Hi all, Ronnie Maum and I surveyed the area today. I've been planning for
quite some time to do a survey beginning in or near the moist soil area
when the sparrows and wrens are beginning to arrive in the asters and
surrounding grass and weeds between units 3 and 6. Larry Raymond and I
tried awhile back by entering from La 1. However, this was well before most
species, other than a handful of warblers, were arriving. We did pretty
good on a few but also had the sun in our face from early on moving east to
west. Ronnie and I began the first stop this morning around 7 am at the
curve of the levee at the landing strip. then surveyed 4 short stops
between there to north, then east to unit 6, where the real action began.
Waders were pititful for diversity. Shorebirds were even worse with 60+
Killdeer and 9 Least Sandpiper There were quite a few lingering Cattle
Egret, also decent numbers of White Ibis, yet only 4 total Great Egret. We
also had an American Bittern, White-faced Ibis flyby, a lingering immature
Yellow-crowned Heron and a couple of flyby Great Blue. Ducks were rather
low with 130+ Blue-winged Teal and half that for N Shoveler. Hawks were a
little better than hq previous day. Ronnie got smoking shots again of
Merlin and many others! Mine of the Merlin perched aren't half-bad,
although hand-held and fully-zoomed from a distance in dummy mode. We had
63 spp- which is somewhat low. The most amazing results were-
NELSON'S SPARROW- 32. Careful and conservative 1 x 1 count. An earlier
count through the center of the westernmost portion of unit 6, while moving
south to north produced good numbers of grps of 1-3 birds, with birds
perching up briefly in weeds, then flushing farther east in to a dense,
weedy-edged cattail spine that runs north and south. Highest numbers were
near/ on either side of the road between units 6 and 3. Four birds were
observed up at once at 4 separate spots, then 3 at a handful of other
spots- perched mostly in thread-leaf type asters or yellow rattlebox
(Sesbania). The two areas with highest density of birds were on the
northeast edge of unit 3 (8 birds within a small area) then a ~100' stretch
of the east side of the separating road, mostly on the unit 3 side (17
birds). However, birds were noted again on the east side of the road on the
way back-at least 60 yards west of where the birds had flushed earlier into
cattails. although these were undoubtedly new birds, those on the west side
of the rd were the only ones counted. Without even trying, I photographed
at least 5 birds in the two areas of greatest densities between 0930 and
around 10 am. Ronnie had been spotting and photographing them earlier
on and said that he undoubtedly had photos of more individuals than that.
He was already photographing one near where he stood when I called out the
first that I had seen to his attention from 200' away sometime after 8
o'clock. I had the feeling when we left that if we saw 1, we saw a
hundred! All NESP were found within or between unit 3 and 6, yet nowhere
else in the moist soil units- unlike COYE, MAWR and SEWR, which were.
Interestingly, totals of other sparrows were comparatively low with
Savannah- 18, Song- 1, Lincoln's- 6, Swamp-10 and E Towhee-3
Marsh Wren- 81- Super conservative! Tapping calls and some singing
virtually everywhere within U 3 and 6 except westernmost portion/ angled
dike in unit 3 which was counted during a brisk pace. 5-8 birds were in
sight countless times. If someone were to lay the entire survey to the side
and go for wrens, sparrows and Common Yellowthroat only, the count would be
that much more staggering!
Sedge Wren- 28. Most in unit 6. Five up at once, 1-3 fairly frequently-
mostly in the western-most portion of 6.
Common Yellowthroat- 129. At least 15 individuals mostly in tall goldenrod
mix along the runway, then most of the rest between unit 3 and 6, with
decent numbers also in 5 and a few in 7. Fifty birds were counted on the
south end of unit 3, both flushing and perching up by the dozen- with many
SEWR and MAWR also in the mix. I attempted to count all as singles as they
flushed toward the center, then would back out, walk around and enter from
another angle, kicking up many more toward the center.
The computer should be back up and running within a few days, then time to
do some list entering for this and others from the past few weeks.
Cheers and good birding!
Terry
