“I prefer winter and fall when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it; the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
Andrew Wyeth
Signs of Life
I was going to write about the cold starkness of the winter landscape; scratching out an existence from a growing season that has passed. The signs of life that winter’s grip as loosen and let go. Golden Groundsel (Packera aucea), Winecup (Callirhoe involucrate), Yellow Columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha), and Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum rufidulum) are poking their green heads out from the winter’s slumber. But, no, something else caught my eyes.
State of the Birds = State of the Prairies = State of the Environment
As many of you know, I’m a birder at heart. I was reading an article in one of my birding publications from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, Living Bird (Winter 2023, Vol. 42, Issue 1), on the state of birds. The article, “Three Years After 3 Billion Birds Lost, America’s Birds Are Still in Decline” by Krishna Ramanujan, states that three years ago a research paper, “State of the Birds Report” in the journal Science, reported that in North America, since 1970, we have lost an estimated 3 billion breeding birds in every habitat except wetlands.
The habitat or groups of birds that lost the largest percentage of breeding birds were the grassland birds (34%). Folks, that is the blackland / tallgrass prairies. Amanda Rodewald, the Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Avian Population Studies and a co-chair of The State of the Birds science committee said, “The rapid declines in birds signal the intensifying stresses that wildlife and people alike are experiencing around the world because of habitat loss, environmental degradation and extreme climate events.” The 2022 edition of this report states that the bird populations are in a rapid decline, and it identified 70 species which are considered “Tipping Point” species. (Birds which are not considered endangered or threatened – yet). These are birds which have lost 50% of their population in the last 50 years and are expected to lose 50% of their remaining population in the next 50 years. Out of the 70 Tipping Point species, 31 can be found in Texas at some point during the year and 18 can be seen on the Blackland Prairie during the year.
If You Build It, There Is Hope
A couple of weeks ago, I was watching the backyard as an assemblage of birds were feeding on the seeds from Texas Cupgrass (Eriochloa sericea) and Lindheimer’s Muhly (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri), when one particular sparrow caught my eye. A large, tan sparrow with black necklaces and black speckling on top of its head – a Harris’s Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula), one of our largest sparrows in North America. The Harris’s Sparrow is unique among sparrows in that it nests in the boreal forest on the edge of the tundra in northern Canada. It has one of the more restrictive winter ranges of any winter sparrow in the lower 48 states, with its range being from central Kansas to central Texas and concentrated in the tallgrass prairies. I have three Harris’s Sparrows spending the winter in my little pocket prairie that’s only about 1,400 sq. ft. And what makes this even more special, the Harris’s Sparrow is one of the 70 Tipping Point species mentioned in “The State of the Birds” report. Doug Tallamy is right; your yard can make a difference! We have the ability to leverage habitat loss and environmental degradation. Every little bit of native habitat helps.
More Good News…
Good news was received a few days before I penned this article. If you remember from last year, the largest tract of tallgrass prairie left in northern Texas, the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie, was sold, then leased to the Danish clean-energy company, Orsted, who planned to build a solar farm on the prairie. Through the efforts of David Bezanson of The Nature Conservancy, Orsted has agreed to purchase almost 1,000 acres of the 1,700 acres of the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie and donate it to The Nature Conservancy, to be protected forever. I know we are losing 700+ acres, but the way it stood, we were going to lose the entire 1,700 acres. Kudos to David Bezanson and The Nature Conservancy and to Orsted for doing the right thing. This is a win for us and native prairies.
Final Thoughts
If one looks hard enough, even in the depths of winter, one can find hope and promise of new life beginning or a life being saved, whether it’s a sparrow or a prairie. We just have to find those little jewels of hope that keeps us going through the fight.
Matt White, a professor of U.S. and Texas history and the author of Birds of Northeast Texas and Prairie Time, A Blackland Portrait, will be our March Speaker. His topic will be the flora of northeast Texas and will speak to the plants of the tallgrass prairies. He will also lead a field trip to the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie sometime this spring (details are still pending – watch our website for more information).
