[texbirds] 2014 Upper Coast Bicycle Big Day Recap
- From: Ron Weeks <ronweeks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 19:47:15 -0700 (PDT)
TexBirders,
Several of you that saw us along the way asked us to report on the results of
our bicycle Big Day this past Thursday, May 1st. That day John Hale of College
Station and I traveled 78 miles on mountain bikes from northern Chambers County
to High Island and Rollover Pass. Surprisingly, we found a lot of late birds
including 10 duck species, Wilson's Snipe, Yellow-rumped Warbler at 3 different
spots, and even a lingering White-throated Sparrow. We also had a great
shorebird day (Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, and two lingering
Golden-Plovers) along with Bobolinks in 3 spots along the FM1985 corridor and a
surprise Lark Sparrow at Anahuac NWR. But alas, High Island was slow despite
the sprinkles all afternoon. We dug out most of the expected late migrants,
but missed others and spent a lot of extra time. We ended our day along Yacht
Basin Road listening to Clapper Rails and Seaside Sparrow singing on one side
of the road and
a Nelson's Sparrow singing on the other. In the end, we tallied a very
respectable 175 species all without gas, lights, and playback.
We also had an interesting road kill list. On bikes, one can gets a better
look at all those critters in the road. These included two house cats, one
dog, an armadillo, a possum (unshared), a skunk (seen and smelled), an Orchard
Oriole, a large grackle (eye color and head shape not discernable), a Common
Nighthawk and two Least Bitterns (bummer). Most all the dead birds were on the
stretch of SH124 between FM1985 and High Island. We even saw a live Sora
dangling actively from a barbed wire fence along FM1985. John's mom, Linda
Hale, was trailing us - she waded through the ditch to free the bird as we rode
on.
Already looking forward to next year,
Ron Weeks
Lake Jackson
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