Hey birders,
Ran up Viking Drive west of Benton Rd (La 3) for a little over two hours
from shortly after dawn. Most interesting bird was a Prothonotary Warbler
pulling out, then headed east from an overgrown fence-row of rough-leaf
dogwood. Seems really late for a migrant. The skies were pretty much devoid
of other migrants or flight calls- but there were a couple overhead- and a
few with notably higher nos than others, along with many missing possibles.
Upland Sandpiper- 1 flight call overhead. Just as I've observed Carolina
Wren apparently mimicking Spotted Sandpiper, I've also suspected this call
as another they may do- and I'm not talking about the little soft, musical
chatter that they do that sounds similar. There was 1 Great Crested Fly, a
handful of Scissor-tailed. However, Eastern Kingbird was weirdly scarce-
had a calling bird just before stopping. Several Cliff, 1 Northern
Rough-winged and 2 Barn Swallows. A small handful of expected Heronoids,
including 3 Green were observed
Sora- 1. Not such a great bird but nearly hit me when flying across rd from
dense vetch in search of playback source. This seemed a little odd! They
usually call back or rarely fly up briefly, then back down- but I don't
remember experiencing this behavior prior to today........
White-winged Dove- 14. Probably 10 more than that. There were small groups
moving e and west early. Just before stopping, I had groups of 5, 6 and 3
observed overhead simultaneously.
Warbling Vireo- 3. Widely-spaced singers.
Northern Waterthrush- 3. Widely spaced/ one with outstanding loud, full
song example but missed the recording.
White-crowned Sparrow- 9- as 1,1,1,6. All seen were adult (~80%)
CHIPPING SPARROW- 1. SUPER late!! With/near single Savannah (4 total SASP).
Had 7 Lincoln's and 1 Lark, too- but missed Grasshopper and Clay-colored.
The rd can be good for both of the latter. White-throated and Swamp also
absent- was a bit surprised at SWSP as the area often produces late moving
birds.
Indigo Bunting- 22. Including single group of 11 males/ 4 fem exiting lush
grass in a fairly small open field where they'd been roosting for the
night. Two male Blue Grosbeaks were with them. Two separate singing Painted
Buntings and a good number of Northern Cardinal (also 22) rounded out the
cardinalids.
Bobolink- 3 scattered males. Flight song observed w/ 2nd male, then song
while perched recorded.
Dickcissel- 26. ~25% seen were females. Probably am super- conservative on
numbers of singing males Copulation observed once- maybe a .5 second
affair- talk about "wham, bam.........."- lol. O; Pairing interaction
between males and females observed on at least 4 occasions. A few
recordings were made of males singing and females sitting adjacent calling.
Baltimore Oriole-9. All male or by song. There were 2 sep singing Orchard
and grp of two fem.
American Goldfinch-2 In Willow
I didn't mention in my previous post but have also been seeing 1-3
Mississippi Kite overhead each day nearly every day since last Monday-1,
also 1 Red-tailed for Viking today. A handful ofPine Siskin were also noted
hanging somewhat late in the 10000 blck of Ferry Creek early last week. A
late group here in this pine-oak neighborhood (Ellerbe estates) seems
typical each year that we actually get them. Still no Mourning Warbler +
numerous other things missed thus far. Oh well, gotta make a living!
North Caddo hopefully tomorrow- and good birding!! (:
Terry
