[texbirds] Re: PollyWOWg Ponds this morning
- From: "John Arvin" <jarvin@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "TexBirds" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 13:48:26 -0500
Clay,
Unfortunately the Corpus NEXRAD station is down for the next week to ten
days.
John C. Arvin
Research Associate
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
103 West Hwy 332
Lake Jackson, TX 77566
jarvin@xxxxxxxx
www.gcbo.org
Austin, Texas
----------------------------------------
From: "Clay Taylor" <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 1:41 PM
To: "TexBirds" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [texbirds] PollyWOWg Ponds this morning
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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