[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 3 Oct (or Audubon's, red Mississippi, and other stories)

From: Tony Leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Sk8inginfo@xxxxxxx, bill.schmoker@xxxxxxxxx, coturnicops@xxxxxxxxx, sam.galick@xxxxxxxxx, tsweet@xxxxxxxxxxx, peregrine43@xxxxxxxxxxx, bauersteven@xxxxxxxxxxx, SGMlod@xxxxxxx, jerrylig@xxxxxxxxxxx, pgaede@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, mikecrewe@xxxxxxxxxxx, meegsc@xxxxxxxxxxx, swallowtailstudio@xxxxxxxxxxx, ellendunnking@xxxxxxxxx, joebens@xxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2012 20:38:40 -0400 (EDT)

Hi all:

Since I did not report on yesterday's hawk count (Tad Finnell did a fine job),
I'll report here on yesterday's non-raptor highlights, and on a couple of
things from days previous to that.

The single warbler that flew by the tower on Monday, 1 Oct, as I reported, was
a Yellow-rumped (FOF here), but it was an Audubon's (or Audubon's-like
intergrade), rather than a Myrtle. In the three pix of the bird that I have
posted (start here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052017972/in/photostream and go
left in the stream), one can see the plain face pattern, the Audubon's-like
tail pattern, and the yellow on the throat. Though the throat is not entirely
yellow, that is not at all unexpected in first-cycle Audubon's in fall. In
fact, quite a few first-year females have little or no yellow in the throat;
overall face pattern is a much better way to ID such birds than is throat
color. Also on the 1st, a picture of the confusing (to me) very reddish
juvenile Mississippi Kite that hung around the tower catching dragonflies for a
couple of hours late in the day is on my site
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052015678/in/photostream). After
all of the 100s of juv Mississippis that I've seen this fall, I've not seen one
that approaches the redness of this bird.

Yesterday's flight of big, white waterbirds (and even some big, dark
waterbirds) was quite spectacular, with the final count of Wood Storks being
1197! Yow! Unfortunately, I neglected to bring yesterday's sheet with me to
my local source of wi-fi, so don't have the totals for other beasts (Anhingas,
Am. White Pelicans, White Ibis, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers). I managed to
photograph only two warblers yesterday, but BOTH were Nashvilles! After the
count ended, I saw a FOF Savannah Sparrow near the parking lot.

Today's flight was large, but exactly how large, we'll never know. That is
because when the Broad-wings really got going, they were kettling well west on
the point and very high. The birds were findable out there, but the problem
came in when they streamed off, as they did so heading west across the bay.
Since they were already at the limit of binoculars where they were kettling,
when they headed off the thermal like nice, little Broad-wingeds so that I
could count them, they would disappear off into the distance. Aaaarrrgh!
Unfortunately, by the time that I figured all of this out (and started counting
them as soon as they started streaming), who knows how many birds disappeard on
me. Additionally, as the atmosphere heated up, the birds went up, up, up and
disappeared from view that way. As example, my best hour was the 11-noon hour,
when I counted 985 Broad-winged Hawks. The next hour, I counted 2. Just two.
I'm sure that their modus remained the same, they just did it at a higher
altitude.

As the kettling site was so far west, searching for other things among them was
a bit difficult, and hordes (probably) of smaller fry simply got away. But, I
did manage to pick two light Swainson's Hawks (one adult, one just too far away
to age) and a couple of Ospreys out there, along with a small number of
Northern Harriers that got by me until they decided to kettle up with the
Broad-wingeds.

Landbirds were, again, relatively plentiful, with Indigo Bunting being the big
mover of the day; I counted 41 going by the tower (as compared to only 23
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and 32 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers). While the tower's
first Eastern Phoebe of the year went by on the 1st, I counted four today. A
Lark Sparrow perched in front became my first sparrow from the tower. However,
the best passerines were yanks. Yup, two Red-breasted Nuthatches welcomed me
early this morning. I managed to see and photograph the first one when it flew
west past me well out in front of the tower
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052109706/in/photostream). The
other remained unseen, but calling occasionally, in the mottes to the east.
This is likely to be a big year for this species, as they were already in
evidence on the Colorado plains in late July and staged a spectacular arrival
in New Jersey in August (check out the last -- earliest -- post from 29 Aug
here:
http://cmboviewfromthefield.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-09-10T13:15:00-04:00&max-results=20&start=40&by-date=false).
Additionally, CBC data show that Pine Siskin and Red-breasted Nuthatch
usually move in the same years, so we should be expecting those, too.

Bird of the Day: Honorable Mention goes to the adult Swallow-tailed Kite
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052138458/in/photostream) that
popped up in front of me at 3:40 pm (just six minutes after the last of the
day's visitors left!), consumed a couple of dragonflies, tested the air heading
across East Bay to the SW, didn't like it, and then looped around me and bolted
across the Bay heading to Bolivar or points west at 3:54 pm. This bird
accounts for only the second-ever (I believe) October Swallow-tailed at Smith
Point and (again, I believe) the latest record.

However, the BOD honor goes to the juvenile female Peregrine that put on a show
just for me, because she came by at 3:34 pm when the day's last visitors' car
was pulling out of the parking lot. She came screaming in from the NW and flew
by in front of the tower to land among the tall dead trees in the eastern motte
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052138723/in/photostream). Some
20 minutes later, she was still perched there when the Swall0w-tailed Kite flew
almost right over her head on its way to the barrier islands. However, shortly
after that, she launched and just about climbed into my camera! Check out
these pix -- start here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8052150417/in/photostream and go
left in the stream. Unfortunately, she moved her head when I took the last pic!

Raptors counted (count conducted by Gulf Coast Bird Observatory):

Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 25
Swallow-tailed Kite 1
Mississippi Kite 10 (all juvs)
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 23 (22 juvs, 1 adult male)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 352
Cooper's Hawk 60
Broad-winged Hawk 1751
Swainson's Hawk 2
American Kestrel 127
Merlin 1 (juv male)
Peregrine Falcon 1 (juv female)
Total 2355

Enjoy,

Tony

Tony Leukering
Smith Point, TX

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[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 3 Oct (or Audubon's, red Mississippi, and other stories)

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