[texbirds] Chambers County yesterday, peeps, whimbrels and bobolinks

From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
To: 4 Texbirds Maillist <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 12:31:52 -0500
I started out at sunrise up on Fairview road. The ricefields on the south
side were just being flushed and had roosting whimbrels and fulvous
whistling ducks. Some of the area was just getting water. Most of the
whimbrels headed off to north and a bit east where fields way back had lots
of birds. A crested caracara was hunting there and kept birds moving.
Really neat to have all the whimbrels flying by and calling.
Later, I stopped again and the fields were already drying as the last
filled with water. Almost no birds there. Further east the large area of
fields had drained and except at the draining end were clearing of water.
Several hundred white-rumped sandpipers were in the process of leaving for
better pastures and whimbrels were still feeding.

Bobolinks were along fences well back from the road but never stayed put
for long
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599267

Did shoveler pond in Anahuac first. A big pig was way out along the
autoroute rutting for roots
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599578

In the gloom, he could move faster than the camera shutter after I oinked
at him
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599574

Down the frozen point road, I had a single sedge wren singing away for my
latest ever sighting.

Stopped a couple of times at the ruff walkway. Most of the shorebirds there
were peeps with Wilson's phalaropes and stilt sandpipers adding to the mix.
When I first walked in a king rail with 2 half grown chicks was out in the
open but they went under the boardwalk and called from there.

The best bird out there was a semipalmated sandpiper with a flag 7PL
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599454

http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599460

The bird was well out there and tried to hide the flag
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599459

Unflagged birds came in close
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599446

http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599445

and showed off the semipalmations
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599444

My first white-rumped sandpiper of the spring was preening
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599421

http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599423

And one white-rump posed with a semipalmated to show the differences
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599425

Least sandpipers look very different than the bleached birds out on the
jetties at the end of winter
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599404

Really long toes with no webbing
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599403

Who knew that Wilson's phalaropes walk on their knees when stalking gnats
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599401

Down at smith point, the shell mound seemed to have the same mix of birds
that had been there all fall and winter including banded American
oystercatcher YO. Again the least sandpipers have much nicer plumage now
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599270

A swainson's hawk there gave the impression of carrying nest lining
material but it was apparently the byproduct of catching a small insect
which was eaten in the air and the stuff dropped
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/155599271

Smith Point is about as dry as I have seen it. Trees are already dying;
some of them were very ill last hawk watch. Walking out to the mottes,
there is little new growth in the sandy soil and the gophers have been very
busy. The shorebird pond on the way down has dried up already. Last year it
did not dry until the very first of August. A good number of oak trees are
just trying to leaf out and the leaves are off color and misshapen.

One odd thing of note. Almost all the terns in the area are royal terns.
Just across the bay a bit at the texas city dike almost all the terns are
sandwich terns. Odd split for birds that tend to nest in the same areas.
Perhaps different food supplies; I have noticed that sandwich terns seem to
feed more on shrimp than the royal terns when feeding in the same area.

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


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[texbirds] Chambers County yesterday, peeps, whimbrels and bobolinks

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