[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 9 Oct

From: Tony Leukering <greatgrayowl@xxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Sk8inginfo@xxxxxxx, coturnicops@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2012 20:03:27 -0400 (EDT)
Hi all:

With Sharpies and Kestrels flying around fairly late yesterday, I expected the 
best part of the day today -- with the forecast SE wind -- to be the early 
morning, which I had hoped would have a good showing of both species.  Well, 
the count today is fairly well summed up by:

First raptor sighted at 8:40 am (yes, that's 70 minutes after I started looking 
for that first raptor) and

First raptor actually counted, a female American Kestrel, at 9:19 am!

Fortunately, the day did get better, not a whole heckuvalot better, but better. 
 The low overcast cleared out and I just managed to crack the century mark for 
the day.  The best show was put on by Northern Harriers, which accounted for 
almost one-fifth of the total number of hawks counted.  Though I saw three 
species of buteos, none were counted, as they did not exhibit the behavior.  
While scanning through a vulture kettle that I found because I had noted a 
flock of American White Pelicans with my binocular and wanted to get a count 
with the scope and noticed some dozen vultures circling around beyond the 
pelican -- I found the day's first Peregrine, way high and way out that 
eventually made a beeline for Galveston Island.

Bird of the Day:  Photography was the best part of the day, partly because of 
the local female Belted Kingfisher to which I award the BOD honor.  I do so 
because she made two very close flights past the tower and enabled me to 
greatly increase not just the quantity of pix of this species (which is 
surprisingly hard to photograph!), but, more importantly, the quality (check 
out  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8072409768/in/photostream  - 
start here and go left for three more pix in stream).

Speaking of photography, I would be be remiss in not noting that luck plays a 
very large part in photography, at least, how I do photography.  I was 
photographing a female American Kestrel that looked to be making a close fly-by 
of the tower, when she made a quick maneuver and then leveled out and kept 
going, with me photographing the whole time, hoping that I had caught the 
maneuver, whatever it was.  Well, I caught it 
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/8072426012/in/photostream), and 
there is no doubt that it was virtually entirely luck.  I hadn't even seen the 
dragonflies.

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

White-tailed Kite 1 (age unknown; it disappeared on me before I could get it in 
the scope)
Mississippi Kite 1 juv
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 18 (one each adult male and female, the rest juvs or unknowns 
in the distance in the bad light)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 35
Cooper's Hawk 3
American Kestrel 38
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 2 (1 adult male, the speck bird was of unknown age)
Total 101

Enjoy,

Tony


Tony Leukering
Villas, NJ
http://copyeditinggonebad.blogspot.com/
http://capemaymoths.blogspot.com/
http://cfobirds.blogspot.com/
http://aba.org/photoquiz/
[texbirds] GCBO Smith Point HW, 9 Oct

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