Made it down to the coast for sunrise yesterday and poked around for
landbird arrivals without any luck. Almost no song.
Had to slosh out to east beach and they were clearing sand from the road
again but the water was not that deep and it helped that a pickup went
through ahead of me. There was a lot more erosion and washing away of the
vegetation past the parking lot for the jetty and some vegetation is now 30
feet or so out in the gulf. The lagoon now has a permanent entry to the
gulf, not just a washover during really high tides. Delta added a lot to
the damage started by Beta.
There is a new sandbar separated from the jetty and far out and really past
scope range that had gulls, pelicans and terns right in the sun in the am.
One of the missing porta-potties is out there too.
Almost all the landbirds were absent except for a few grackles but no
mourning doves, horned larks, meadowlarks etc. A cooper's hawk beating the
bushes had no more luck finding birds than I did.
Only 2 small plovers, a single snowy and semipalmated. Good numbers of
sanderlings and western sandpipers with a few other birds.
A recently dead royal tern was on the sand and a sandwich tern broke a wing
in the 20 minutes or so that I walked down the channel and back. Perhaps
hit by the peregrine falcon that returned a bit later and landed. Also two
northern harriers and 2 crested caracara landed in the general area at the
same time so the beach would have been cleaned shortly.
Interestingly, one of the harriers went out of its way to attack the
peregrine falcon making several passes at the much faster bird before all
landed.
2 frigatebirds were harassing each other near the bolivar ferry landing as
we crossed. The water was just on the pavement on Frenchtown Road but there
had been a good bit of washover during Delta.
Driving the beach between the washout east of Retillon and the bollards had
6 piping plover, 1 black-bellied plover and 1 western willet. Later there
were 13 piping plovers on the beach between the washouts east and west of
Magnolia Road with 3 willets and no other shorebirds.
The beach has gotten much larger after delta compared to a week ago after
beta. The crystal beach people commented about how some of the dunes were
gone in places. The flats had lots of birds but almost all pickers rather
than probers.
The highlight of the day was some 400 franklin's gulls mixed with royal
terns and laughing gulls down in the sanctuary. The tended to stay out in
the water further than the other birds. When flushed by an osprey along
with all the other birds they again moved to be in the water rather than
the sand. This was the first grounded large flock I have had for some years
but we get big groups over the smith point hawk watch.
Another arrival was a group of 27 caspian terns that sat by themselves with
another dozen or so scattered in the gull/tern flocks. Several lesser
black-backed gulls were the commonest large gull on the beach. Only a
couple of herring and ring-billed gulls. East beach had a small flock of
herring gulls and 2 ring-billed gulls but more may have been out on the
distant sandbar. No sandwich or common terns but a few forster's.
While the beach front had very few birds, one small area with new worm
holes had been fed over as the tide went out. Only 3 short-billed
dowitchers but a group of a dozen long-billed dowitchers stopped for a few
seconds at a pool before calling and leaving. A rare occurrence on the
beach. A couple of dunlin could have been the summering birds. Only 1
western willet. No avocets. 1 white pelican. 1 long-billed curlew.
A big jump in population was over 250 black-bellied plovers, mostly napping
when I arrived and when I left. In fact most of the birds were napping on
my way out. I watched a plover fly to what seemed to be a roost and checked
and all were semipalmated plover. Maybe 25 snowy plovers were concentrated
in a small area along with a single wilson's plover and 8 piping plover.
One of the old locally banded piping plover was the only one of the old
timers present. May85 semipalmated plovers.
Ended up at the Texas City Dike and had another 200 franklin's gulls mixed
with royal terns and laughing gulls. And another 19 lesser black-backed
gulls which outnumbered the herring and ring-billed gulls combined. A few
common and sandwich terns too plus a single each piping and snowy plover.
Again, the dike had been washed very well by Delta.
The franklin's gulls were maybe new arrivals with all preening and
interacting. Several young of the year birds with them.
Be careful where you drive out on the dike. One section near the base has a
long string of boards with long nails mixed with the vegeation line where
some structure came apart in the waves.
And for those interested in brightly colored red-shouldered hawks, the
local birds near the dike are the brightest I know of on the UTC and are
back in their usual spots near the entrance.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
