VSP: Houston Audubon’s Monthly Bird Survey at Willow Water Hole Reserve

HAS Monthly Bird Survey at Houston’s Willow Waterhole Reserve

General Information

Leader: Mary Ann Beauchemin, Senior Naturalist at the Nature Discovery Center. The Nature Discovery Center is partnering with Houston Audubon to conduct the Willow Waterhole survey.

The Willow Waterhole Bird Survey was started in June 2007 and is held on the third Saturday of each month (but no survey in December). During the 2-hour count, the number of species identified can range from around 30 in summer to over 50 in the winter.

The survey begins in the parking lot of the Gathering Place at 5310 South Willow Drive. Our usual starting time is 8 AM, but we begin at 7 AM from April through September. We split up into three or four groups to cover the park thoroughly, and as of mid-2015, nearly 200 species had been reported to eBird. For a list of species reported to date, see eBird.

The Willow Waterhole Conservation Reserve is the site of an ongoing retention pond project of the Harris County Flood Control District. With excavation underway on the fourth of six ponds, the 290-acre park continues to be an excellent birding area within the City of Houston and just outside the southwest corner of Loop 610.

Birding Willow Waterhole
The major part of the Willow Waterhole reserve is on the west side of South Post Oak Road, and that is where three of the ponds are located (with two more to come). Good places to park for birding these ponds are on Ricecrest Street and on the Clematis Lane cul-de-sac off of Gasmer. Also, adjacent to the parking lot at the Gathering Place on South Willow is a short, woodland path to the unconcreted Willow Waterhole Bayou, which marks the northern boundary of the park. Another parking area is on the gravel road at the eastern end of Dryad Drive behind Westbury High School.

On the Willow Waterhole property east of South Post Oak Road, the fourth of the six ponds is being excavated. This is also where the endangered Texas Prairie Dawn flower (Hymenoxys texana) is located and where several species of sparrows have been seen each winter. Because the flower is an endangered species, the Harris County Flood Control District  is required by law to return much of the surrounding acreage back to coastal prairie, including removal of non-native vegetation. Access to this property is at the south end of Windwood Drive or along Gasmer.

[VSP hours to be entered into VMS under the category “Houston Audubon Society”]

Spring 2019 Bird Survey Report: April 20, 2019
It was a cool and clear day on April 20, a perfect day for birding, and we proved it with an impressive 55 species identified. Of note were several Dickcissels, which we haven’t recorded at our survey in at least 10 years. They were on the prairie property east of South Post Oak Road. We also identified 2 Baltimore Orioles, an Orchard Oriole, 4 Indigo Buntings, 2 Belted Kingfishers, and a large flock of over 80 White Ibises flying overhead. This would not have been possible without a dedicated group of participants. Assisting me in leading our separate groups were Margaret Swarts and Michael Honel. Rounding out our participants were Siddharth Bharadwaj, Vasudha Bharadwaj, Charlona Ingram, Gerry del Junco, Katherine Swarts, Melinda Pumpelly, Bernard Silgardo, Dawn Durain, Robert Scates, Demian Scates, Adelia Scates, Dolores Peterson, Barbara Massey, Greg and Ju-Ling Poston, Attis Ramos, Faustino Ramos, Les Wolf, Melita Delgado, and Ruth Roach. Special note: 5 of our participants this month were kids! Our next survey is at 7 AM on May 18. We hope to see you then
— Mark Meyer