competition has generated more than $1.2 million<\/a> for nature tourism and avian habitat restoration projects throughout the state.<\/p>\nThe rules are strict, but it’s on the honor system for teams to follow them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine somebody making it up,\u201d Valarie said. \u201cBecause then they\u2019re not having all the fun we\u2019re having when they\u2019re out looking at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘A giant scavenger hunt’ <\/p>\n
Identifying migratory species is difficult even for veteran birders like Jennifer, Valarie and Nilles. Many species look and sound almost indistinguishable from one another, and they are only in Texas once or twice a year. The birds may only stop for a few minutes before continuing their journeys northbound to their final destinations in Canada, Alaska or the Midwest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a giant scavenger hunt,\u201d Jennifer said. \u201cTrying to be in the right place at the right time, it adds a layer of excitement.” <\/p>\n
Within minutes at the wastewater treatment plant, the trio crossed several birds off their list: cattle egret, summer tanager, painted bunting, falcon, white-faced ibis. <\/p>\n
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Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Jennifer said birding is a “silent” economic engine for Texas, generating over a billion dollars annually for the state’s economy. <\/p>\n
“Think about it,” Jennifer said. “They’re buying the camera, they’re buying the binoculars. They’re doing what we’re doing.” <\/p>\n
It took years of practice for the family to be able to quickly identify birds species. The first year they participated in the competition, they “barely broke a hundred birds,” Jennifer said. The winning team for the week-long competition typically identifies more than 300 species.<\/p>\n
“This has helped us be better birders,” Valarie said. “And we’re not afraid to say it.” <\/p>\n
Living in Austin has helped, too. Austin is located within the Central Flyway \u2014 one of the main bird migration routes \u2014 and has a variety of habitats attracting diverse bird species. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s got grasslands, and then it’s got the Colorado River with its riparian lands, and then we have the Edwards Plateau, the Balcones Canyonlands rising up,\u201d Valarie said. \u201cAnd so we get all these different birds, more than most places would have, because of the different habitats crossing each other here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Birding as a way to slow down<\/p>\n
Many birders can trace how they got into the hobby to a “spark bird” \u2014 a bird that enlightened them to the avian universe above.<\/p>\n
For Nilles, it was the dark-eyed junco, a small gray bird in the sparrow family. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love them but I can never see them,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes spark birds are the ones you want to see but you never get a chance to and you really look for them all the time.”<\/p>\n
But for Jennifer, birding was a way to slow down. She started birding while recovering from a back injury after being bucked off a horse several years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed something a little slower to do. So Thomas took me out birding, and I really liked what I saw, and I liked the activity, and I just went all in on it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice mental challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Photo courtesy Jennifer Bristol<\/p>\n
The white-eyed vireo is one of 340 bird species Jennifer, Valarie and Nilles counted during the weeklong competition. <\/p>\n
Jennifer said she also became passionate about protecting birds as they migrate through Austin. She said “more birds are dying than ever” due to building collisions and pesticides. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re driving on the highway this time of year and your windshield is clean, that\u2019s a bad sign,\u201d she said. \u201cThere should be insects everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there’s another reason why Jennifer keeps signing up for the Great Texas Birding Classic: the competition. <\/p>\n
“We always come in second,” she said. <\/p>\n
But they might have a shot this year. They finished the week identifying 340 bird species \u2014 a team best.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we won \u2026 we\u2019ll let everybody know. The entire world will know that we\u2019ve won,\u201d Jennifer said. \u201cI can visualize holding the cup above my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winners will be announced June 13. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a muggy day in late April, Jennifer Bristol stands beside a retention pond, hair tucked behind her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[97157,132,106839,134,133,106843,106840,104110,106841,106842,106844,106845,106846],"class_list":["post-292352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-athena-the-owl","tag-austin","tag-austin-birding-clubs","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-birding-austin","tag-cemetery-birding","tag-great-texas-birding-classic","tag-jennifer-bristol","tag-parking-lot-birding","tag-peak-migration","tag-peak-migration-season","tag-where-to-go-birding-in-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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