[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 11 Oct
- From: Tony leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
- To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Tamie Bulow <Tamie.Bulow@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Tom Reed <coturnicops@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:46:25 -0500
Hi all:
Well, the Pres of TOS, himself, wanted to make sure that I wasn't lonely on the
tower today; he and companion were my only birding visitors. Somewhat
surprisingly due to the correctly forecasted SE wind, there were actually birds
to ogle when they were here (they even saw half of the day's Peregrines!),
though I do suspect that they were responsible for the death of the
Broad-winged flight that was going on until they arrived!
Actually, things were quite hectic in late morning; at one point I was trying
to count 3-4 kettles of Broad-wingeds, a flock of Wood Storks, a flock of Gr.
White-fronted Geese, random and numerous Sharpies and Kestrels, and trying to
make sure that no Harriers were coming off the Bay and going north without my
seeing them! 'Twas great fun for a while.
Bird of the Day: Greater White-fronted Geese were, according to my prediction,
three days late. But, I was happy to see the first flock of the season early
this morning, five way out to the west heading to Galveston. The second flock
(of 16, also heading to Galveston), was quite a bit closer, but my picture will
still not win any awards.
Nearly no landbirds (8 Blue-gray Gnats, 4 Scissor-taileds, and a single Indigo
Bunting), but nearly 450 Wood Storks and 182 Am. White Pelicans gave me things
to count. I really thought that a good afternoon Am. Kestrel flight was
setting up when I counted 27 in the 1-2 pm hour, but then I saw only 3 the next
hour; the final hour (3-4 pm) was deathly slow, with only 5 countable raptors,
4 of those being N. Harriers!
Raptors counted (count conducted by Gulf Coast Bird Observatory):
Turkey Vulture 62 (flocks of 41 & 21)
Mississippi Kite 1 juv
Osprey 2
Northern Harriers 16 (1 ad male, 2 ad female, 11 juv, 2u)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 154 ( doing the typical SE-wind-head-right-across-the-Bay
modus operandi, both to my east and well off to my west)
Cooper's Hawk 10 (all juvs)
Broad-winged Hawk 557
Swainson's Hawk 1 light juv
American Kestrel 68 (13m, 40f, 15u; which reverses yesterday's surge of males
-- 27m, 32f, 12u)
Merlin 1 (I had another as I was leaving)
Peregrine Falcon 2 (1 ad, 1 juv)
Total 874
Later,
Tony
Tony Leukering
Smith Point, TXEdit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
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