Meetings and Field Trips

Membership Meeting

Thursday, May 15, 2008

7:00 PM

Garden Center, Tyrrell Park, Beaumont 

"Life on the Amazon: Ecology and Conservation of

Amazonian River Island Birds" 

Dr. James Armacost,

Assistant Professor of Biology

Lamar University 
 

Dr. Armacost has provided the following abstract of his talk:

I studied the mechanisms responsible for the pattern of low species richness and high individual density of birds on Amazonian river islands. I also investigated the role of human habitat disturbance in facilitating the invasion of the mainland by species of birds that were formerly restricted to river islands (river-island specialists). At my study sites on the Amazon River in Peru, competition is the primary mechanism promoting higher bird densities on river islands. Island populations experience less interspecific competition, resulting in ecological release and niche expansion. River islands may also act as refuges from predation, but my data regarding predation are not conclusive. River-island specialists have successfully invaded the mainland where human habitat disturbance mimics the natural disturbance regime of islands. Agricultural disturbance creates early-successional habitats, which can be exploited by river-island specialists because they are not saturated with mainland forest birds. My study is among the first to simultaneously investigate several possible mechanisms of community and population regulation at the same field sites. My study shows that present levels of agricultural disturbance actually benefit Amazonian river-island specialists, but they remain threatened by human alteration of the hydrological regime. 

We will plan on having the doors open by 6:00 p.m. and the program will start at 7:00 p.m. sharp.  
 

Saturday May 10.  North American Spring Migration Count. Contact John Whittle (john.whittle@lamar.edu or 409-722-4193) to volunteer to help in this county-wide count. Note that this is again the day before Mother's Day!  We try to cover all of Jefferson County.  

Saturday May 31.  Field trip to Hardin County.

We plan to run a field trip to Hardin County to look for the nesting species of the area – Hooded, Pine, Prairie and Swainson’s Warblers (and possibly Prothonotary Warbler), Yellow-breasted Chat, , White-eyed, Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireo, Indigo and Painted Bunting, Gray Catbird, Summer Tanager, Acadian Flycatcher, Brown-headed Nuthatch and others. Check our website or call Steve Mayes at 722-5807 to confirm the date of the trip if you miss the May Membership Meeting.

      The meeting place will be at 7:00 a.m. (note the necessary early start if we are to find the breeding birds!) at the shopping center on the northeast corner of the intersection of FM92 and FM418 in the northern part of Silsbee. To reach this from Beaumont, take US 69 north and then US96 north. Take Business 96 into and through downtown Silsbee. When Business 96 turns right a short distance after crossing the railroad, continue straight ahead on FM92 for about a mile to the shopping center. We will bird the Firetower Road/Gore Store Road/ Camp Waluta area and any nearby areas that are brought to our attention as being productive. Unfortunately, many areas along Firetower Road have been clear cut, and we will likely spent most of our time in the northern section of Firetower Road, and along Gore Store Road. We will probably finish about noon.

      For those interested in Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Bachman’s Sparrow, we have usually recommend a trip to Boykin Springs, site 007 on the UTC Birding Trail. However, large areas in the vicinity of the woodpecker colony have been burned recently, and we do not know the status of the birds this year. For further details see www.tpwd.state.tx.us/birdingtrails/ As you drive in heading west from Texas 63 north of Jasper along Forest Road 313, after two or three miles, there is a marked Red-cockaded Woodpecker colony on the north side of the road.