birding

NDC Partners with Discovery Green for Special Programs during Paloma Installation

2019-12-12 Maura Denman Birds, News

The Nature Discovery Center is partnering with Discovery Green to offer urban birding opportunities, wildlife encounters, crafts and activities, and a mindfulness experience during Paloma, a temporary art installation of glowing origami birds at Discovery Green. To learn more about the special programming being offered during the art installation, click here.

Urban Bird Walks

Walk with an expert to discover the real wildlife of downtown Houston! These free workshops will begin and end at Discovery Green. Wear your walking shoes and meet at the Lakehouse Café in the park.

Saturday, December 14, 4 – 5 pm

Friday, February 14, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Lovebirds for Valentine’s Day!

Mindfulness in Nature

Saturday, January 11, 11 am – 1 pm

Led by Bethany Foshee of Nature Discovery Center & Heather Sullivan of Mindfulgreen. Join us for a talk about the benefits of mindfulness and nature, followed by three guided meditations on sound, breath, and sensation. Then we’ll lead a mini nature journaling workshop – exploring how art, poetry, and observations help us to find a renewed sense of calm and appreciation for our surroundings. Materials provided or you’re welcome to bring your own journal or sketch book!

For the Birds!

Saturday, February 1, 11 am – 3 pm

Nature Discovery Center and Discovery Green partner to present bird crafts, birding 101 station, hands-on homing pigeon encounter, Wild Birds Unlimited, and an astonishing demonstration by Birds of Prey.

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We’re Partnering with Houston Audubon and others for Bird Week

2019-09-20 Maura Denman Birds, News

We’re excited to be an official partner with the Houston Audubon in the first-ever Houston Bird Week, in honor of their 50th anniversary. Equal parts fun, education, and celebration, experience firsthand the important role Houston plays in the journey of billions of migratory birds, and the everyday life of our urban-dwelling birds. Led by Houston Audubon’s Young Professionals Advisory Council in collaboration with local conservation partners, we have a flock of fun planned for all.

Don’t miss the kick-off party, where an official Bird Beer will be unveiled! From pop-up birding stations to park clean-ups and bioblitzes, your participation and excitement will help us continue to be a welcoming home for Houston’s birds.

We hope you can join us at our birding activities already planned for September 21 – 28.

Let’s get chirping on social media. Use #HoustonBirdWeek to share your excitement! Check out the jam-packed list of events at www.houstonaudubon.org/birdweek

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117 Species Spotted on Spring Migration Field Trip

2019-04-29 Maura Denman Birds, News

Last Friday, April 27, 2019, a group of senior members of the Nature Discovery Center traveled to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge and High Island for our annual Spring Migration Field Trip, a birding trip we offer during the height of spring migration. The bird list reported here includes species seen in Russ Pitman Park before and after the trip, species seen along the roadsides and at pit stops during the trip, and at the two primary birding destinations. In the photo above, birders are gathered at Boy Scout Woods at High Island.

Stopping to look at about 300 migrating Mississippi Kites overhead.

Mary Ann Beauchemin, Senior Naturalist, reports that one of the highlights of the day actually came at a pit stop at a gas station. The group witnessed about 300 Mississippi Kites migrating overhead with some Broad-winged Hawks mixed in!

  • Neotropic Cormorant
  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Anhinga
  • Least Bittern
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Great Egret
  • Snowy Egret
  • Little Blue Heron
  • Tricolored Heron
  • Cattle Egret
  • Green Heron
  • Yellow-crowned Night Heron
  • White Ibis
  • Glossy Ibis
  • White-faced Ibis
  • Roseate Spoonbills
  • Black Vulture
  • Turkey Vulture
  • Black-bellied Whistling Duck
  • Fulvous Whistling Duck
  • Gadwall
  • Mottled Duck
  • Blue-winged Teal
  • Osprey
  • Mississippi Kite
  • Cooper’s Hawk
  • Red-shouldered Hawk
  • Broad-winged Hawk
  • Swainson’s Hawk
  • Crested Caracara
  • Northern Bobwhite Quail
  • Purple Gallinule
  • Common Moorhen
  • American Coot
  • Killdeer
  • Black-necked Stilt
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Solitary Sandpiper
  • Western Sandpiper
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Laughing Gull
  • Forster’s Tern
  • Rock Dove
  • White-winged Dove
  • Mourning Dove
  • Inca Dove
  • Yellow-billed Cuckoo
  • Eastern Screech Owl
  • Common Nighthawk
  • Chuck-will’s-widow
  • Chimney Swift
  • Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  • Eastern Wood-Pewee
  • Alder Flycatcher
  • Great Crested Flycatcher
  • Western Kingbird
  • Eastern Kingbird
  • Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
  • Loggerhead Shrike
  • White-eyed Vireo
  • Blue-headed Vireo
  • Warbling Vireo
  • Philadelphia Vireo
  • Red-eyed Vireo
  • Blue Jay
  • American Crow
  • Purple Martin
  • Tree Swallow
  • Cliff Swallow
  • Barn Swallow
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  • Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
  • Eastern Bluebird
  • Gray-cheeked Thrush
  • Swainson’s Thrush
  • Wood Thrush
  • Gray Catbird
  • Northern Mockingbird
  • European Starling
  • Blue-winged Warbler
  • Golden-winged Warbler
  • Tennessee Warbler
  • Northern Parula
  • Chestnut-sided Warbler
  • Magnolia Warbler
  • Black-throated Green Warbler
  • Blackburnian Warbler
  • Palm Warbler
  • Bay-breasted Warbler
  • Blackpoll Warbler
  • Black-and-white Warbler
  • American Redstart
  • Prothonotary Warbler
  • Worm-eating Warbler
  • Northern Waterthrush
  • Kentucky Warbler
  • Common Yellowthroat
  • Hooded Warbler
  • Canada Warbler
  • Summer Tanager
  • Scarlet Tanager
  • Northern Cardinal
  • Rose-breasted Grosbeak
  • Indigo Bunting
  • Painted Bunting
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Eastern Meadowlark
  • Western Meadowlark
  • Common Grackle
  • Boat-tailed Grackle
  • Great-tailed Grackle
  • Brown-headed Cowbird
  • Orchard Oriole
  • Baltimore Oriole
  • House Sparrow
  • Cedar Waxwing
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March 2019 Wired to Nature

2019-03-21 Maura Denman Life at the center, News

Duran, E. (3/2019) Look! Up in the sky! Our spring bird migration has begun.  Essentials, p. 15

Wired to Nature is the Nature Discovery Center’s regular column in Essentials, a monthly magazine published by InstantNewsNetwork that covers the Bellaire and West University communities. Essentials may be read online at https://current.essentialsmagazines.com/

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Nature Discovery Center
7112 Newcastle, Bellaire, TX 77401
Directions
713.667.6550
mail@naturediscoverycenter.org

The Nature Discovery Center is located in Russ Pitman Park at 7112 Newcastle, Bellaire, TX, just inside West 610 Loop, between Bellaire Blvd and Evergreen.

Discovery Rooms:
Summer Open Hours
(June – August)
Saturday & Sunday
10 am to Noon

 

Schoolyear Open Hours
(Late Aug – Late May)
Tuesday – Thursday
10 am – 12 noon
4 pm – 6 pm

Russ Pitman Park
7 days per week
5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

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