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2000 CORPUS CHRISTI CONFERENCE REPORT

27-31 January 2000

For those of us who flew into Corpus Christi on the "coastal bend" of Texas for the ABA's Regional Conference, landing revealed a dead-flat, agricultural landscape of dark, ploughed soils and white, limestone roads. However, under the skilled guidance of our trip leaders we saw little of such "man-made" habitats as they took us to birding spots that amazed even the most experienced of birders with the numbers of individuals and the diversity of species. As a group, we tallied 177 bird species during two full days and two half-days of birding, seven more than the hoped-for total. Taking place during the last five days of January, the conference coincided with a memorable weather event across North America, with snow storms paralyzing many cities, north and south, east and west. Remarkably, all participants reached Corpus Christi, some a little late as their planes sought out usable landing strips. We had to remind ourselves that we were in a warm belt, the warmest in the United States or Canada. The first two days of field trips were in temperatures of mid-30s, with 15 mph winds out of the northeast, a situation that resulted in much horse-trading of clothing between participants. Cold weather created a run on gloves in the store at the catamaran jetty in Port Aransas for the trip along the Inter-Coastal waterway. Temperatures soared into the 40s on day three, and the 50s on day four. That many participants left home in temperatures in the low teens or lower, wearing warm clothes, paid dividends: they were dressed for field trips in Texas!

ABA built the conference around field trips, two full days and two half days, with time for socializing before dinner each evening, a brief after-dinner program each evening, and one half-day of presentations on Texas-related birding topics. Each morning we gathered for our boxed breakfasts and to share hopes for the day ahead over our morning coffee.

Participants split into four groups each day, making for birding groups of about twenty-five on each trip, greatly improving the quality of birding. A visit to the Port Aransas birding-center, a boardwalk into a freshwater-marsh formed from wastewater treatment facility, followed by a catamaran trip across the inter-coastal canal to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine salt marsh, was one full-day trip. The Port Aransas stop gave us a taste for water birds at ease in this cattail marsh habitat. A Common Snipe asleep three feet from the board walk, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks calling as they swept around us in flight, the call of a Clapper Rail, a look at Virginia Rail, Gray Catbird, Northern Waterthrush, Greater Scaup and the first of our warblers, Common Yellowthroat and Wilson's Warbler represent just a fraction of the species we experienced. A hunting Red-shouldered Hawk greeted our entry to the boardwalk, an unusual bird for the area. We all stopped to see a female Mountain Bluebird, hunting from a roadside sign, on our way to the catamaran jetty. The highlight of the boat-trip was seeing family parties-mated pairs with one young-of Whooping Cranes. The tidal salt marsh habitat we visited is home to a significant portion of the migrating population of this species, and we saw more than 40 of the fewer than 200 individuals of this species that remain. Our expert guide, Ray Little, rotated the catamaran so that, when perpendicular to the shore, we could see the cranes clearly from the upper deck. ABA birders saw adult cranes catch blue crabs, dismember the crustaceans, feed the legs to their young, and eat the crab-bodies themselves. Close observation of bird behavior was a theme to which each group warmed as the birds treated us to many such spectacles throughout our trip.

The other full-day trip was just as special: birding the Laureles Division of the King Ranch by special invitation, exploring the Mesquite savanna, Live Oak mottes, and the Laguna Larga. Here Crested Caracara, White-tailed Kites and White-tailed and Harris's Hawks were numerous. A flock of Snow Geese contained a number of Ross's Geese, including one blue-morph Ross's that had the grin patch of a Snow Goose, the stubby two-tone bill of a Ross's, and a rather convex extension of the facial feathering onto the side of the bill. Our group also turned up a Canada Goose, rare for this area. The King Ranch even has some coastal water that revealed a Bonaparte's Gull resting with Caspian Terns, Dunlin, both species of Yellowlegs, and a flock of more than one hundred Cave Swallows. The Mesquite grassland yielded Le Conte's, Vesper and Grasshopper sparrows, Green-tailed Towhee and Sedge Wren, and an abandoned stable/pasture gave us an immature male Vermilion Flycatcher, and Saye's and Eastern Phoebes. Our guides to King Ranch explained how at the beginning of this century, cattle on the ranch were fed mesquite seed pods and the current habitat is the result of germinated seeds. The ranch also yielded Axis Deer, taking many of us by surprise.

Laguna Larga's best offering was a Black Rail, besides a variety of other south-Texas specialities, such as Least Grebe. The behavior highlight for the ranch was a Merlin that passed within ten feet of our group, chasing sparrows around us, before taking a leisurely retreat.

One of our two half-day trips was to the water-based habitats of Hans and Pat Suter Park, a freshwater marsh, and Indian Point, a coastal tidal marsh. Suter Park has a long boardwalk through reedbeds and damp grassland to a lookout point across the tidal mudflats. In a small channel in the reeds, we found a female Wood-duck among the Green-winged Teal and American Coots, a notable find for this area. The flats contained many species, including Roseate Spoonbill, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt, American Stilt, and a large range of shorebirds. The behavioral high point here related to a Peregrine that stalked the flats, putting most birds up at various times, giving a great show in aerial flocking behavior. Eventually, our Peregrine focused on an American Coot close to shore. Running across the mud, the Coot found shelter beneath the arch formed by a half-submerged tire. By the time we left, the Peregrine had been harrying the Coot for 20 minutes or more, and was now resting on another tire nearby, waiting for the Coot to leave. One challenge was to find an interesting Coot, with enlarged shield. The retiring nature of the individual bird thwarted our attempts to see how enlarged, and how yellow was the shield (and therefore whether this was a possible Carribean Coot) that was content with showing us its tail through the cattails. On a nearby mudflat on the way back to our hotel, we unearthed a few more notable species, including Red Knot and Snowy Plover.

The other half-day trip was to Hazel Bazemore County Park, and Pollywog Pond. The pond in the park was for me the defining moment for the conference; a still pond, low light-angle, and a good variety of species, that included displaying Hooded Mergansers, Least Grebe, a Belted Kingfisher sparring with a Cooper's Hawk, and on one day all three kingfishers-Belted, Ringed, and Green-present at the same time. The walk to the pond revealed Sedge Wren, and above the pond we could see for ourselves the virtues of this Hawk Watch site, with clear views to the north and northeast. Pollywog Pond, part of a wastewater treatment plant, gave us Golden-fronted Woodpecker, and a raptor spectacle. A pair of White-tailed Kites displaced by a Red-tailed Hawk, only then to be pursued by a Peregrine.

Some species were ubiquitous and gave us many chances for study. Examples included Great, Snowy, Cattle and Reddish Egret, including the white form of the latter, Great Blue, Little Blue and Tricolored Heron.

Our buses returned us to our hotel—on the water front at Corpus Christi—on time for an hour's rest before the social hour each night. An aperitif while wandering through the bookstore, and making conversation with fellow conference goers, was a good way of winding down before our group dinner each night. Authors Wayne Petersen, John Tveten, and Ro Wauer, signed copies of their books during the Saturday social hour. Following dinner each evening, a variety of speakers treated us to an evening program of about an hour in length. On our day of arrival, Mel Cooksey gave us an overview of the birdlife and habitats of the area. Mel, with his wife Arlie, had also undertaken to organize the field trips, for which we thank them for a great job. Mel's celebrated dry humor, extensive knowledge of the area, and some of Greg Lasley's slides, got us off to a great start. In fact ABA board member Greg Lasley came in for a great deal of ribbing from several speakers, since he is an outstanding bird photographer, generous with his slides, but was in the warmer climes of Antarctica during our conference.

ABA member Ro Wauer, who has written many books on Texas wildlife, gave us an overview of Texas bird specialities Friday night. Saturday was a morning of field trips followed by two presentations in the afternoon, the first by ABA Vice President Wayne Peterson. Wayne's presentation focused on the threats to shorebirds, highlighting some of their migratory strategies and the habitats on which they depend, and also included an ID quiz. Tom Stehn followed Wayne, discussing the problems facing the Whooping Crane. Our after-dinner presentation, by John Tveten, focused on the nests, eggs and young of birds. Our Sunday-evening program, given by Joel Simon, Sunday, was an animated lecture on the hawks of the coastal bend. While giving us an overview of the raptors of the region, (we got to see in the field Osprey, White-tailed Kite, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Coopers Hawk, Harris's Hawk, Red-shoulder Hawk, Crested Caracara, American Kestrel, Merlin and Peregrine Falcon), Joel also focused a little on the Hawk Watch site that he runs, giving us a feel for the vast number raptors that pass south each fall.

For me, this was a great conference. ABA members spent time to savor many of the birds they saw without rushing off to see the next. The great camaraderie, and a good deal of conversation about ABA activities and future possibilities, made this a productive meeting for ABA and for our members.

My thanks go to our field trip coordinators, Mel and Arlie Cooksey, field trip leaders , Vicki and Joel Simon, John and Barbara Ribble, Robert Benson, Glenn and Jimmy Schwartz, Kent Taylor and Michael Marsden, and to our program presenters Mel Cooksey, Ro Wauer, Wayne Petersen, Tom Stehn and Joel Simon. Thanks too to Tom Langshied for leading us on the King Ranch, Ray Little on the Whooper boat, and Joel and Vicki Simon for bringing their Nature's Bird Center store to the conference. Finally, I congratulate ABA Conference and Convention Manager, Ken Hollinga, and Registrar Nanci Hawley, for a well-organized and well-run conference, ably supported by Assistant Managers Tyler and Bell Jane Kostenko.

– Paul Green