FOR THE BIRDS

San Antonio park promotes conservation with new birdhouse exhibits and tours

Casa de Ave by Marlon Blackwell Architects

Photo by Ansen Seale

Thanks to the month-long “Birdsong Brackenridge” benefit for the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, many new birdhouses are being designed by young children and expert architects alike — all in recognition of San Antonio's most historic park. And you’ll get the chance to become a birding expert with a new series of tours through May.

New birdhouses designed by local school children will be on display at the San Antonio Central Library beginning April 18. The project is just one way the library is collaborating with the conservancy to bring together children, leading architects, and local artistry.

The young minds behind the man-made nests are Bonham Academy and Hawthorne Academy fifth grade school children who are part of Kids Initiating Design Solutions (KIDS) architecture program at the University of San Antonio’s Young Artists Program. The birdhouses will be unveiled at the public reception during the library’s grand reopening celebration at 5:30 pm, and will be exhibited until the end of April.

Suzanne Mathews, Lucifer Lighting director and the coordinator of the Birdsong Brackenridge benefit, said in a press release that she has always considered nonprofit collaboration to be the most important aspect of improving the local community. Her latest endeavor is the perfect pairing to increase community engagement among public entities like the park and library.

“This partnership is one of several collaborations the Conservancy is doing with nonprofits over the next six months, and we look forward to sharing more programming with the community,” she said.

The latest round of birdhouse exhibits follows just a week after the “Party in the Park: Birdsong Brackenridge” fundraising gala that took place on April 11. Grammy Award-winning music supervisor Randall Poster, who is also behind the musical benefit “For the Birds: The Birdsong Project”, co-hosted the evening where ten internationally-recognized architects unveiled specially designed birdhouses for the park. All of the birdhouses are now on display at the McNay Art Museum.

“Great cities are defined by great public spaces,” said participating architects Angie Brooks and Larry Scarpa in the release. “Texas is the most bird-diverse state in the nation, and we are honored to create a unique sculpture for the birds of Brackenridge Park; contributing to the future of this important cultural resource for San Antonio[.]”

Birdsong Brackenridge Birdhouse Home Tweet Home by Brooks + Scarpa.Photo by Ansen Seale

Photo by Ansen Seale

Multi Martin Housing by Lake | Flato

Following their display at the museum, the birdhouses will be installed at Brackenridge Park in the fall.

The 10 architects that designed birdhouses for the gala include:

Marlon Blackwell
Angie Brooks and Larry Scarpa, Brooks + Scarpa
Roberto de Leon, de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar, Snøhetta
Ted Flato, Lake | Flato
Everett L. Fly
Michael G. Imber
David Jameson
Tom Kundig, Olson Kundig
Judy Pesek, Gensler

If you want to get an up close and personal look at the biodiversity of the park, the conservancy is now hosting bird and nature walks for families and adults from April 18 through May 6. Birding beginners and experts alike will enjoy this all-skill level tour exploring the natural stretches of the San Antonio River. All tours are free to the public, but reservations are required.

Here are the tour dates and times:

Adult group – April 18 and 19 from 8-10 am
Adult and family groups – April 23 and May 6 from 8-10 am

More information about the Brackenridge Park Conservancy can be found at brackenridgepark.org.

parks brackenridge park san antonio architecture architects design birds

Meteor News

How to see the Draconid meteor shower in San Antonio this week

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Meteor shower

A meteor shower will be visible from most of North America, including San Antonio, during the week of October 6-10.

The Draconid meteor shower – also called the Giacobinids – was predicted to produce the most meteor activity on the night of October 7 and through the early hours of October 8, but there is still time to catch the tail end.

There will still be sightings on subsequent nights, stargazing experts say.

According to EarthSky, a cool website devoted to all things starry, the Draconids will be visible right after it gets dark, rather than the more common early morning hours most meteor showers are visible.

The best time will be just after sunset, until around midnight. Viewers won't have to stay up until the crack of dawn.

Helping to make the meteor even more visible is a waxing moon, barely a crack, which will cast less light and keep the sky darker overall.

EarthSky says that the meteors are radiating from two stars known as the Dragon’s Eyes, called Eltanin and Rastaban, found in the constellation Draco. Which is located in between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.

However, the meteor shower will be visible across the sky.

The shower is dubbed a "sleeper" in that it produces only a handful of meteors — 10 per hour. But they move slower, so the duration of each streak of light sometimes lasts longer — one to two seconds, rather than a rapid flash.

Meteor showers consist of debris left behind by comets and asteroids, which throw off bits of rock and ice as they orbit the sun. The Draconids are the result of Earth passing through this trail from the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. The comet completes an orbit of the sun about every seven years, and according to CNN, the last time it got this close to Earth was in September, 2018.

The best way to see it is to find a place that's far from artificial light, then lie on your back and look up at the sky with a wide view. No special equipment is needed.

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