[texbirds] A Katy Prairie evening (longish)
- From: Stephen Gast <segast23@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:09:48 -0800 (PST)
I am sorry this is so long - but I have to share this with those who might read
it to the end. Thank you for your bit of band width...............
After proving to myself as well as to John Berner and friends (see his previous
post) that the Northern Harrier roost a few days earlier was not a fluke (with
more eyes, 60 were seen in the hour starting at dawn on Saturday!); I set out
to see what was happening there in the evening. I recalled that 108 Long-billed
Curlew, and oddly, also 108 Sandhill Cranes along with the Harriers were seen
exiting the general area on the prior day. However on Saturday there were no
geese, unlike three days earlier when several thousand Snow Geese were also
seen there.
So on the following day, Sunday the 9th, I set out for the Prairie arriving at
about 4:30 in the afternoon and proceeded to do a complete 9 mile circle of the
Indian Grass Prairie Preserve area (the area bounded by Morrison, Pattison, and
Hebert rds and FM 362 in Waller County). The plan was to follow this with an
hour standing at sunset at the same spot as the previous two mornings. Today
the geese were there to be sure. I saw about 5000 Snow Geese at 5pm leaving the
area to a roost a short ways west of FM 362, always an impressive sight. An
immature White-tailed hawk was left behind, now staring at the vacant field.
Upon completing the circle, I had counted 16 Red-tailed Hawks, and encountered
another 1500 Snow Geese leaving KPC's Hebert reserve heading to join the other
geese west of FM362 about 5:20.
Then I headed into the KPC properties, entering a mile south of Hebert road
behind the Katy Prairie Conservancy's field office there arriving at 5:30. A
mile away to the NW, Bob Honig called me to say he was heading to his overview
of the western boundary of KPC's land behind his house to carry out a parallel
watch to mine own. Harriers were beginning to show, a female a couple of
immatures, then two males, approaching form the east west and north. Within 15
minutes, 8 or so landed to the southeast in a barren plowed field, one male
chasing a younger bird off of a preferred dirt clod. Others were hunting over
the wet uneven prairie in front of me, perhaps hoping for an evening snack. I
noticed that they began to sit down into the tall grass and disappear from
site. I hear Curlew calling in the distance but i don't look up in time to find
them , as I am intently watching the Harriers to see where they are landing for
the night. The sun was getting low
and suddenly cranes begin to fly over. A phone call from Bob saying that he
had a hundred or so landing in a field in front of him. A group of about 20
were now coming low in front of me. Bob called me again as the sun approached
the cloudy horizon, a streak of red showing where the clouds stopped perhaps 50
miles away. He said he just heard the call of a Short-eared Owl, then he said -
'I have to hang up - hundreds of cranes are arriving I don't want to lose
count'. Realizing I was unsure of the sound of a short-eared owl I played my
iPhone app to realize I had just heard the same thing where I was. At that
moment three snipe decided to fly over. And then I noticed a striped skunk
crossing the barren field only to realize that the Harriers in the field had
disappeared, probably into the prairie in front of me.
Sunset came at 6:10. The light was still good enough to see cranes coming in
over Bob's house in the distance, and then to see not one but 2 Short-eared
Owls feeding in the prairie between my location and Bob's. And then another
raft of maybe 70 cranes approached form the east. The 20 or so cranes on the
ground to my west began calling, attracting the approaching flock, which then
circled and parachuted down into the field in front of me. Three king Rails
decide to exchange one series of calls each from there territories in the wet
field in front of. A second skunk appears out of no where, nit 20 yards away
digging and sniffing along the farm track I am standing in. I stomp the ground
and cough three times, he takes notice and deviates his path. To his right,
back in the field being hunted by the owls, I see my stomping has gained the
attention of two deer I had seen earlier. They decide to move off a bit
further. A last harrier descends into the field.
And in quick succession, the call of another Short-eared owl in front of me, a
pack of Coyotes begin a long drawn out chorus in the distance, while two
leopard frogs become brave enough to do a few calls themselves.
As the cranes influx ends around 6:25 I have counted 118 landing in front of
me. Bob has tallied an amazing 736 Sandhills, the majority of which are now
roosting within sight of his house. The Curlew flock I missed could have been
the 18 he counted going over, but probably not. And I have counted at least 40
Harriers disappearing into tall grass in a wide open prairie area in the
central square mile of the Indian Prairie. As I begin to make my way to the
car, smiling to myself on my good fortune to have been able to be there, and
assessing that the show was over for the night, in the silence of the evening
to the distant west I hear the voices of thousands of geese, from two miles
away, and there against the last angry red streak of sky, I see that something
has disturbed them. a gray hazy cloud across the last embers of the sun. They
have decided to move back into the safety of the Indian Grass Prairie for the
night. Perhaps 7000 Snow Geese (the
original 5000, plus the second flock of 1500, and an additional 500 seen by
Bob coming from the north) and certainly with a sprinkling of White-fronts,
Ross's that I know are always with them. I am sure now that if I stayed another
30 minutes, something else would happen and the amazing evening would continue.
But I have to go, I promised to pick up a pizza for supper in front of the
Olympics on TV tonight.
But some people think Highway 36A might be an improvement.
Steve Gast
Houston, Texas
segast23@xxxxxxxxx
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