The Galveston County Daily News

GALVESTON — The migratory bird season is booming in healthy yards and well-stocked feeder stations in Galveston, probably because weather patterns channeled more birds our way this year, experts said.

But if the northern front descends this weekend, expect an exodus.

“I suspect, if that front really does make it all the way to the coast like they’re saying it will, that’s going to be the trigger for those birds to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m taking that tail wind and I’m going,’” Cecilia M. Riley, executive director of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, said. “It’s going to be sad; I’m going to miss them.

“I have really enjoyed having so many of them here, bickering over feeders and flowers.”

Dr. Doris Lee, of Galveston, had so many hummingbirds crowding the feeders hanging from her porch roof that she called the newspaper.

“Suddenly here I am, with this swarm of hummingbirds,” she said.

Lee, a retired anesthesiologist, has watched hummingbirds from her porch on 12th Street for years. Her five feeders, kept supplied by her son and daughter-in-law, usually attract three or four ruby-throated hummingbirds at a time. But for the last three or four days, Lee has counted as many as 16 birds consistently competing for feeder spots.

“I’ve never seen hummingbirds that thick,” she said.

Jim Stevenson, director of the Galveston Ornithological Society, has noticed a larger number of fall migratory birds in his yard, which largely was spared by the hurricane.

“My one really good hummingbird plant has been pretty much an avian hotel for the last several weeks,” he said.

But not all Galveston County residents are seeing more migratory birds. Stevenson hypothesized that homesteads less damaged by the hurricanes or offering stocked feeder stations are attracting more birds.

“I mean, they’re like an oasis right now where you can find food,” he said.

Even with the hurricane damage, this has been a good year for bird watchers on the upper Texas coast, Riley said. The veteran ornithologist has studied migration and bird habitats from the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory headquartered in Lake Jackson for more than 13 years.

“Every few years, we seem to get the bulk of migration that goes through our coast areas,” she said. She pointed to wind patterns as a primary factor because upper level winds push birds onto different trajectories in their southbound migration.

The ruby-throated hummingbirds are temporary visitors in Galveston, with fall season flight plans for southern areas of Mexico, Central America and even as far south as Costa Rica.

The birds usually are gone from Galveston County by the end of October.

But come spring, the birds migrate through our area again, en route to breeding grounds up north, toward the eastern seaboard and even into Canada.

“It’s kind of sad when they all take off,” Riley said. “But they’ll be back. They’ll be back.”