January Bird Survey is a Hoot!

Barred Owl

Mary Goldsby, FWP Birder-in-Chief, reported a good winter birding day this last weekend with 30 species and 5 birders, and a total of 176 birds! Their best bird was the Barred owl which cooperated by sitting still allowing clear and longer looks than usual. 

The next bird survey will be February 18th at 7:30am. All bird survey dates for 2023 have been loaded onto the FWP calendar online. Click on them to save to your own calendar via a Google or .ics file.

If you are birding on your own, we recommend the Merlin Bird ID app for sound and visual indentification and eBird for tracking and viewing sightings.

If you would like to be added to or removed from the 2023 survey email list, please contact Mary at sprocket211@gmail.com.

January’s BIRDS (all linked to our Bird Catalogue on the FWPO Website):

White-winged Dove  13
Mourning Dove  2
Neotropic Cormorant  4
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  4
Snowy Egret  1
Black Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Sharp-shinned/Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Barred Owl  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Downy Woodpecker  4
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  10
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  3
House Wren  1
Carolina Wren  4
European Starling  8
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  6
Cedar Waxwing  24
White-throated Sparrow  1
Great-tailed Grackle  64
Orange-crowned Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  4
Northern Cardinal  8

 

Woodland Park B-Cycle Station Closed

Closed B-Cycle Station at Woodland Park.

Sadly, the well-used Woodland Park B-Cycle station has been closed as the City of Houston determines how to integrate the bike systems into its overall transportation strategy. FWP was instrumental in funding the bike station installation and we are working with our local TIRZ, the Northside Management District, the city and the county to reactivate the station ASAP. See the attached article for more details.

Woodland Park selected as a City of Houston Nature Preserve

A highlight of the FWP Annual General Meeting held October 20, 2022 was the announcement from guest speaker Natahalie Bue, HPARD Park Naturalist, that Woodland Park was one of 26 parks selected as a Nature Preserve under the newly passed City of Houston Nature Preserve Ordinance. In addition to Woodland Park, nearby Freed Art and Nature Park and White Oak Park have also been included. The Preserve designation is focused on the undeveloped natural areas of the parks (for Woodland Park, that’s the bayou area and surrounding riparian forest) and seeks to preserve and restore natural habitat and limits developments to those that support “passive recreation” activities such as hiking and birding. Removal of invasive species and other restoration activities will take place by 2030. See the video below to hear it straight from Nathalie! Thank you to Nathalie and all who were able to attend!

Pickleball Comes to Woodland Park!

FWP is excited to announce that the Woodland Park Community Center will now be hosting Indoor Pickleball every Saturday from 10am-12pm on a trial basis.  The markings on the court aren’t quite perfect but it looks promising for now, and we know that the court is in the queue for resurfacing. FWP has purchased 8 new paddles and balls to help the program get started. Experienced in pickleball and interested in helping out? Please contact Board President Kelli Fereday.

HPARD has a good website on City of Houston pickleball courts – once we have established that people are showing up, our community center manager, Robert Messa, will ask to add Woodland Park.  Interestingly, there are no other community centers offering indoor pickleball on Saturdays! The site nicely describes the location of outdoor courts (something FWP is considering as a project) and whether they are shared with tennis or basketball or stand-alone. 

And, did you catch the news about the recent National Pickleball Tournament at Memorial Park? A first for Houston and recognition of the growing popularity of the sport in Houston and the nation.

October Birding Update and November Reminders!

Mary Goldsby described the October Bird Walk as a very birdy survey, which means that the Fall migration is underway! We had 13 birders and 25 species. See below for a list and links to each bird species seen. Plus, check out this link from Mary to a terrific migration tool . There are additional tools under “Migration Tools” and in particular take a look at the “Migration Dashboard” and type in Harris County, Texas. Our next survey will be Saturday November 12th, 2022 at 7:30am.

Also, now is a great time to join or renew your FWP Membership - or, even better, join and set your membership to “Auto-Renew” or join as a Lifetime Member! Then come join us at our Member Appreciation Happy Hour on Monday, November 7th from 6:00pm-7:30om at the home of our FWP President, Kelli Fereday.

Stand out like an Indigo Bunting!

By joining FWP today!