I was asked specifically about Bastrop Co. In this instance ~95% BBSAs I
have seen are on a turf farm environ as this is about the only place I
look. However, especially in spring, they are pretty reliable on short
grasses pastures along the river northwest of Bastrop usually with
Uplands...I just seldom look for them there. In the past I found them in
ag fields around Granger Lk.. But it has been a long time since I birded
there. We found good numbers of them in wet ag fields during many surveys
in the Chapman Ranch area of Nueces Co.and in San Patrico Co. south of Taft
etc..especially when barren fields were damp...dry fields seemed to produce
fewer detectable birds. They like bare spring rice fields in
Calhoun too....sometimes a lot
On Friday, July 24, 2015, Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One of the great places for buff-breasts is the sewage farm in Beaumont.
Which is hard to get to now with security restrictions. There are birds
there both earlier and later in the season than I have seen them elsewhere
in Texas or Louisiana. Its really neat to watch them ride the poop aerators
and push the least sandpipers off the equipment.
They do migrate on a wide front in mass flights, at least on occasion. Once
upon a time we counter 2-3000 birds scattered along say an 8 mile stretch
of the highway going west from Holly Beach Louisiana. They were scattered
evenly along the now dry pasture/marsh edge down the hill leading to the
true coastal marsh. They fed in an area that was damp and extremely
overgrazed. But I never saw them there since.
Rice fields were my standard area for them but the rice culture is now
different and rice is cut differently. Most used to be cut very low but now
much is kept high for stubble and cover in the hunting season in some
areas. Going to single crop rice, also has the fields prepared later in the
spring so they do not have habitat for birds until after the peak
migration. The may floods around Houston kept some farmers out of the field
until closer to the time of thinking about the second crop.
It is sure odd to see newly flooded and sprouted rice next to a field with
fairly heavy heads of grain and cowbirds. But in neither case is there
habitat for buff-breasts.
On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Brent Ortego <brentortego@xxxxxxxxxxx
<javascript:;>>
wrote:
Saw my first Buff-breasted of the season on turf at Dacosta this morning.America,
This is a species that much is not known. Researchers from South
U.S. and Canada will be conducting research on this species in the nextpart
couple of years to determine a population estimate.
I summarized Buff-breasted Sandpiper EBIRD data for Texas recently as
of this work. 25% of the reports for this species are on turf and theypermission
support 76% of the birds. EBIRD sites with highest numbers have been in
the Dallas area, and many places from College Station to the Coast. Most
will migrate through in August and September.
Brent OrtegoTexas Parks and Wildlife DepartmentVictoria, TX
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