[texbirds] A Contrast of Warblers

From: Anthony Hewetson <fattonybirds@xxxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Anthony Hewetson <fattonybirds@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 12:18:45 -0500
Greetings All:
Looking over my long post of highlights from the recent trip to Houston and
beyond, a couple of things stand out.

One: though, on the surface, it seems that I did fairly well for warblers
it should be borne in mind that was 79 hours worth of birding, most of
which was in mind-bogglingly good habitat in a region well known for
unusual diversity and numbers of migrant songbirds.  Things were, as
several others have posted from the meeting, purty darned slow with regards
to warblers - the birding version of pulling teeth.

Two: though I managed to tally a pretty good list of warblers by the end of
the trip I did not have, at any point during the trip, a multiple
warbler-bush or multiple warbler-tree experience.  This is the kind of
experience I generally expect during a trip to that region and it just
wasn't (aside from the omnipresent Northern Parulas) happening.

Contrast this with an experience I had earlier today while watching a
single large live oak on the TTU HSC Campus in Lubbock for fifteen minute -
from inside the building while waiting in a line.  2 Orange-crowned
Warblers, 1 Nashville Warbler, 2 Yellow Warblers, 1 Townsend's Warbler, and
2 Wilson's Warblers all foraging away - seen without binoculars and with no
particular effort.  When you can't buy an experience like that at some of
the places I visited in Matagorda, Brazoria, Liberty, Orange, Newton,
Jasper, Tyler, and Polk Counties you know things are slow.

The weather was working against birders (but for birds - yay) during the
bulk of the TOS meeting.  It is now working for birders (but against birds
- boo) in my region with birds facing cool temperatures and stiff winds in
their struggle to move northward and westward.

Habitat just away from the coast, I think, works against birders as well -
with birds spread thin as they fan out into thousands of square miles of
wooded habitat (as opposed to my region where finding migrants can boil
down to finding the one good woodlot in a hundred square miles of
cotton/sorghum) but this past weekend was well beyond that effect with
passage migrants in sparse numbers at even the best sites (Matagorda County
Birding and Nature Center, Wilderness Park/Gulf Coast Bird Observatory,
Martin Dies Jr. State Park, Lake Livingston State Park, etc...) according
to the bulk of the many, many birders I spoke to during and just after the
conference.

I would not be surprised at all, given the weather I was driving in to on
Tuesday, to find out that things started picking up just about when we were
all leaving:)

Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock


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[texbirds] A Contrast of Warblers

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