[texbirds] Re: Houston-Galveston area shorebirds yesterday, Friday July 26, 2013
- From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: drbirdie@xxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:59:36 -0500
For those going down to Smith Point for the hawk watch, The muddy pond
mentioned is a great place for shorebirds and ducks especially before the
pop-out-of-the-car people move them to the back.
The pond is on the right a fair bit after passing the White Heron Estates
road and the marshy wetland. There is a first straight-away lined by scrub
and then there is a gentle bend to the right and the pond is just a short
bit ahead opposite a ditch marker. You can see the line of dead pine trees
far ahead from here.
The pond is still brackish from Ike water as it does not really flush and
varies between fresh and saltier depending on rain but has been dry most of
the last 2 seasons. I have almost all the shorebirds here including fall
golden plover and baird's sandpipers.
The shoulder is in good shape for off-road parking but do be aware of the
culvert if they have not mowed the grass. Those flasher topped posts mark
culverts so you do not drive or fall in.
The area also has a really large kingbird/scissor-tail roost in some years
and a very large waterbird roost to the southeast on the hunting club
property depending on water levels. Both species make a great show at dawn
as they leave the roosts.
And don't forget the Smith Point VFD fish and oyster fry the first Saturday
of September.
On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 7:35 AM, <drbirdie@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Texbirders,
> My friend Gil Custer and I came down to Galveston early for a meeting, and
> we spent much of yesterday circumnavigating Galveston Bay seeking
> shorebirds and other mid-summer goodies.
> We had 21 species of shorebird, with oystercatchers at multiple locations,
> including on Hawkins Camp Rd just above the Smith Point Hawk Watch site in
> Chambers County. One interesting site of note was a shallow muddy pond on
> the north side of Hwy 562 about 5 miles north of Smith Point. This pond had
> a nice assortment of shorebirds including Stilt Sandpipers, Least and
> Western Sandpipers, a Black-necked Stilt and both yellowlegs, including our
> only Greater Yellowlegs of the day. The best aggregation of birds was at
> Rollover Pass, where hundreds of terns and gulls were loafing or foraging
> and hundreds of shorebirds of many species were foraging or roosting. We
> got there as the tide was going out, and many of the birds were quite
> active. Least expected shorebird of the day was a single Whimbrel on the
> gulf beach just northeast of the bollards at Bolivar Flats. That location
> was also where we had our only Long-billed Curlew of the day.
> Our shorebird list for the day:
> Black-bellied Plover
> Wilson's Plover
> Semipalmated Plover (Rollover Pass)
> Piping Plover (one bird at Rollover Pass)
> Killdeer
> American Oystercatcher
> Black-necked Stilt
> Spotted Sandpiper
> Solitary Sandpiper (one at San Jacinto Monument)
> Greater Yellowlegs (one at pond on Smith Point Rd)
> Willet
> Lesser Yellowlegs
> Marbled Godwit (Rollover Pass)
> Ruddy Turnstone (none in Harris County)
> Sanderling
> Western Sandpiper
> Least Sandpiper
> Stilt Sandpiper
> Dowitcher sp (one at Rollover Pass)
> Long-billed Curlew (one bird at Bolivar Flats)
> Whimbrel (one bird at Bolivar Flats)
>
> We also had 3 Magnificent Frigatebirds on the ferry ride back to Galveston.
> It was a good day to be chasing shorebirds.
> Now back to work.
> Byron Stone, Austin
>
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--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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