[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 7 Nov
- From: Tony leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
- To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2012 19:40:00 -0600
Hi all:
It is official -- I like Smith Point.
Today was simply stupendous, from start to finish and beyond. Though I took
only about 550 pictures today, it took me some two hours to edit because there
were just so many really good photo ops, that I had an incredibly high
percentage of keepers. I will post pix tomorrow when I get Internet access
(hopefully, the watch tomorrow will be slower to allow on-time departure).
It started, not with a chair, but with geese. The first goose flock of OVER
ONE HUNDRED flocks (7 am - 3:30 pm) was comprised of three species, one of them
a White-cheeked Goose. I photo'ed the flock for later study, but my first
impression was of Cackling. That later study showed that the bird was
marginally larger than the next-door Snow Goose, so it was probably a Lesser
Canada Goose (B. c. parvipes), rather than a Richardson's Cackling Goose (B. h.
hutchinsii). I'm told that any White-cheeked Goose is "good" here. By the
way, the third species in the flock was Ross's.
The goose numbers piled up and John Whittle, Marvin, Paula, and I spotted and
counted 1300 Gr. White-fronteds, 6300 Snows, 42 Ross's, 220 Snow/Ross's, and
the one Canada. The only other large non-raptor birds flying in large numbers
were Am. White Pelicans (306 in 20 flocks). Lesser Scaup motored past often,
~200 in 6 flocks, though 3 flocks of about 160 bay ducks (Aythya) were too far
and/or in bad light for ID. Finally for waterbirds, 9-13 Franklin's Gulls came
and went (or just came and there were four flocks of roughly similar size)
overhead this morning chasing unseen morsels in the sky. A bit later, a flock
of 38 was way out in front along Trinity Bay.
Though it started with geese, passerines followed immediately, with a flight of
thrushes and finches: 20 occurrences of at least 57 E. Bluebirds (most flocks
were heard and not seen, with the largest being of 24 birds, so you can see
that a lot more went over than we detected), 7 flocks of 234 Am. Robins, 6
occurrences of 23 Pine Siskins, and 7 occurrences of Am. Goldfinches (most
finches were not seen; the largest flock was of 14 Siskins). Most
interestingly, the 234 Am. Robins were the first 234 Am. Robins that I've seen
from the tower!
Myrtle Warblers also put on a show. Though I probably GREATLY under-counted
the species due to paying more attention to waterbirds and raptors, I still
managed to tally 254 flying by the tower. Other landbirds of note were
warblers, two Orange-crowneds and a Western Palm. Just shy of 100% of the
swallows today were Trees (and they were going by in big numbers most of the
day), with a couple N. Rough-wingeds and a smattering of Barns.
Right around 9 am, someone threw the Swainson's Hawk switch, for many suddenly
appeared in what had been, except for geese and some passerines, a clear, blue
sky. Flock after flock (with attendant TVs and Broad-wingeds) passed very low
directly over the tower, affording incredible views of much of the bewildering
variety of plumages presented by juvenile Swainson's Hawks -- I don't think
that any two are alike. Later in the day, it got a bit tricky to figure out
which birds of most of the soaring raptors to count and which to let go as
probable repeats, but that very variety makes keeping a handle on the
Swainson's considerably easier. Because of that, like yesterday, the species
dominated the show. But today, they accounted for nearly half of the counted
birds! It's probably a good thing that the somewhat-brisk breeze slowed in
speed and turned westerly, because I might still be editing pix taken of
Swainson's Hawk right over my head; instead, the flight got high and moved well
out in front.
Another subadult White-tailed Hawk made an appearance, and a lovely adult
rufous Red-tailed was around for the last couple of hours. Two adult
Broad-winged Hawks (one still growing outer primaries on both sides!) were very
late for their age. A single male American Kestrel got itself onto the count
-- the end has certainly come to that species' migration here.
Bird of the Day: Though I was inclined to give the honor to the Swainson's
Hawk show, because I found a new way to present that show in this essay and it
had to be in the main body, the honor goes elsewhere. And though adding two
more Bald Eagles (adult at 12:23 pm, 2nd-yr at 2:45 pm) to the
already-incredible seasonal tally of that species was great, the honor goes
elsewhere. That honor was earned at 1:27 pm (and right here, Joe K. 'knows'
exactly what I'm going to write) when a dark raptor out front at the bottom of
the TV kettle showed a lot of white on the tail and became a juv Golden Eagle!
'Twas the fourth such bird of the season, the only one that Joe K. has missed,
and the record-breaking individual (old seasonal record was 3)!
Raptors counted:
Black Vulture 4
Turkey Vulture 93
Bald Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 22 (2 ad m, 1 ad f, 16 brown, 3 juv)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 9 (4a, 5u)
Cooper's Hawk 15 (7a, 8u)
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 juv
Broad-winged Hawk 43 (2a, 41j)
Swainson's Hawk 157 juvs
White-tailed Hawk 1 dark 2nd-year
Red-tailed Hawk 19 (2a, 17j)
Golden Eagle 1 juv
American Kestrel 1m
Total 368
It ended with geese. As I sit here assiduously typing my long-winded essay on
my phone, I hear the yelping of Snow Geese STILL migrating past!
(Apologies to Juno)
Enjoy,
Tony
Tony Leukering
Smith Point, TX
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