A couple of Buff-breasted Sandpiper sightings from the San Benito area in
Cameron County -
Saturday 22nd August at 9:30 am: 5 flying E over the Ebony Unit of Las
Palomas WMA (26.107277, -97.788856) &
Sunday 23rd August at 11:00 am: at least 45 on sorghum stubble on north
side of Adams Gardens Reservoir - probably the most reliable BBSA fields in
the area (26.088431, -97.740877).
On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Brent Ortego <brentortego@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Bob Friedrichs and I are going to try and locate as many Buff-breasted
Sandpipers as we can this weekend. We are also seeking other birders to go
out and search for this species as well. We are trying to develop a base
of location, density and timing data for this species which will be used to
develop a future survey for the species.
What we are asking is for birders to send me: Location, time, date and
number of BBSA (0 or higher #) by site. In developing a survey it is also
good to know where they are not.
Bob and I will be covering Wharton and Matagorda counties which have a
large concentration of turf fields. During this month we have been finding
good concentration in turf fields, but also in grain stubble and at the
edge of wetlands. We have posted our data to EBIRD which averaged 4600
Buff-breasted per weekend.
Turf Farms are easy to survey since they are mowed and open. Birds can
concentrate at turf by the hundreds in the heat of the day when the fields
are being irrigated.
Grain stubble is more challenging because of the clumps of dirt, rows and
stubble which tend to hide birds. I have had some success by waiting for a
few minutes in large ag fields and waiting for birds to fly to locate
flocks. Large groups tend to shift around every few minutes.
Short grazed pastures that are moist can be very good at times. Same
strategy as grain stubble.
Wetlands typically attract BBSA to the open shallow margins.
Traditional areas for BBSA that we will not be surveying are:
Progresso Turf FarmAg fields of the Kingsville/Corpus Christi AreaCrosby
Area and other turf sites east of HoustonKaty PrairieTwo large turf
complexes south of College StationTurf complexes in the vicinity of Dallas
There are quite a few other sites. When I recently reviewed EBIRD data
for Buff-breasted Sandpiper I found records for 88 counties.
Good Luck Birding
Brent OrtegoVictoria, TX361/827-4691
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