Article From Del Rio News Herald Relating to Birding the Border 2019

May 2, 2019

Members of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s “Birding on the Border” event stop to watch a nesting colony of Cliff Swallows along the Rio Grande below Amistad Dam on Friday.

Photo by Karen Gleason

Birders from other parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin visited several private ranches and state parks in two counties as part of the annual “Birding on the Border” event held here Monday through Friday.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension “Birding on the Border” event drew 17 birders. The event was organized and hosted by Dr. Maureen G. Frank, assistant professor and extension wildlife specialist for Texas AgriLife’s Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department and Val Verde County AgriLife Extension Agent Emily Grant.

The event began with a dinner program at the Pecos High Bridge overlook, including a welcome by Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens.

“I’ve just never been on a birding tour that’s quite so well-organized. The food was fantastic. The drivers and guides were wonderful. It’s been a delight,” said Susan Walker, a bird watcher from Stillwater, Okla.

The group was guided by Connie Hoke of Del Rio and Terry Hibbitts of Brackettville.

The bird watching began in earnest Tuesday, with a trip to the Dobbs Run Ranch in Kinney County, featuring lunch and presentation titled, “A Working Lands Success Story? Black-capped Vireos in Southwest Texas,” given by Dr. Kathryn Smith-Hicks of the Natural Resources Institute.

In the afternoon and evening, the group spent time at Kickapoo Cavern State Park, where they stayed for supper and an evening of searching for owls. At Kickapoo Cavern, they were also able to watch the nightly emergence of the cave’s bats.

Walker said she was impressed with the tours, saying she thought the group “would just be walking around on ranches.”

“I had no idea that we were going to go to the kind of places where we have gone,” Walker said.

She added she enjoyed seeing the birds on the trip and was “absolutely thrilled” to see the bats at Kickapoo Caverns State Park.

“I also loved seeing the Elf Owl. I had seen one once before, but this time I really got a good look at it,” Walker said, noting she has loved nature and the outdoors since she was a small child.

“I became a serious birder when my young family and I lived in California, and I saw a Steller’s Jay and didn’t know what it was. I had to get a bird book, and it kind of started from there,” she said.

The group, which stayed at The Ramada Inn of Del Rio, set out Wednesday for two more Kinney County ranches, the Bader Ranch, where they heard a program on “Beef, Birds and Butterflies: Sustainable Coexistence in an Agroecosystem,” and the Pinto/Dos Palmas Ranch, where they ate supper.

On Thursday, the birders spent the entire day at the Devils River State Natural Area in central Val Verde County. When they returned to Del Rio, they were treated to a catered steak dinner on the grounds of the Val Verde Winery.

On the final day of the tour, the group headed to an area of National Park Service land along the Rio Grande below Amistad Dam, an area usually closed to the public.

Dr. Deb Hirt, another member of the tour, is also a resident of Stillwater, Okla., and said she, too, was impressed with the sites selected for the tour.

“This is an exciting area for me. Not only have I found some ‘old friends’ in birds, I also found some new ones. The highlight of the trip for me, though, was that I was able to find a live armadillo,” said Hirt, who photographs birds and other wild creatures.

Hirt, who writes a nature column for the newspaper in Stillwater, said one of her priorities is educating people about nature and the natural world.

“Ecology is every bit as important as the wildlife that we have here. We need to have native plant species to attract native birds and other animals. Native habitat is the key to keeping what we have, and if we are not able to so that, not only will we lose our present wildlife, we will also lose our own ecological wellbeing,” she said.

Asked if the border is an area to which she would want to return one day, Hirt said, “Oh, absolutely. Not only is this area good for birds and wildlife, it’s good for people, too, because it brings peace and connects us to the natural world.”