottsboro first graders.

Young eagles at HNWR, by Rick Cantu

Of all the more than 300 species of birds that are on the Hagerman NWR bird check list, the one most visitors say they want to see is the eagle.  And now that there are several nests going in the Texoma area we should be able to see them regularly year around.

The Bald Eagle was adopted as the national emblem in 1782 and serves as a symbol of wilderness and freedom. Benjamin Franklin said that the Bald Eagle was a bird of bad moral character (stealing food) and recommended the turkey instead. I wonder if the turkey had been chosen, what we would eat for Thanksgiving?

Eagles are one of our largest birds –  they just weigh about 10 – 14 pounds but envision the size of an eagle’s wingspan – the first graders held a tape measure indicating the wingspan measurement of  a whopping 6 – 7’5’ !!

Bald eagles have white feathers on their head and tail - but not until they get to be about 4 – 5 years old; often this makes viewers think they are seeing a Golden Eagle rather than a young Bald Eagle – You might wonder about the name bald…a long time ago bald meant white, not “hairless”.

Bald eagles are very good hunters and have terrific eyesight.  The students learned that if they could see as well as an eagle they could stand on the playground and look down the street to a mile away and see a tennis ball in the grass there.

Watching the video, A Home for Pearl, we learned that Bald Eagles make a very big nest of sticks high up in a tree or on the edge of a cliff.  They use the nest again and again, making it bigger every year.  How big?  One really huge eagle nest was over 9’ across – we had to use the tape measure again…. AND it weighed 2 TONS!! That’s about the same as 80 kids all added up – so 80 first graders stood up for comparison.  That particular nest was reused over and over for 34 years.

Paralleling changes in the national eagle population, Texas Parks & Wildlife reports, as noted  in the May edition of the Featherless Flyer,  indicate that from 1971 – 2005 the number of known active eagles’ nest in Texas increased from  5 to 160.  Nationally, after recovering from, first, being hunted, and then affected by DDT, they are no longer considered endangered or threatened; however the eagle population is considered threatened for Texas.

And that reminds me of the last fact I want to tell you – Most eagles can live for up to 20 years…the oldest one we know about lived to be 48 years old.

Note:  The location of the eagles’ nest at Hagerman is known only to Refuge staff and is strictly “off-limits” for visitors, for the protection of the birds.  Attempts by visitors to find it will jeopardize the continued use of the nest.