A Swainson’s hawk overlooked Buffalo Bayou on its elegantly long, two-toned, black-and-white wings. On this sunshiny July early morning, my better half, nature professional photographer Kathy Adams Clark, and I led a Summer Species Walking Tour collaborated by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership at Tony Marron Park in east Houston.
Fourteen individuals came to 9 a.m. for the 90-minute experience. Houston Audubon’s Schyler Brown assisted lead the group, and Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Trudi Smith brought much-needed mineral water and additional field glasses.
More Nature: A nighttime surveillance for the western screech-owls of Big Bend National Park
We saw numerous migratory dragonflies called roaming gliders circling around low over a grassy meadow, as their reddish-orange bodies sparkled in the sunshine. They don’t move from one location to another however rather roam around the world; succeeding generations cover more than 11-thousand miles annual over land and water. Hordes come through Houston in July and August.
The hawk we found is from migratory flocks that show up from breeding premises on the Great Plains, swirling through the summertime sky in classy circles. They’ll feed upon bugs like roaming gliders along their method to winter season houses 5,000 miles from Buffalo Bayou on the Pampas of Argentina.
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On this hot early morning, a lot of songbirds stayed within the thick shrubs and trees lining the walking path. They’re clever birds to remain in the shade. But the blue jays couldn’t avoid displaying with their raucous calls of jeer-jeer-jeer.
Not to be outshined were mockingbirds setting down high atop light poles, singing their typically complicated tunes. They mix other bird tunes with ambient seem like jangling car secrets and iPhone rings to make up more than 200 distinct tunes spontaneously.
Carolina wrens chirped from deep in the underbrush, making themselves tough to see. But intense red male cardinals poked out of the trees while saying call notes, seeming like chip-chip at differing amplitudes.
The birds we saw frequently take place in the park — other than for one, a red-vented bulbul that said its tune, perwheat-perwheat-perwheat, from deep within the woody understory. Too bad we couldn’t see the charcoal-colored, cardinal-sized bird with ruby red at the base of the tail and a perky crest. The bird from the Indian sub-continent has actually developed a wild breeding population just in Houston, especially along Buffalo Bayou.
Finally, we saw an overload bunny gathering motionless under thick plant life, attempting to remain cool in the daytime heat.
- Tony Marron Park covers 19.07 acres near Buffalo Bayou on Houston’s east side at 808 North York.
- The park includes a paved Buffalo Bayou walking and bike path along woody edges, plus sports fields, kids’s play ground, benches, a structure with picnic tables, bathrooms and drinking water fountains.
- Early early morning is the very best time to delight in birds and other wildlife at the park.
- The non-profit Buffalo Bayou Partnership promotes parks, green space, nature activities like the Summer Species Walking Tour, and replanting native trees and plants along 10-miles of the bayou from Shepherd to the Port of Houston Turning Basin.
- More info: buffalobayou.org.
Email Gary Clark at [email protected]. He is the author of “Book of Texas Birds,” with photography by Kathy Adams Clark (Texas A&M University Press).
