[texbirds-freelists] [texbirds] Galveston to Anahuac yesterday

From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:11:53 -0500

Another great day out birding.

Started with the loons on 61st street. When I arrived, there were 3 birds
off the north parking lot and 6 off the south parking lot. After a bit,
someone said breakfast time and more birds arrived from where they were
lurking on the north shore until there were 42 loons, 5 bonaparte's gulls,
3 red-breasted mergansers plus some pelicans and laughing gulls feeding.
There was 1 pacific loon and another small bird that could have been a
pacific loon but it did not pose again. 2 off in the distance small loons
could have been those birds or others.

Pelican Island had some nice birds in the mulberries but only 1 small
warbler zipped by. Tanagers and orioles were joined by several mottled
ducks. The tropical kingbirds continue. Waiting through several lights on
the 51st street bridge gave me a chance to watch a peregrine falcon try to
catch one of the cliff swallows nesting under the bridge. Waiting at the
ferry provided a good chance to watch a stream of indigo buntings head
east. A black-billed cuckoo was my first of the season and several
yellow-bills were nearby.

The high recent tides had filled the Frenchtown Road pond again but there
were several whimbrels on the road. An osprey was on a pole and
white-tailed kites were in the dead trees.

Bolivar flats was really great both walking down the beach and driving to
the bollards. Lots of new gulfweed was washing in and the birds were having
a feast. The weed was in small pieces and individual birds would claim an
incoming clump as its own territory. Birds like the western willets would
actually pull pieces of weeds up on the sand from the surf. Great fun and
unlimited birds.

The area where the gull-billed terns were trading minnows etc was birdless
except for a couple of 5-legged lumps sitting where the terns had been.
Other similar objects were walking among and flushing the birds. And a
large tour group arrived and walked down the surf line driving all before
them even though all birds were tame and did not flush when one walked a
short ways in from the waves. Almost enough with grumps for the day.

The northern harriers that have nested in recent years in the Bolivar Marsh
are doing it again. The male bird brought in food and the female went up to
get it. Heard what I think were youngsters begging after she went back down
but can't guarantee that it wasn't the female talking to the food.

Johnston Road had good habitats and several good numbers of singing seaside
sparrows. Not many shorebirds but the spoonbills were finding food.

No birds in real close at Rollover after a car of birders drove through the
flock while watching birds on the island. I don't think they even saw the
shorebirds as they flushed.

The upland sandpipers were still behind Cobb Realty but could be hard to
see in the taller greenery. One close-by bird walked back in and I never
saw it again although I could see the weeds moving as the bird fed.

High Island was great. Lots of calling birds, especially catbirds. Paths
well trodden. Birds up at Smith Oaks were more spread out but the
mulberries were being enjoyed. I was taking tanager pictures when a nice
man leaned his tripod against me so he could get a picture if the tanager
he scared came back.

The fields along Pear Orchard were pretty dry and only a couple of birds.
Anahuac was quiet except at the marsh on the way to frozen point where lots
of ducks and shorebirds remain and birds way out there on the oyster bayou
tract. The work done to rejuvenate shoveler pond and the new road should
win lots of awards for really making a great place to bird again.

Migration is really on. Some hawks, probably swainson's spent the night
near the house but were vanishing when I realized that there was a liftoff.
The houston chronicle this morning had a picture of popocatapetl erupting
and there were more hawks passing the mountain that perhaps are swainson's
heading this way. Click on the second picture at the bottom of the page to
check the id

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Mexican-volcano-hurls-hot-rock-half-mile-into-sky-3494131.php

Hawk watching the easy way

--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx

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[texbirds-freelists] [texbirds] Galveston to Anahuac yesterday

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