Started the day by missing the sunrise ferry over to Bolivar due to heavy
and odd traffic on Galveston. Lots of laughing gulls following the boat and
scooping up goodies from the wake along with some herring and one
ring-billed gull.
Frenchtown road was sort of empty other than calling clapper rails due to a
birder that jumped out of the car and flushed everything. Apparently unable
to roll down the window. One red-breasted merganser among the oyster shells
to the east but more than 30 on the loop feeding on small fish along with
forster's terns.
Fort Travis had 4 golden plovers. The grass had been mowed short Tuesday
but edgers, weed eaters and blowers were going heavy in the areas best
liked by grasspipers.
Went out Retillon and went east. Not much along the way but from the now
closed cut a huge bird could be seen to the east. After several looks had
the great black-backed gull down about where the first houses are. Late in
the morning, it was not seen but a lesser black-backed gull was a little
further east. The GBBH gull was originally with a single adult herring gull.
Things were interesting past the bollards. A driver had gone past the
bollards without seeing them and lest the truck out in the water.
Eventually hauled out. Cost of that are way up with a $250 hookup fee plus
$150 an hour travel, waiting and towing cost. And many only take cash so
watch for bad sand.
Water birds are coming back. A big flock of mostly sandwich terns were way
out there and that went up a couple of times with more further east on the
beach. Maybe 40 least terns resting among the napping shorebirds. About 300
small plovers sleeping. Lots of least and western sandpipers. The flock of
lesser scaup out near the jetty had grown.
Eastern willets were back with several apparently paired already along the
water edge and a couple on the edge of the marsh. Lots of calling by
sitting birds but no big aerial shows yet. Looked for them on other roads
like Yacht Basin but did not find any but a few were at the main boat
launch at Anahuac refuge. Most will be back in the next week and their
territorial flights and yelling will be a feature of any local coastal
marsh until they leave in July.
Best birds of the day were several baird's sandpipers working the edge of
the water. Or rather working along the deep drift of water hyacinth roots.
When I arrived, the tide was up to the edge of the piles and many least
sandpipers were also using that rather that mini habitat and not as real
beach birds. Normally the baird's are not shore birds but grasspipers.
Had either 30 or 50+ snowy plovers with one banded bird. The paired birds
from last week still acted paired. Counted birds near the water on the way
down and then had another group inland when I left but all the birds had
flushed once when something flew from west to east that I did not see.
A locally banded Wilson's plover was on the beach and paired. It was banded
there in 2014 but was washed out last year and left.
Several piping plovers with bands but some hard to read. One might be a
great lakes bird that has lost some bands.
Western sandpipers are starting to molt but most others were still in worn
winter plumage. Some of the royal terns are getting bills that are a little
redder while most adults have oranger bills than the few still in
non-breeding plumage. One bird even had a little pink in the breast.
Poked around high island woods for a bit but no land bird migrants seen.
Did have 2 yellow rumped warblers, one orange-crowned warbler and 2 swamp
sparrows for the day plus a scattering of savannah sparrows.
Hawks were very scarce but I did get several American kestrels along 1985.
The only buteos were a single red-tail in Anahuac and the pair circling
over their usual nest site. Several northern harriers were migrating east.
A peregrine falcon went north over the oyster bayou tract at Anahuac.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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