[texbirds] Corpus Christi Yard - you never know.....

From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2013 20:38:28 -0500
Hi all -
The early-morning Robins evidently did not stick around, as I neither saw nor 
heard them again.   Bummer...

Today was a gorgeous day in the Coastal Bend, with nice temperatures, a slight 
breeze, and a blue sky mixed with clouds - great viewing.   I seem to have a 
few regular "commuters" - birds that go in the morning from their roost to 
their feeding areas, and then back to roost in the evening.   The Sandhill 
Cranes fly west from the Nueces Delta, an Osprey goes from Hazel Bazemore out 
toward the delta, and miscellaneous geese (Speckle-bellies and Snowies) follow 
the cranes.   At dusk, they are all flying back the other direction.   I did 
notice that the Osprey had a full crop tonight, so the fishing must have been 
good.

It was a very good butterfly day in the yard, and I found my first-ever 
December record Silver-banded Hairstreak on the Elliott's Asters!   Nice!   I 
took a photo of it with my cell phone, then went into the house to grab the ATX 
65 spotting scope to do some cell phone digiscoping.   I returned to the 
asters, only to find my Sliver-banded hanging in the clutches of a Crab Spider! 
   Auugghhhhh!   I took pictures, of course.

OK, I really DO have a good reason for including butterfly stuff in a TexBirds 
report - as I was agonizing over my dead hairstreak, I heard a falcon calling 
from directly above me.    I looked up and spotted a fairly large falcon pretty 
high up, and it was getting harassed by another slightly smaller falcon!   The 
big one was not happy, as it was making the racket.

I was pretty sure that the big one was a Peregrine Falcon, and a quick 
refocusing and re-aiming of the scope got it in sight.  Yup, definitely an 
immature Peregrine, and probably a female - it was pretty big and chunky.   The 
second bird was smaller and slimmer, and it was wheeling around and diving on 
the PG.   I have to admit that I was wanting to turn it into an Aplomado 
Falcon, but it was NOT long-winged and slim enough, and was pretty 
light-colored underneath.

OK, so that means it was either a male Peregrine or a Prairie Falcon!   My 
first thought was that if it was a male PG, it had better watch out who it was 
ticking off, 'cause the female PG would kick its butt if it really got 
aggravated.   Then the harasser wheeled, its wings were slimmer in profile than 
the PG, and I got a good glimpse of the dark inner wing linings - Prairie!!!!

In a matter of seconds, the PG went East, and the PF headed NW, towards Hazel 
Bazemore.   It all happened so fast I never had a chance to throw the camera on 
the scope.  Oh, well.

When I went back in the house, I grabbed Jerry Liguori's "Hawks at a Distance", 
looking first at the Flight Collages - Peregrine on page 184 and Prairie on 
page 185.  Oh, yeah, my bird was a dead ringer for the second arc from the 
bottom, especially the second and third birds from the left.   Back on page 
122, there were three images there that agreed perfectly.   I also popped open 
"Hawks of North America" by Clark and Wheeler, and "Raptors of Western north 
America" by Wheeler just to search for any weak spots in the ID.  Nope - 
everything was spot-on for Prairie Falcon.

Woo-hoo, Yard Bird #228!


Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



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[texbirds] Corpus Christi Yard - you never know.....

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