Happenings at Hooks Woods
Our efforts to improve Hooks Woods for birds and birders continue. I am happy to report that a memorial to Steve Gross, past president of TOS, is finally underway at Hooks! It is long overdue, but a very nice bird blind is being built as I write this. It is going in at the end of the last boardwalk and will have multiple viewing positions with multiple small drips and a small pond at the end of it. Steve’s memorial is modeled after the bird blind at Estero Llano Grande State Park and if you’ve visited there you'll have an idea of what the finished product will look like. It is going to be a wonderful addition to Hooks Woods. A huge thanks goes to Dave Dolan who has been the driving force behind this!
In addition to checking out the progress of the blind, we also continue to improve the habitat by adding new plants. The planting session on January 29 involved putting in 12 wax myrtles behind the meadow pond. During spring migration last year, we discovered that people walking on the boardwalk behind the pond spooked the birds at the pond. The woods between the boardwalk and pond didn’t have enough understory to block the bird’s view, so we have added the wax myrtles to add a food source as well as a natural screen to block the bird’s view of movement on the boardwalk. We also planted a couple of American beautyberry plants, another good wildlife plant.
Texas Ornithological Society
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If you love birds, Texas is definitely the place for you! With eight different geographical regions to explore, each offering its own, unique wildlife environment; more than 660 species to be discovered; and a location adjacent to the tropical regions of Mexico and Central America, you never know what you might see when you grab your binoculars and head out!
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