{"id":3523,"date":"2011-12-21T08:58:27","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T14:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2013-11-15T20:35:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T02:35:29","slug":"texas-wildfires-scattered-birds-to-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/21\/texas-wildfires-scattered-birds-to-the-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Wildfires Scattered Birds to the Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mose Buchele<\/p>

Birdwatchers at a recent trip at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tens of thousands of birdwatchers across the country are participating in the Audubon Society\u2019s annual Christmas Bird Count<\/a> this month. But in Central Texas, the tradition has a special importance. During a year of exceptional drought, heat and wildfires, conservationists across Texas are paying close attention to the welfare of local bird populations.<\/p>\n

This is the 112th year of the count, which helps Audubon and other groups to do a wildlife census of birds. Houston birdwatcher Michael Jewell didn\u2019t know what to expect from the outing this year. When he drove to Austin last weekend to do the count, it was his first opportunity to see the devastation wrought by the Bastrop wildfires.\u00a0\u201cAlthough the fire to us may be big, maybe from a birds-eye-view, maybe it\u2019s not as large as we think it is,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n\n

A birdwatching hike through the Hyatt Lost Pines<\/a>, outside the burn zone, began to reveal some answers.<\/p>\n

Louise Ridlon, the President of the Bastrop Master naturalists, was leading the hike. She says the fire destroyed nesting habitat for some species, especially those that nest in pine trees.\u00a0\u201cSome of the smaller song birds I think would be more likely to be affected,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

But it probably provided better habitat for other birds, she said,\u00a0\u201cbecause they pick bugs out of the bark and target dead trees or dying trees because it does attract insects.\u201d And then a bird chirps, as if on cue. \u201cSomething flew over!\u201d\u00a0Ridlon shouts. \u201cthat\u2019s a red bellied woodpecker back\u00a0there!\u201d<\/p>\n

The bird counts in the Hyatt Lost Pines and McKinney Roughs Park<\/a>\u00a0(also outside the burn zone) are actually the first to ever be done in these parks. They indicated diverse species were present, but organizers don\u2019t have numbers from previous years to compare their results to. Preliminary results from Travis County, also bordering the Bastrop area, show the count there may have broken a new record for bird diversity, with a lot of Western species spotted.<\/p>\n

Travis County Audubon\u2019s Sheila Hargess says there are two theories why bird diversity seems to be on the rise.\u00a0\u201cOne is that we\u2019ve been under persistent drought,\u201d she says, so the birds are foraging outside of their traditional range.\u00a0\u201cThe other theory is that potentially, the fires west of us in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have caused species to have to push into our area to find\u00a0food.\u201d<\/p>\n

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