Some Notes on the Birds of Brownsville, Texas

Abstract

A LONG cherished scheme of the writer's to visit the lower Rio Grande was put into execution during the winter of 1927-28, when a stay of a little over two months, from December 28 to March 1, was made at Brownsville with trips to Point Isabel on the coast and to several points on the river below the town. The accounts of this region by many naturalists who have visited it, commencing with the narratives of Sennett's expeditions in 1877 and 1878 had given the present writer a very erroneous conception of the physical characters of the district. A tropical region was expected with at least some stretches of heavy timber. Instead a typical thorny scrub country was encountered, mesquite, ebony, huisache and other thorny leguminous trees were the rule with scattering ashes and hackberries, none of which were much more than big bushes. The largest trees were imported ones, palms and willows, the native palm being a comparatively low tree and confined to one or two localities. Two important changes have taken place since the visits of Sennett and Dresser. First, there is much more water, the irrigation schemes have resulted in the filling with water of most of the dry channels which had grown up to large mesquites, the latter are still standing but have been killed in such situations and resacas formed which wind through the bush for miles. Second, the wide coastal prairie belt has been greatly encroached upon by advancing mesquites; according to the late R. D. Camp, who had resided at Brownsville for over twenty years, the tree line had advanced over five miles in many places during his residence, and it still continues to advance. This change will not benefit the many species of birds which now find a home on these wide plains. The first named change however, provides suitable retreats for ducks, herons, waders and rails where formerly there was heavy brush with only a few water-filled resacas. These winding sloughs are all full of fish, and cormorants and many species of herons and ibises are probably more plentiful than they were fifty years ago.