Thanks for trying Rex
Knowing where they are not can be as important as where they are
I mostly strucked out on Saturday
None observed at Calallen, none at many stubble fields at Chapman Ranch, and
none at the many ponds in Kleberg Co. I did find a few in wet fields on the
way back to Bayside
I did have 774 in the Wharton County area on Sunday, and Bob Friedrichs had
about 300 in the Matagorda County area over the weekend
My general impression was that some of the birds we were monitoring left, many
spread out to an abundance of wet fields and BBSA are very difficult to see in
grain stubble
Will do a report on observations in early September
Brent Ortego
Victoria, TX
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 24, 2015, at 4:38 PM, Rex Stanford <calidris.bairdii@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Brent,
I took your request for information on BBSA sites to include negative
reports--thus, the following:
On this past Saturday (08/22/15) I carefully surveyed the Cameron County
Weaver Road sod fields in search of BBSA's. This site is on a road, including
a "dog leg" section, that runs between TX-800 and Jimenez Road--near
Rangerville and is perhaps 4.0 to 4.5 miles southwest of the southeastern
boundary of Harlingen. On the aforementioned date my survey was done between
9:35 and 10:00 AM, using both binoculars and scope, as needed to help
identify any shorebirds on site. No BBSA were found, despite the fact that
this site can be at times very productive of this species. (Indeed, on this
occasion I found no shorebirds at all, to my amazement; the few birds in the
fields turned into non-shorebird species upon inspection.) Contributing to
this lack of BBSA species MIGHT have been no visible standing water, recent
removal of some of the sod by the farmers, and relatively low, even turf
which, in my experience, may be far from optimal for BBSA.
In late-mid-afternoon of the following day (Sunday, 08/23/15) I (with my
wife, this time, present to help) again visited the Weaver Road sod fields in
the hope of finding BBSA. We did find numerous Least Sandpiper and Killdeer,
but neither BBSA nor Upland Sandpiper. Immediately before that we had visited
the sorghum-field remnant (top-chopped plants remaining after harvest)
immediately north of the Adams Gardens Reservoir where Michael Marsden on the
late morning of that same day had reported at least 45 BBSA (as reported to
TEXBIRDS and to you). Our visit detected no (0) BBSA, but that does not
necessarily mean they were no longer present. They would have been very
difficult to detect in that terrain unless a flock took flight, but we saw no
such flight. We did find 4 Upland Sandpipers roaming in that field, two of
which we saw fly in. They, too, due to coloration and and shape, were
difficult to detect when they were on foot, and BBSA would have been all the
more so, if they had been on the substrate.
Finally, let me mention that we very much wanted to check for BBSA on the
Progreso sod fields, but due to the 8+ inches of rainfall in that area a
couple of days (I think it was) earlier, the road was not conducive to my
looking for birds there in my vehicle. We tried to do so and actually drove
down the road some distance (north from US-281, but we ran through an
extremely muddy area, almost getting stuck, and decided to turn back, rather
than chance getting truly stuck farther up the road.
I am very sorry to have to say I (we) found no BBSA but that is how it was. I
am sure others, especially farther up the coast, did much better. I hope so.
Best regards,
Rex Stanford (Weslaco, TX)
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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