Houston Audubon is sponsoring bird surveys on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Mary Dodson is leading the surveys. Please meet Mary at 8:30 AM (7:00 AM in June, July and August) on the Shelterwood side of the park. The park is located at 2600 West 11th Street, Houston, 77008.

Birders are asked to record their sightings on Texas Texas eBird. John Berner has established an hotspot name for bird sighting data there.

Map and Birding Information (PDF) prepared by the Friends of the West 11th Street Park.

West 11th Street Park Website

Breeding Bird Survey of W. 11th St. Park

Mark Kulstad is leading a study of breeding birds at this site. The following is his first report (June 6, 2008).

HAS Bird Survey work has contributed greatly to the growing bird list of W. 11th Street Park on eBird, now one of the longest eBird lists among urban Houston sites. An effort has been made to determine not only the presence of various species in the park but also their breeding status. Below is a preliminary report on such breeding, accompanied by a call for assistance in these efforts. Concluding this report is a listing of notable species observed this spring in W. 11th Street Park.

Eastern Screech-Owl image courtesy of Mark Kulstad
May 18, 2008: W. 11th St. Park

Birds that have nested in W. 11th Street Park

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Great Horned Owl
Eastern Screech-Owl
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (notable given the rarity of this species in Houston in summer)
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Pine Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Call for Volunteers: any help in confirming nesting of other species in W. 11th Street Park would be very much appreciated; as a sample, the following species seem to be present in the park this spring more persistently than might be accounted for by migration movements alone -- Eastern Wood-Pewee, White-eyed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Blue Grosbeak; please email any reports to kulstad@rice.edu.

Notable species observed in the spring of 2008 in W. 11th Street Park

Eastern Screech-Owl (red morph)
Pileated Woodpecker (nesting)
Cliff Swallow (colony nesting nearby on White Oak Bayou)
Painted Bunting
Blue Grosbeak
Bronzed Cowbird
Northern Flicker (late date, 5/18/08)