Birding News and Features
The Inspiration of Louis Agassiz Fuertes
By Ted Lee Eubanks
A few months ago my friend Randy Pinkston wrote a short note on Texbirds that talked about the art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes and his relationship to Texas. I too have seen many of the old photos from the Oberholser/Fuertes 1901 Trans-Pecos journey, and I marvel at how much they accomplished in such difficult surroundings. How they would have marveled at the worst of our challenges being whether or not we might need a four-wheel drive SUV to carry us to the upper reaches of Pine Canyon! Thank goodness that Fuertes lives on in the Fuertes Red-tailed Hawks that so commonly winter here (as well as his art that illustrates Oberholser's Birdlife of Texas).
Read more...
Texas Bird Conservation Alliance
By Ted Lee Eubanks
The fledgling Texas Bird Conservation Alliance (TBCA) will be meeting in conjunction with the 4th International Partners in Flight convention 13-16 February, 2008, in McAllen, Texas. The TBCA gathering will be held on 13 February from 8 AM until 5 PM at the McAllen Convention Center in Room 102A. Anyone interested in bird conservation in Texas is invited to attend.
Read more...
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker - An Opportunity
By Fred Collins
Think globally, act locally.
From 1969 through the early 70s I tracked the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Texas. I believe that the species was in Texas at that time. I wrote a paper (The Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Texas) about the status of the species in Texas as a research report for a technical writing class as an undergraduate at A&M in 1970. Recent sightings in the Pearl River basin in southern Louisiana and now a confirmed and 6:00 PM news broadcast confirmation of the species in Arkansas has me thinking of a great opportunity for us Texans to preserve our last great hope for the species in Texas, the bottomland forest between the Neches and Angelina Rivers north of Lake Steinhagen.
Read more...
Did you know that every record submitted to eBird goes through the eBird data verification process? Using a combination of automated data filters and a network of local experts, eBird tackles the issue of data quality in Citizen-Science. In order for us to maintain the integrity of the database, and for it to be used fully by the science and conservation community, we as observers must fully understand and strive to reach the highest level of data quality. Therefore, we've developed procedures to facilitate communication between eBird observers and scientists, including some new and improved review tools for our editors. Through our combined effort to maintain high data quality, eBird will take its place among the most valuable large-scale data sets on bird distribution and abundance in the world. Read more about our data verification process....