Headed down to Quintana for the sunrise and my first fallout of the spring
following the cold front and rain on the coast and got there a bit before
the sunrise.
Little blue herons and cattle egrets were moving east in good sized flocks.
One egret and several little blue flocks. A few fulvous whistling ducks
too. Very little on the beach driving down to the end of the driveable
beach. A local made it not advisable to bird the area so I missed the
oldsquaw.
I had not seen lesser black-backed gulls up on galveston county or the dike
since the freeze but bryan beach continues to be their stronghold with only
breeding plumaged birds present.
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524352
Lots of long-calling
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524349
Stopped at the lagoons and found a trio of black-necked stilts were trying
to make a pair. When I arrived, 2 were beak-locked and tossing each other
around.
They ended up wing-biting
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524366
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524367
Then advancing to neck biting
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524369
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524368
And then head biting
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524371
And back to wing chomping
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524372
A red-breasted merganser was along the road
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524353
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524354
Royal terns are looking spiffy
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524356
and some are showing reddish beaks
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524355
There were redder birds but they were in bad light.
Driving up Elmers Island there were lots of sanderlings and western willets
moving. A flock of 24 piping plovers dropped in. One had a very interesting
band arrangement but they moved on right away going inland. Lots of birds,
plovers, avocets, skimmers sandpipers etc and I could get there without
trouble for the first time in a long time. The skimmer/avocet flock was
flushed by something up in the air a couple of times but I could not find
what they saw.
An osprey greeted me on a post
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524360
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524362
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/171524363
Stopped at migrant traps on Galveston and had 1 each catbird, hermit
thrush, hooded and black and white warbler and great crested flycatcher
plus 5 yellow-rumped warblers. No loons on 61st street and very little on
the texas city dike. Almost no pelicans but lots of cormorants.
But it still is March and the migrants can't be very far away both for time
and distance. Broad-wings starting to show in the valley and they will be
here soon.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
