Traverse City Record-Eagle

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March 2, 2008

On the Wing: Rio Grande attracts friends

Birders gather to discuss issues, locate species

BY KAY CHARTER

Ten years ago, an assignment to write about the great kiskadee sent me to the Rio Grande Valley to find my favorite south Texas bird. I took my youngest sister with me and assured her that locating the flashy flycatcher would be a cinch. I was mistaken.

For two days, we searched refuges and nature centers to no avail. Although we heard kiskadees, they were always tucked well back in the thorn-scrub habitat of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. On our last day in the area, we finally located a flock at a wildlife refuge on the Gulf Coast.

The Fourth International Partners-in-Flight Conference took me back to the valley this year. An invitation to present my backyard habitat program at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park prior to the conference necessitated an early arrival.

Canadian friends Ron and Leone Langan, who winter just north of Corpus Christi, came down to attend my presentation and do a bit of birding before I was tied up with the PIF event. Leone, a dedicated birder, was anxious to see those Mexican specialties that spill across the border in the part of the state referred to as Deep South Texas.

Until recent years, Bentsen was open to RV'ers. It is now closed to all but tent camping. On this trip, my husband and I stayed two miles north of the park. While we set up, the cheerful, insistent calls of great kiskadees surrounded us. There was nothing like habitat where we were; just wall-to-wall RV parks with a few non-native trees, Bermuda grass and gravel. And yet here were a dozen kiskadees calling to each other in full view of our site. Happily, this wonderful species is thriving despite the pressures of rampant development.

When we went to Bentsen with the Langans, we found, in short order, plain chachalaca, olive sparrow and altamira oriole. Great kiskadees were abundant, but not new to our friends, as this species is expanding its range northward.

The next day, we visited Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge where we found one of the most sought-after valley species -- a green kingfisher. Before Langans left the Valley and I headed off to my conference, Leone added seven species to her life list. I expected that to be the end of Rio Grande Valley birding for that trip. Once again, I was mistaken.

At the conference, I attended a presentation by Daniel Klem. Klem is the undisputed expert on bird/window kills, having researched the topic for 35 years. I was surprised to learn that more birds die -- by an order of magnitude -- crashing into windows than those that lose their lives to communication towers and wind generators combined.

I've long known about Klem and his work and wanted to speak with him about how we persuade conservationists who manage nature centers to eliminate bird-killing windows at their facilities. The day after his presentation, I ran into him in McAllen Convention Center's massive hall and asked for a few minutes of his time. I got far more than I might ever have dreamed.

It was lunchtime when I approached him. As we talked, we walked toward the buffet line. We had lunch together and while we ate, we discussed my question. He confessed to frustration over the issue. Those who run nature centers, who should be in the vanguard of educating the public about conservation issues, often turn a blind eye to a devastating problem that has historically remained under the radar. The best thing to come out of the PIF conference is that there will now be an effort to raise awareness about the issue.

Klem, a birder, had never visited the valley and wanted to get out to see area specialties, but he had no vehicle. I offered to take him. Thus we played hooky for an afternoon of birding. We located all of the birds we had seen with our Canadian friends except for one. The green kingfisher eluded us.

Two days later, as my husband hitched our trailer onto our pickup, kiskadees called again. It seemed as though these old friends were bidding us farewell.

Kay Charter is executive director of Saving Birds Thru Habitat, an organization that teaches people how to help migrating birds whose populations are declining.

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