[texbirds] PollyWOWg Ponds this morning
- From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TexBirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 14:40:33 -0400
Hi all -
I was up early today, digiscoping the International Space Station as it passed
over Corpus Christi this morning at 6:20am, then went in search of calling
Clapper Rails (no joy).
I stayed at the big tidal pond along the Joe Fulton Trade Corridor road (just
west of the bridge), scoping the gulls, terns, and shorebirds. About 8am, I
got a phone call from Dane Ferrell "get over to Pollywog NOW". Woo hoo, it
was on!
When I arrived, there were 50 - 100 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers perched in the
treetops, in the mulberry trees, and atop the Castor Bean trees. Wow! Dane
and Libby Even had seen Pyrrhuloxia and Hooded Oriole as they walked form their
cars, and we were able to re-find the Hooded Oriole up in a Hackberry, hassling
the mockingbirds and Orchard Orioles. We never did see the Pyro. The place
was jumping with Indigo buntings, and a Louisiana Waterthrush was walking down
the wide-open dirt roadway, oblivious to the nice water-filled ditch 30 yards
away. Go figure.
As cool as those birds were, the show was UP - Broad-winged Hawks streaming up
from the woods, forming groups, coursing back and forth looking for a way to
fly into the light North winds. As it warmed up, the first thermals started
to form, and as soon as a group found one, hawks started streaming from all
directions to join in. As soon as that group departed to the NW, within
minutes there would be another group forming up in a different quadrant of the
sky.
As the woods around the Nueces River finally emptied of their roosting
Broadies, BIG streams of BWs started coming from the Southeast. We speculated
that Hilltop Nature Preserve was a likely point of origin, but after a while it
was evident that we were seeing a really big flight, so I have no idea where
they all spent the night, unless they had already made it up from the Laureles
division of the king Ranch, a little more than 20 miles due south.
It was spectacular! Unlike the fall flights at Hazel Bazemore, when the
hawks are waaaay up in the sky and look like grains of sand, these guys were
LOW, and you could see the sun shining through their wings and highlighting
their tail patterns. Mixed in were lots of both species of vultures, and
later in the morning there were a few Swainson's Hawks joining the procession.
The only thing missing was sighting a Dark-morph Broad-wing.
At 10:05, Libby called out " I saw a white flash in the kettle approaching us
- it's a Swallow-tailed Kite" . A beautiful adult kite was slumming with the
Broadies, all standing out against a clear blue sky! Excellent! About 20
minutes later, as another stream was passing directly over us, I spotted a
dark, pointy-winged bird "Ooohh, Mississippi Kite directly above us!"
Another Local Patch bird!
Both Dane and Stacey Zarpentine (visiting from GA for just this event - spring
hawks) were busily clicking their hawk-counters, so I will leave it up to them
to report a total number, but it was easily many thousands. All that and
warblers, too!
Parting story - we were looking at a large flycatcher in the treetops, and yet
another big stream of Broad-wings passed right overhead. We all looked up
(dang, no dark-morph!), and when I looked back to re-find the flycatcher, it
was gone. No biggie. Moral of the story - when choosing between watching a
flycatcher or a stream of migrating hawks, you can kiss Myarchus goodbye! ;-)
Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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