[texbirds] Anahuac to Texas City today, bobolinks, shorebirds and hawks

  • From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: 4 Texbirds Maillist <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:41:57 -0500

Started out on Fairview just at sunrise. The rice fields between 521 and
the silos are still dry and only a few whimbrels overhead. The bobolinks
are still present singing on their favorite fence.
Several bobwhite calling there too. 2 calling at the turn into Anahuac and
at one stop on the entrance road 5 different males were calling. More down
near the ruff viewing platform.

The swallows at the pavilion are neat and tame. Singing least bitterns in
shoveler pond and spotted sandpipers along the road. 50 white pelicans
going west down by frozen point where the seaside sparrows were singing. A
wood pewee on the fence on the way back to HQ had a very good vest but was
quiet and I had to finally agree that it was just an eastern in early
morning light. One yellow warbler went across the road. Almost no
shorebirds at the ruff spot.

King rails are doing very well and seem to be replacing clapper rails in
several areas. These were king rail spots before Ike so the salt is finally
going away andor the rails are breeding well or their preferred vegetation
is returning. The refuge got very little of the rain from early in the week
and bolivar got even less.

Going down 1985, there were shorebirds out there but most were hidden
except when they flew. Most water was only in the drains in the fields.

The really great field from yesterday on the north side and just west of
Pear Orchard had lots of birds but most were well back in the northwest
corner. A peregrine was doing passes along Pear Orchard and 1985 which
moved shorebirds with each pass. Great spot but not yesterday.

Walked Smith Oaks and did have a couple of birds. Horned larks are back on
Yacht Basin Road after many years. Lots of sargassum on the beaches. Tide
high and getting higher. Almost no flat at Rollover and the one island had
fishermen. Nice flock of least and black black terns. Often there are many
1st year birds around but only 1 was with the flock. Bolivar flats flooded
at the jetty and little beach for birds in front of the weed windrow.

Went up to the Texas City dike but the summer people are arriving and there
are more people than birds. Did get a 3rd banded oystercatcher and a very
unhappy 1st year broad-winged hawk half way out the dike. It did not like
the wind or the water or the gulls that harassed it. The very strong wind
kept the birds away or something as there only a dozen terns sitting on the
dike. The pelican feeding flocks are still spectacular overhead at the base
of the dike.

Migration must be over as I had no savannah sparrows today after having
only 1 yesterday. The shoveler pond sparrows are about the last ones to
leave each year.

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


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  • » [texbirds] Anahuac to Texas City today, bobolinks, shorebirds and hawks - Joseph Kennedy