[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 19 Oct
- From: Tony Leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Sk8inginfo@xxxxxxx, coturnicops@xxxxxxxxx, mikecrewe@xxxxxxxxxxx, sam.galick@xxxxxxxxx, scottwhittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, mpeterson33@xxxxxxxxx, bmaynard99@xxxxxxxxx, ngobris@xxxxxxxx, sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, pgaede@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, fresha2411@xxxxxxxxx, tbj4@xxxxxxxxxxx, roach.mc1@xxxxxxxxx, ellendunnking@xxxxxxxxx, swallowtailstudio@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:14:56 -0400 (EDT)
Hi all:
I arrived at the tower at 7:30 to very light NNE wind and a very blue sky. I
expected to see Sharpies already up and moving around, if not migrating. I
expected a good flight with the birds getting very high, quite early and then
being able to complain about the flight passing over unseen. Interestingly,
not one of those expectations was met.
Things started incredibly slowly. I had zero countable raptors (nearly zero
raptors) by 8 am and only three by 9 am and nine by 10 am! But, the birds
eventually decided that 'twas a sufficiently good day to move on, and I had my
biggest Broad-winged day in a fair bit. The buteo flight also included four
Swainson's Hawks (all light, 3j, 1a) and an uncertain number of juvenile
Red-tailed Hawks. One of those, however, was muy interesante, as it was a dark
bird with a white chest. Though my initial thought on it was that it was a juv
Harlan's Hawk, after pondering the bird a bit and looking at my photos
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103971418/in/photostream/ -- the
next pic to the left in the stream, too), I think that it is "just" a very
heavily-marked juvenile rufous Red-tailed Hawk. This form is usually quite
streaked underneath, so this bird is quite odd, regardless. I've sent pix to
Jerry Liguori for confirmation or refutation.
The interesting Red-tailed Hawk was not the BOD.
For the first time in my experience at Smith Point, there was an actual flight
of Monarchs
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103931334/in/photostream/ -- go
left in the stream for two more pix). While I was counting no raptors in the
morning, it was fairly easy to keep a clicker going for the Monarchs. However,
once I had raptors going, my counting of Monarchs slacked, so I wound up with
only 192, but I know that there were many, many more. Prior to today, I could
have counted all of the Monarchs I've seen going by on the digits of both hands
and feet.
I had probably my most speciose day at the tower all fall, scoring an
incredible eight tower ticks; I don't think that I've managed that many since
my first week on the tower. The big mover of the day was Greater White-fronted
Goose (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103976670/in/photostream
-- the next pic to the left in the stream, too), with a whopping 2700 in 18
flocks, most of which were well off to the north. While the raptor flight was
going one, particularly early in that flight, I could easily have missed a lot
of geese, as I had no time to scan for them. It is only thanks to the many
visitors today that I got as many of the flocks as I did. American White
Pelicans also made their presence felt, with 549 in 14 flocks. One
particularly obliging flock joined the same thermal in which was a large flock
of Anhinga, and which thermal encouraged them to drift virtually right over the
tower (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103916158/in/photostream).
After yesterday's big flight, White Ibis nearly took the day off; I found only
seven flocks, none larger than eight birds. To round out the big, non-raptor
birds, a second-year Magnificent Frigatebird put in a couple of appearances;
the age looks like a first-year -- white head, dark side patches intruding into
white belly, but those side patches are greatly paler and blotchy.
Today also saw a minor resurgence in White-winged Doves moving, something that
I haven't seen for a couple of weeks. A juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker made a
somewhat disappointing appearance, as it didn't stay put where it landed in the
dead trees to the east, so Cecilia didn't get to see it. Other interesting
landbirds that did not provide me tower ticks, included a single Dickcissel, a
late Bank Swallow, quite a lot of meadowlarks (everything that I heard and/or
saw well was Eastern), six B-g Gnats, and five Indigo Buntings.
Perhaps the oddest of my tower ticks was a single American Crow seen poorly and
distantly to the north, but then suddenly popped up right in front of the tower
heading west down the point. While the species is regular and fairly easy to
find only 14 miles north at the Y (intersection of FM 562 and FM 1985), the
species is quite rare on the point, proper. Among landbirds, I also added
Savannah Sparrow (finally), Myrtle Warbler
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103931034/in/photostream/ -- only
my second Yellow-rumped Warbler of the fall, the first being an Audubon's in
Sep), and the previously posted-about Vermilion Flycatcher, an immature male
that popped up in front of me in the oak just off to the NE of the tower
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103941568/in/photostream/ -- the
red on the nape proves the age and sex); Joe K., undoubtedly, has better
photos. As a quick aside, I have never understood why there is only one 'l' in
the first name of that species, as the color name has two. The only other item
of which I'm aware that has that spelling is the town/city in South Dakota, and
I really doubt that the species was named for that location!
Among the hordes of White-fronteds, I found a single Blue Goose (tower tick)
and a white goose in a flock so far away that I could not even tell if it was
smaller than the White-fronteds or not, so let it go as a "white goose sp."
However, sometime later in the day, a flock of 10 Snow Geese (6 ad, 4 juv) flew
by at much closer range. Franklin's Gulls again made a good showing, with four
flocks, with the largest being estimated in size rather than counted, as it
went behind trees and never came out (flocks of 11, 13
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103908033/in/photostream/], 150,
32).
Bird of the Day: Poor Joe Fischer. Poor, poor Joe Fischer. For most of the
day, I was figuring that Greater White-fronted Goose would be the BOD, due to
my experiencing the largest number of that species that I'd ever seen in one
day (yeah, I don't bird the mid-continent often). However, Joe was at the
tower today specifically to see Golden Eagle. He hung on through the abysmal
start to the day, got to take a bunch of pictures of close raptors once they
finally started flying, and waited for the "official" Golden Eagle time (per
Joe K.) of 1:30 pm. He even allowed some slop, getting into his car at 1:38
pm. At 1:58 pm Joe K. said, "Golden Eagle!" Yup, there it was, coming in from
the east, as fine a juv Golden as you could want. Joe K. and I were the only
ones left on the tower, Cecilia and Mike having left a bit before Joe F. The
eagle came all the way to the tower, circled overhead fairly low for a couple
of minutes
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8103931398/in/photostream/), and
then headed SW across East Bay. Joe K. stopped watching the bird, with both of
us figuring that it was going all the way across, against Smith Point Golden
Eagle tradition. He was back to finding and counting raptors ("18
Broad-wingeds and a Cooper's up here"), but I wanted to see that it did,
indeed, cross. I watched the bird become fairly small (nowhere near speckish,
though), when it shifted its course a bit more toward west, and then -- and I
knew it as soon as I saw it, it turned another 30 degrees to the right. Yup,
it's coming back. It turned all the way around and came all the way back,
crossing back over land beyond the close houses to the west. I figure that it
had to be at least a third of the way across, only to turn around. Weird, some
birds.
Raptors counted (count conducted by Gulf Coast Bird Observatory):
Turkey Vulture 88
Osprey 1
White-tailed Kite 1 ad
Northern Harrier 38 (largest flight of the season; 1 ad m, 15 brown, 22 juvs)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 33
Cooper's Hawk 63
Broad-winged Hawk 222 (including 2 late ads; I hadn't seen an ad. in a week or
so)
Swainson's Hawk 4 (all light, 3 juvs, 1 ad)
Red-tailed Hawk 4 (all juvs, 3 light, 1 dark/rufous/dark Harlan's)
Golden Eagle 1
American Kestrel 19 (this abysmal showing made it so that we might not break
the seasonal record until next week)
Peregrine Falcon 3 (all juvs, the last a certain tundrius)
Total 477
Now, I need to endure through a week (at least) of SE winds. During the
Sharpie peak, that wind (when light or lightish) was good for that species, but
now that we're past the Sharpie peak....
Later,
Tony
Tony Leukering
Villas, NJ
http://copyeditinggonebad.blogspot.com/
http://capemaymoths.blogspot.com/
http://cfobirds.blogspot.com/
http://aba.org/photoquiz/
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