Text Box: SHOREBIRDS OF THE UPPER TEXAS COAST Cin-Ty A. Lee ctlee@rice.edu This file represents the results of shorebird surveys and observations that I conducted between 2003 and 2006 along the Upper Texas Coast. The data are located in the "data" worksheet. These include 136 entries, which covered the following localities: Bolivar Peninsula High Island Anahuac NWR and vicinity Beaumont (Tyrell Park and Beaumont Sewage Ponds) East Beach, Galveston Pelican Island, Galveston Galveston city San Luis Pass Bryan Beach and Quintana Brazoria NWR Texas City I was not able to conduct surveys uniformly throughout the year. Nevertheless, nearly each week of the year was surveyed. In the summer and fall months, survey frequencies were much higher, reaching an integrated average of one every 2 or 3 days. The identification accuracy in this dataset is 100 % (questionable identifications are never included in this dataset). Species counts are reported on respective Charts. Two sets of data are reported. First, all of the dates that were surveyed are noted along the bottom horizontal axis. Second, the species count for each date are plotted. The combined plots allow the reader to quickly see whether a hiatus in the appearance of a particularly species of bird is a real phenomenon or instead an artifact of no survey being conducted during that time. Regarding the reported numbers. These numbers are first and foremost best used to determine when a species is likely to occur. Actual numbers within a given season could vary significantly because surveys were conducted in different areas along the upper Texas coast and because habitat suitability varies not only yearly but even every few days. This might lead some readers to question the usefulness of this dataset. However, the philosophy taken here is that shorebird numbers themselves are unpredictable, depending on habitat availibility. Thus, the scatter in numbers simply reveals the reality of how variable shorebird numbers can be. For the field observer, this is the sort of variability he/she might expect to see by going out on any given day. Along these lines, I have also attempted to draw in a seasonal abundance curve in each chart along with various annotations, such as when juveniles arrive in the fall. This seasonal abundance curve is somewhat subjective, based primarily on my own experience. For example, occasionally there are outliers such as one day in a given season where for some odd reason there was a massive influx of birds (almost like a dirac-delta function) far beyond the normal background. In such a case, this data would be treated as an anomaly. Fitting a time-series to such data would simply result in nonsense unless the data were weighted in some manner. Because the weighting of a data point would in our case be subjective itself, the philosophy here is that one can simply rely on one's own experience in the field (e.g., nothing can replace field experience). In any case, the raw data are shown so the reader can judge for him/herself the reasonability of my abundance curves. Overall, I am fairly confident that this dataset is a robust representation of the seasonal status of shorebirds along the upper Texas coast for most species. There are, however, a few species that will require many more years of surveying to develop a full understanding of their numbers and migratory patterns. These are birds that have somewhat of a sporadic occurrence along the upper Texas coast or are rather secretive. For example, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, Upland Sandpiper, American Golden Plover and Baird's Sandpiper, while not uncommon along the upper Texas coast, are only found in very specific habitats, such as recently flooded rice fields. Flooded rice fields are very ephemeral and therefore somewhat unpredictable in terms of their occurrence. Because most of my counts were on weekends, if I was unable to find a flooded rice field, some of these birds were not recorded. Clearly, these birds could be found in other rice fields outside of the region. American Woodcock and Common Snipe patterns in my dataset are also not representative because I see so few of the former and the latter is a bird that frequents heavily vegetated freshwater ponds, which I do not survey on a regular basis. Finally, vagrants such as Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Red-necked Phalarope and Mountain Plover are simply vagrants. During the 3 years of my surveys, there have also been two records of Surfbird and several records of Purple Sandpiper, which are not included in this dataset (but the reader can refer to North American Birds for details of these observations). Another bird that warrants further attention is American Oystercatcher. This is a bird that has very specific habitat requirements, e.g. sandbars and mudflats with oysters. There are several known localities where oystercatchers occur all year-round, but these were often not surveyed regularly. The data reported here are only to be used for one's own personal education. If you want to use this data for research purposes, contact me first. This is not because I do not want to share the data, but because it is important that anyone who uses this database understands its strengths and limitations. If you have questions or would like to comment/contribute to this effort, please feel free to contact me.