Hays’ Bird Cities

Places, Planning, and The Point

Mimi Cavender

Bird City Texas is a certification program developed by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in collaboration with Audubon Texas. According to the Audubon Texas Bird City website, the program's purpose is "to help people protect birds and their habitats where we live, work, and recreate." Certification requirements are designed to address habitat loss and other harmful impacts on birds.

What are the projects and their organizing entities contributing to Hays County cities’ certification? It’s complicated. Folks from various organizations often cross-volunteer among multiple opportunities across the County.

But the prestigious Bird City designation is, after all, granted to cities! So let’s look at how, by spring 2025, Dripping Springs, Wimberley, and San Marcos have certified.

“As early as 2014, Hays County Commissioners Court commissioned the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ to develop a birding network for Hays County. They saw that having a birding network would encourage increased tourism and that our Master Naturalists had the knowledge needed to build it.” —Larry Calvert

So, where are the places and projects that have helped certify Hays County’s first three Bird Cities?

Dripping Springs: Bird City!

In northern Hays County, Dripping Springs became the first Hays Bird City in January, 2022. It was a formerly sleepy suburb of Austin, 30 miles to the east, but now its bedrooms are building out in all directions across heritage ranchland rich with oak and juniper, prairie grasses, and wildflowers. Its nights are not as starry or its water as plentiful as ten years ago. But residents are determined to cherish what Hill Country treasure remains and to keep it in perpetuity. Becoming a Bird City is a big step.

Organizations contributing to the City’s certification as a Bird City include the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™; Hays County Friends of the Night Sky and DarkSky Texas; Wild Birds Unlimited; and Dripping Springs Birding Club.

Paul Fushille, a Travis County Natural Resource Specialist, had founded the Dripping Springs Birding Club and its Facebook page in 2018. According to City Administrator Michelle Fischer, that same year, Fushille (now Chair of Dripping Springs Parks Commission) formed the initial Bird City application team with local retailer Amanda Peña-Bustillos, HCMN Connie Boltz, and with then Dripping Springs Parks and Community Services director Mariana Espinoza.

Dripping Springs included for-profit sponsoring partners when working for its Bird City certification. Amanda Peña-Bustillos’ local Wild Birds Unlimited store, with support from Austin Subaru on Burnet Road, continues to donate bird seed and feeders to bird projects in local parks and schools.

Amanda is “delighted to see that other Hays County cities have also received [Bird City] designation. We are a little biased, but we truly believe the Texas Hill Country is one of the greatest places to watch birds. This special designation shows that our communities are working hard to keep it a place where birds can thrive!”

In his report, Dripping Springs—Bird City! in the Hays Humm October 2024, Master Naturalist and Charro Ranch Park project coordinator Mike Meves is proud of the city’s accomplishment:

“Thanks to teamwork by the city and local birders, including the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™, Dripping Springs was designated a Texas Audubon Bird City in 2022 and has risen in the ranks of birding ‘hotspots’ in the state…Dripping Springs alone now boasts four parks listed among the top fifty birding hotspots in Hays County, according to eBird, with Dripping Springs Ranch Park climbing to sixth place.”

“Drip” residents have long worked in or outside environmental organizations to appreciate and protect their natural places. Families participate in Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch. And because migrating birds (and all living things) need dark nights, folks practice smart lighting and show up for star parties and Lights Out Texas! campaigns. Family fun and trail maintenance volunteer opportunities abound in bird-rich locations such as Charro Ranch Park and Dripping Springs Ranch Park. And there’s more public-access greenspace in development under Parks and Community Services director Andrew Binz. Community Events Coordinator Johnna Krantz now maintains the Bird City program for Dripping Springs. They have their work cut out for them, as Bird City certification is monitored by Audubon and TPWD for renewal every three years.

So, as suburban sprawl churns out of Austin just to the east, Bird City Dripping Springs and savvy area landowners are rushing to protect their water sources, their dark nights, their remaining wild bird habitat—in other words, our iconic Texas Hill Country.

Wimberley: Bird City!

Wimberley residents fought off the big hardware super store but are divided into two tribes: those who want a Starbucks and those who don’t. But they all love birds. Wimberley is the heart of a county that’s the heart of the Hill Country under skies that are the heart of the North American Central Flyway for the Western Hemisphere’s 400 migrating bird species. Folks are acutely aware that their once sleepy Blanco riverside artists’ refuge and weekend vacation village is being encroached upon by vast suburbs closing in from Dripping Springs to the north and from San Marcos at the south end of Hays County. In the past decade, RR12, which connects north and south Hays County, has doubled its lanes to accommodate the traffic traversing Hays on workdays and on tourist-choked weekends.

With economic growth also come increasing threats to water resources and wildlife habitat. When announcing Wimberley’s certification as a Bird City, Texas Parks and Wildlife says that as “a champion of community-driven conservation, Wimberley has prioritized dark-sky initiatives and native plant restoration to support local and migratory birds.”

Wimberley is uniting its community to protect what keeps it the beating heart of the eastern Texas Hill Country. Major participants include Wimberley Birding Society, Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™, Hill Country Native Plant Society, Watershed Association, Wimberley Valley Dark Skies Association, Visit Wimberley, Wimberley Parks Advisory Board, Friends of Wimberley Parks, Hill Country Alliance, Wimberley Valley radio station KWVH, and SWCA Environmental Consultants. Many of the area’s bird-smart folks often volunteer with several organizations county wide.

These organizations’ volunteers create materials and deliver nature education in Wimberley’s parks and protected green spaces, such as Patsy Glenn Refuge with its new engineered wetland; and near watercourses as in Blue Hole Regional Park and its trail-connected Cypress Creek Nature Preserve; and at bluebird-thronged Jacob’s Well Natural Area. Hays County Master Naturalist’s Nest Box project maintains bluebird boxes at Patsy Glenn Refuge, Blue Hole Regional Park, and Jacob’s Well Natural Area.

City-sponsored summer day camps and star parties host a variety of trained volunteer-staffed exhibits. Families enjoy nature education projects, such as Hays County Master Naturalist’s Wild About Nature project with its strong bird component featuring a photo scavenger hunt of Hays County’s most recognizable birds. Wimberley Birding Society’s 19-year-old Birding Field Day gets third graders outdoors, binoculars in hand, identifying local birds at Patsy Glenn bird blind. Nearby, Hill Country Native Plant Society volunteers maintain a demonstration Pollinator Garden.

Wimberley is also a Dark Sky city in a Lights Out Hays County, ensuring that our twice-yearly migrating birds enjoy hazard-free passage through our night skies and that our resident birds (and all life forms!) get healthful sleep.

Upriver, Wimberley’s new Blanco River public access nature park, Sentinel Peak Preserve, is in the works, as is enhancement and protection of the downtown stretch of Cypress Creek Nature Preserve.

Richard Shaver, Director of Wimberley Parks and Recreation, wrote the Bird City application. For an inside look, read Wimberley’s application submission details on the Bird City Texas website. The documentation reveals a network of city, volunteer, and for-profit collaborations toward achieving Bird City designation. Shaver writes:

“We are incredibly proud to be recognized as a Bird City Texas community, a reflection of the hard work and dedication of so many individuals who care deeply about our natural spaces. The City of Wimberley’s Parks and Recreation Department played a key role in this achievement, particularly through habitat restoration, native plant initiatives, and public education efforts.
“Our team, led by Park Operations Manager Erica Flocke, has worked tirelessly to enhance and protect spaces such as Blue Hole Regional Park, ensuring they remain welcoming havens for both wildlife and people. This certification also highlights the strong spirit of volunteerism in Wimberley, … preserving the beauty and biodiversity that make the Hill Country so special.”

San Marcos: Bird City!

San Marcos, at the south end of Hays County at RR12 and I-35, for a decade now has been neck and neck with Buda and Kyle as fastest-growing city in the United States! It had been a small college town until 2008, when Lyndon Johnson’s alma mater became Texas State University, and old tree-shaded cottage neighborhoods exploded into the new millennium’s gated suburbs, which have never stopped growing, devouring ranchland and wildlife habitat.

In certifying San Marcos as a Bird City, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recognizes San Marcos “for its conservation of riparian habitats, avian expertise in the area, and expansive partnerships to protect green spaces in this ever-growing community.”

A wealth of human resources in this university town have created a powerful environmentalist community. This area’s urban explosion is offset when city government partners with academics and trained volunteers, who study and protect Spring Lake, San Marcos Springs, the San Marcos River, and the Blanco River—San Marcos’ iconic riparian confluence, rich in diverse bird habitat.

The City is expanding its wildly popular green spaces and parks: Purgatory Creek Natural Area, Spring Lake Natural Area, Ringtail Ridge Natural Area, Schulle Canyon Natural Area, Blanco Shoals Natural Area, Sessom Creek Park, and the River Recharge Natural Area. All bring hikers and birders and tourist dollars to San Marcos. All are protected habitat for this area’s migrating and resident birds.

Bird City certification resulted from collaboration among visionary folks with The City of San Marcos, San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance, San Marcos River Foundation, San Marcos Discovery Center, The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, American Bird Conservancy, Hays County Friends of the Night Sky, DarkSky Texas, Texas Land Conservancy, and Capital Improvements/Engineering.

Niki Lake, Discovery Center Specialist, San Marcos Discovery Center, who co-wrote the final application for Bird City certification, credits Master Naturalist and founding member of San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance Jo Ellen Korthals as the project’s 2020 initiator. Melanie Howard and Amy Thomaides joined Jo along a COVID-interrupted three-year gestation period. Niki points to Jo as “the driving force behind this initiative”:

“Jo has done so much for the environment in San Marcos… [She is] a Texas Master Naturalist, founding member of San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance, member of San Marcos River Foundation. She has helped to get funding and helped to build a bird blind in Schulle Canyon Natural Area, [received a grant for] a monarch/pollinator garden at the Meadows Center last year, and she regularly leads invasive removal and plantings there. Her impacts on and contributions to wildlife conservation in the city have been immense.
I see San Marcos becoming a part of the Bird City network not only as a great honor, born of the hard work and commitment of our Bird City collaborative body, but also as a mandate to continue to grow and prioritize the protection of birds and their habitat. We are forming a local “corridor” of Bird Cities, including Wimberley, Dripping Springs, Austin, Bastrop and Cedar Hill, and I look forward to finding ways to work together to further protect birds along this portion of the Central Flyway.”

Inspired collaboration on environmental projects often engenders camaraderie. Jo, in turn calls Niki “an awesome force, who in 2024 took the lead and threw everything at it!” Current Parks and Recreation director Jamie Lee Case, who will now maintain the city’s Bird City certification, says “San Marcos is thrilled that all the hard work paid off.”

And Next?

Lake Kensington, Kyle, Texas
Photo courtesy Kyle Parks and Recreation

Buda and Kyle, in eastern Hays County, just west of Austin along I-35, are perennially neck and neck with San Marcos for fastest-growing city in the United States! These cities are becoming bedroom communities for Austin. But both are surrounded by farm- and ranchland with remaining tracts of mesquite, oak, cedar elm, and juniper. Stock tanks, creeks, small lakes, and urban retention ponds provide a variety of surface water. Both cities are busy protecting this diverse bird habitat by creating parks and greenspace preserves.

Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ (HCMN) and other environmentalist volunteer projects are multiplying there. Houston transplants and Austin refugees throng to family nature education events, eager to feel at home with cedar, mesquite, critters, and birds. Both cities will doubtlessly be the next to certify as Texas Bird Cities.

From Kyle Parks Conservation Division Manager and Urban Biologist John Davis:

“The city of Kyle applauds our neighboring cities, Dripping Springs, San Marcos, and Wimberley for having been awarded the prestigious Bird City Texas status. Achieving such status is a rigorous endeavor and demonstrates significant investment and effort toward making their cities more ecologically healthy and sustainable for wildlife and people. Kyle has set its sights on achieving this goal and hopes to soon join the list of cities in Hays County working diligently toward a better tomorrow.”

The Point?

Photo courtesy About the Cover… by Tom Hausler, Hays Humm April 2023

Ultimately, anywhere there is sufficient natural habitat, birds thrive. And as Audubon Texas engagement manager Chloe Crumley reminds us, “where birds thrive, people prosper.”

Coordinated community-wide actions are an important step forward in Texans’ campaign to protect our migrating and resident birds. Global warming, drought, urbanization, diminishing water reserves, vanishing habitat, and disease result in decreasing numbers of birds and of entire species. Since 1995, the United States has lost 50% of its birds. Will a spring very soon be silent?

Yes, where birds thrive, people prosper! Thriving bird populations are an indicator of overall environmental health—the health of our air, water, and food—remember the canary in the coal mine? A healthy balance of people and wildlife habitat is also conducive to economic health. As our increasingly peopled planet is discovering, still-natural areas full of birdsong draw people eager to recreate there and live nearby. For cities large and small, birds are just good business.

In a changing climate, a changing landscape, the more Hill Country nature we preserve, the fewer Texas birds we lose. Our ecology, our economy, our very identity, depends on bird-friendly actions now. Our grandchildren will thank us.

Get your team together. Make your town the next Bird City.

Photos courtesy of Kyle Parks and Recreation