Chasing birds across Texas : a birding big year / Mark T. Adams ; foreword by Brush Freeman ; drawings by Kelly B. Bryan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Mark Thomas.

Series:

Louise Lindsey Merrick natural environment series ; no. 35.

Louise Lindsey Merrick natural environment series ; no. 35

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birds--Counting--Texas.

Birds.

Birds--Texas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On the morning of January 1, 2000, Mark T. Adams started counting birds. His goal was to find the largest possible number of species in one year in Texas, an undertaking known in birding parlance as a Big Year. By the evening of December 31, he had tied the record of 489 species seen or heard within the state's borders in a single calendar year. Traveling 30,000 miles across Texas by car and 18,000 miles by plane, Adams alone saw 92 percent of all bird species reported in the state in 2000. In "Chasing Birds across Texas, " Adams invites birders and others with a broad interest in the outdoors to join him in exploring Texas' varied habitats on his quest for birds--from the upper coast to the lower coast; into the Hill Country, the Panhandle, and the Chihuahuan Desert; and up the Davis, Chisos, and Guadalupe Mountains. As he happily celebrates the bounty of the Valley's spring migration or desperately searches for a Panhandle rarity, we watch him grow as a naturalist, exult in the Texas landscape, and benefit from the company of some of the world's best birders. Informative, inspiring, and great fun, "Chasing Birds across Texas" conveys as perhaps no other bird book can the humor, obsession, dedication, and adventure that are all part of the sport of birding.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Foreword""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""Birth of a Birder and a Texas Big Year""; ""Starting Close to Home""; ""The Rio Grande Valley in Winter""; ""Pursuing Varied Thrush""; ""Home and Away Games""; ""Northeast Texas Rarities""; ""A Long Weekend in the Pineywoods""; ""Big Year Nemesis Number One""; ""Dawn at the Lek""; ""Into the Ooze""; ""Spring Migration""; ""The Road to Four Hundred Species""; ""West Texas Bounty""; ""Late Spring in the Rio Grande Valley""; ""Strategies and Surprises""; ""Big Year Nemesis Number Two""; ""Into the Gulf of Mexico""

""Among Butterflies and Friends""""Red Birds in August""; ""Adventures while Chasing a Long-tailed Jaeger""; ""Welcoming the Invaders""; ""Studies in Pain""; ""Two West Texas Gifts""; ""Of Owls and Cranes""; ""Frantic December Days""; ""Chasing to the End""; ""Reflections on a Texas Big Year""; ""Texas Big Year Species List""; ""Other Species Seen in Texas in 2000""; ""Index""

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1-299-05228-2

1-60344-630-3

OCLC:

774384893