I spent the day in Chambers County at Anahuac and Smith point. The hawk show was truly spectacular with great variety, plumages actions etc. The day started foggy and not very birdy as you could not see much past the roadside ditches. Then when it started to melt, the glare made it hard to bird. Not much seen around shoveler pond and down to the bay. The place to be at Anahuac is at the oyster bayou tract andor the boat launch area just across the road. Its a show. There is a large goose roost there and also the geese feed in the marsh just to the west. And the predators gather. If the geese all go up, the eagle is there. One in the am chased off all the geese for a while. The boat launch area is flooded and great like several years ago when it had great flocks of birds. In the afternoon, all the hawks were gathering. A darkish harlan's was kiting over the road to the boat launch marsh for a couple of hours with perching in between feeding sessions. A peregrine passed over several times too as well as half a dozen real and krider's redtails. I was parked on the main road next to the water watching the geese when a bald eagle flew in and let the geese practice flying. Next came the immature swainson's hawk which Mike Austin saw last week. It caught something and was swooped on by 4 immature caracara too lazy to catch their own food. Then lots of harriers going by and more red-tails. And both vultures. Hawks walking and flying. With a couple of thousand geese and ducks in the background and shorebirds too. Walked around the back of the car and a hawk flushed from right behind the car. I think it was a light harlan's but I have never seen one before but it was a hawk plumage I have never seen before if not a harlan's. Leaving the refuge, I counted 15 redtails on the poles between the buildings and 1985 with more in trees and flying. Other birds of note included the immature whistling swans which are one of the great spectacular sights of Texas. Two dingy specks way out there with their head down in the stuff feeding and every few minutes a glimpse of a swan neck. Sort of looking at a gull on the end of the quintana jetty from the beach. The Skillern tract had 3 vermilion flycatchers, one red, one reddish and 1 female. The least flycatcher was at the observation deck and a barn swallow was overhead with the tree swallows. The golden-crowned kinglets were also at the deck. Smith point was a little slow although a harlan's hawk was out near the spoonbill area. The northwest motte had nuthatches and lots of white-crowned sparrows singing. A single couch's kingbird was on the right among the piled up trees just after you turn into Candy before you pass the reddish oil tank that is on the left side of the road. Nuthatches in town too. And when you stop to sign in, the bronzed cowbirds are sitting in the tree over the fence. The show is a great reason to call in sick tomorrow and spend the day in a deck chair along the road. The geese are the magnet for all the other birds looking for injured or sick geese for lunch. The regular hunting season ends this weekend but the special goose season continues so there will be a good number of good days in the area. -- Joseph C. Kennedy on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner