23 Southwest Highways
Searching The Skies
Fall Migration is Here
By Susan Decker
My dilemma every September is deciding where to find the migrating birds that are making their way through Central Texas. I always hope they will stop right here at my home, but they rarely do. Yes, I have trees and feeders and small bird ponds, but there are so many places to choose from here in Wimberley, that there is no concentration of birds. I suppose that is what I am looking for—a concentration of birds to make it easier for me to see a lot of bird species in a short time. Rather selfish, isn’t it? But then birds sometimes do concentrate on migration when there is a particularly good spot for a lay-over. But where?
To find migrating birds it is important to understand how and why birds migrate the way they do. An excellent source explaining the how and why is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s publication “Migration and the Migratory Birds of Texas: Who They Are and Where They Are Going,” Fourth Edition, by Clifford E. Shackelford, Edward R. Rozenburg, W. Chuck Hunter and Mark W. Lockwood, which is available online. From this booklet I learned that 333 out of the 338 migrating bird species of North America pass through Texas, and these migrants make up 53% of the bird species seen in Texas. In fact two-thirds of the bird species in North America migrate at least a short distance. Some stay within the Canada-U.S. borders, but many migrate further south in the Fall into Central and South America. We are fortunate that Texas is such a great place for seeing migrants, both in Spring and Fall, and so we should take advantage of our good fortune and enjoy our bird-spotting opportunities.