[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 15 Nov
- From: Tony Leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:02:09 -0500 (EST)
Hi all:
Well, it's done. It was a bit of a wrench to walk down the ramps at the end of
the day; who knows when I'll get back. Hopefully, the vagaries of life will
permit a return, but we shall see. I would like to extend thanks and
appreciation to all those that made the season so enjoyable on the Smith Point
tower and those that, perhaps, never visited, but sent me personal messages
thanking me for the 'entertaining' daily synopses. I particularly thank the
volunteers that filled in for a few minutes or hours (Joe K, Dan S) or, in
Tad's case, entire days so that I could get some time off. Of course, Tad had
the nasty habit of coming only on Mondays, which, for some reason, were
reliable as the best day of any given week! Thus, though I had the day off, I
spent most or all of it on the tower because, hey, there's a flight going on!
Thanks for trying, Tad! Why couldn't you pick Wednesday?
For the last day of a season, it was pretty darned great today, as we nearly
cracked triple digits! The Turkey Vultures went back and forth quite a few
times, but the initial herd of them (some 39) eventually tooks themselves
elsewhere; some two hours later, a smaller bunch arrived and brought some good
birds for the die-hards (Tamie B., Sue H., Tad F., Joe K.) to ogle. After the
first three hours of just ten counted raptors, the 10-11 hour started off with
a bang, with an early-in-the-day fourth-year Bald Eagle at just 10:05 am
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8188555725/in/photostream). Okay,
that's a nice bird to have as the BOD on the last day of the season, but there
was still some four hours to go, perhaps there'd be better. However, just 31
minutes later, a juvenile Bald Eagle made its presence known out front
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8188555605/in/photostream/). Wow,
a two-eagle hour on 15 November! But, that one did not make the cut in the end.
The buteo show consisted of pretty Red-tailed Hawks, a juvenile Red-shouldered
Hawk, and some beat-up Broad-winged and Swainson's hawks. The adult rufous
Red-tailed Hawk was still present, but we saw hide nor feather of the juvenile
Krider's. As in Cape May, NJ, a large percentage of the really late
Broad-winged Hawks here have wing and/or tail problems of greater or lesser
extent. Problems that probably negatively impact their ability to migrate to
normal winter locations. Such birds found in mid-November in Cape May probably
don't last all that long; perhaps those found here might eke through the
winter, but even that's probably unlikely. Today, I saw a bird well that I've
seen only fleetingly a few times this past week, never managing to study it or
get a picture of it. Today, the pix proved my assessment of the damage to the
bird -- I don't know how it can fly with its right wing bent down nearly
vertically at the wrist
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8188557623/in/photostream/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8189637616/in/photostream/). It
certainly will not be making it even to Guatemala! Today's Swainson's Hawk
also had problems, but nowhere near as severe.
Non-raptors were dominated by a sizable American White Pelican movement, with
376 in 15 flocks
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8189635780/in/photostream/). The
goose show was relatively slow, relative to previous goose flights, with 584
Snow Geese (13 flocks) that harbored at least 16 Ross's Geese and a smattering
of Greater White-fronted Geese, with that last species also going by in their
own, monospecific flocks (total of 123). Lesser Scaup and presumed Lesser
Scaup continued their strong flight (mostly west-bound) over East Bay, with the
occasional flock coming close enough to enable me to be sure that there were no
hitch-hikers. Bummer. A single flock of five Red-breasted Mergansers were the
only other ducks seen flying west. Eastbound, however, were 11 Northern
Pintail and 18 Common Goldeneye. Though it may simply be chance with such a
small sample size, but both flocks of goldeneyes that I've seen here were
eastbound, unlike the vast majority of ducks seen. Early in the AM, Joe K
noted a flock of four egrets westbound over our heads -- my first Cattle Egrets
in weeks. A single flock of Sandhill Cranes -- 24 -- was all that that species
showed us today. At least they called for a while, before they drifted off to
the east.
The American Goldfinch show slowed considerably today after yesterday's
frenetic flight, just 9 flocks and 80 birds; a single Pine Siskin accompanied
one flock. Myrtle Warblers were much in evidence again; I clicked 37 going by
the tower. Late in the day, Tree Swallow numbers up Eagle Alley became nearly
Cape May-like -- well, not really, but my estimate of 450 birds smashed my
personal previous high count for the species here. An Orange-crowned Warbler
provided the only real spice in the small-landbird category, but it was seen
only just well enough to ID it and only because it's nearly winter.
Bird of the Day: The morning N to NE wind had changed to a S zephyr after
11:30 and our raptor flight came to a screeching slowdown. However, at 1:55 pm
(note that Joe F would have left 17 minutes earlier had he come today), I noted
a large, dark raptor out front and high. I quickly yelled out to my compadres
and we all got to watch Sue's Chambers Co. Golden Eagle, the fifth for the
season! This juvenile bird was first seen heading west, but started heading
our way, though still a long way out
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8189637164/in/photostream/). It
made a couple of turns to enable more-definitive pix
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8189637050/in/photostream/),
though was still distant. It headed off to the west and our attentions were
drawn by something else, so we lost sight of it. A while later, Sue found what
was almost certainly the same bird (reduced white in the wings, large gobs of
white in the tail) and I was sorely tempted to call it a different bird in
order to double the previous seasonal record for the species of three; I
refrained. What a martyr to science, right?!
Raptors-counted (count conducted by Gulf Coast Bird Observatory):
Black Vulture 4
Turkey Vulture 55
Bald Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 6 (3 brown, 3 juv)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10 (9a, 1j)
Cooper's Hawk 10 (8a, 2j)
Red-shouldered Hawk 1j
Broad-winged Hawk 2j
Swainson's Hawk 1j
Red-tailed Hawk 4j
Golden Eagle 1j
American Kestrel 2 (1f, 1m)
Total 98
I hope to post in the next few days a brief summary of the season with monthly
totals and, perhaps, even some comparison to previous years. We'll see. I
would like to catch up on some sleep and do some birding.
Enjoy,
Tony
Tony Leukering
Villas, NJ
http://copyeditinggonebad.blogspot.com/
http://capemaymoths.blogspot.com/
http://cfobirds.blogspot.com/
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