Welcome to the Golden Triangle Audubon Society

Photo credit: Dana Nelson, Cattail Marsh, December 18, 2018. Credit for Website Design: Jeff Pittman.

You are welcome to attend monthly meetings, featuring speakers on birding and natural history topics, and including a delicious member-provided evening meal -- with desserts! Our monthly field trips are fun and educational, and focus on locations along the coast, marshes, prairies, and forests of the area.

Annual Meeting Thursday 21 November 2024 7:00 p.m. Garden Center, Tyrrell Park, Beaumont

Elections The Annual Meeting of Golden Triangle Audubon Society will take place on November 21, 2024 in the Garden Center, Tyrrell Park. At this meeting, we will hold elections for all Officers except President (whose term continues through 2025) and all at-large board positions. To nominate someone, contact the chair of the Nominating Committee. Steve Mayes. Please in the first instance email him at gtaudubon@aol.com. Nominations from the floor at the meeting will be in order but must be accompanied by affirmation, either orally at the meeting, or in writing, that the candidate is willing to serve.

Your Favorite Bird Pictures Dr. Harlan Stewart has again volunteered to prepare all photos submitted in advance into a Powerpoint presentation. The contributors of the pictures are encouraged to talk briefly about their pictures telling where they were taken etc. Contributions should be no more than about 10 pictures. The pictures should be bird related and have been taken in the last two years, but do not need to be exhibition quality, especially if the subject is especially interesting for any reason.

In order to prepare a combined presentation, we will need to have the pictures by Monday morning November 18. They can be emailed as attachments to Harlan at hstewartmail@gt.rr.com; If necessary, send several separate emails. The pictures can to compressed to about 50 percent of original to reduce the number of emails needed. If you cannot send them to Harlan in advance, we may be able to show pictures you prepare yourself if they are on a flash drive, and are in the Powerpoint format, ready to project . We much prefer advance submission, and, depending on how many are submitted, we might not have time to show many or even any that are not submitted in advance. Please come early to work out any kinks if you want to do anything other than show still pictures/Powerpoint and talk about them.

We plan to have the doors open no later than 6:00 p.m., and have light refreshments available by about 6:15 p.m.

Saturday November 23, 2024 Field Trip to West Jefferson County In recent years, this has been one of our most successful field trips. However, we are holding our breaths this year, as the area has been inordinately dry, recently and anecdotal report have so far found relatively few birds. However, it is early November before we normally see many of the wintering species.

The area is well known for its birds of prey, which in past years have included Bald and Golden Eagles, Crested Caracaras and White-tailed Hawks in addition to the more "expected" Red-tailed Hawks, although Northern Harriers, and American Kestrels. Anecdotal reports indicate American Kestrels are arriving in good numbers this year. In some years we have seen White-tailed Kites and Merlins. However, birding trips to the area so far this year have found fewer birds than usual. Perhaps it is still too early, or the weather further north has allowed them to postpone their southward migration. Here in Southeast Texas, we have had a series of unusual weather periods over the last 18-months or so with droughts, freezes and some very wet periods, culminating in a quite severe drought during October this year. The amount of rice grown in Jefferson County this year seems to have been quite low and this may be why we are seeing few cowbirds and blackbirds.

The area is also well known as the wintering ground of what has become a large (about 1,000 strong) flock of Sandhill Cranes and most winters is one of the best places to see the wintering sparrows of the area.

Both cranes and sparrows are omnivorous, and depend on seeds and roots in fall and winter. As a result of the very wet period in the summer, there appears to be plenty of seeds available. They will eat insects, but mainly in the spring and summer.

Depending on whether we experience any heavy rain in the next two or three weeks, there may be flooded fields, that attract ducks and geese also.

We recommend those coming by way of IH-10 stop at the Stuckey’s at the intersection of IH-10 and FM365 (on the short stretch of two-way service road of IH-10 - north side) to use the facilities and purchase any snacks you need. Reaching toilet facilities during this trip requires a lengthy side trip! Then meet at 8 a.m. at the intersection of FM365 and Johnson Road (on the “north/west” side of Johnson Road at that intersection). From the intersection of Interstate 10 and FM365 in Fannett, proceed along FM365 (towards Nome) for about six miles.

Shortly after you emerge out of the woodlands, South China Road goes to the right (east then north) and immediately afterwards, on the left, is Johnson Road. If you approach from the north, Johnson Road is about 7.5 miles south of US 90 on FM365. Contact Field Trip chair Steve Mayes, gtaudubon@aol.com for further information. This will be largely a "car birding" trip, car-pooling desired. There is space to leave cars at the intersection of FM365 and Johnson Road.