[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 7 Oct

From: Tony leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
To: Texbirds <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Tamie Bulow <Tamie.Bulow@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Steve Bauer <bauersteven@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Cameron Rutt <cameronrutt@xxxxxxxxx>, Tom Reed <coturnicops@xxxxxxxxx>, "Ellen (Ma) King" <ellendunnking@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 18:34:37 -0500

Hi all:

With the cool temps and brisk northerly wind, there were great expectations for 
a great flight today; we got good.  As I had not seen a strong N wind here, I 
found the flight hard to figure out, as the buteos and some accipiters spent 
long periods in front of the tower facing into the wind and not doing anything 
that seemed purposeful.  I was particularly confused when I started seeing 
buteos coming off the Bay behind me and flying N over my head.  But, we figured 
things out and tallied the highest Swainson's Hawk count since my arrival (with 
one 12-Swainson's hour), but did not crack even 500 Broad-wingeds.

Landbirds were notable in their virtual absence; perhaps tonight's light N 
winds will finally get me a big hit of such here.  I understand that I've been 
here only 26 days, but it is fall and you'd think that a guy could get a slug 
of passerines at some point.  The hummer show was nearly non-existent (in a 
relative sense), as I counted only 15 or so. There is still one "wheep"ing 
Great Crested Flycatcher and I saw my biggest hit of Chimney Swifts to date: 
21; oh, boy (you can hear the dryness of that comment, right?).

Bird of the Day:  Honorable Mention goes to the beauteous adult Red-shouldered 
Hawk (the first of the season) that made one pass in front of the tower.  
However, the honors go to the juvenile Bald Eagle that came in off the water 
and motored north just after 2 pm.  Unfortunately, this was only five minutes 
after a woman that REALLY wanted to see a Bald Eagle had driven off after being 
here for hours.

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

Turkey Vulture 40
Mississippi Kite 7 (all juvs)
Bald Eagle 1
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 13 (all juvs)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 263
Cooper's Hawk 55
Red-Shouldered Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 437
Swainson's Hawk 14 (all light, most ad.)
Red-tailed Hawk 1 (juv)
American Kestrel 92
Merlin 2

The forecast looks promising for a good and interesting raptor flight tomorrow, 
even if passerines don't appear.

Enjoy,

Tony

Tony Leukering
Smith Point, TXEdit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
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[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 7 Oct

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