[texbirds] Hornsby Bend - a few more shorebirds
- From: Chuck Sexton <gcwarbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TexBirds TexBirds Posting <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 15:31:47 -0500
TexBirders,
I visited Hornsby Bend for the third time this month and things are gradually
picking up. The unexpected light rain shower early in the morning may have
also helped to ground some shorebirds:
Black-necked Stilt - 6 (2 pairs of adults, each with one juvenile)
Killdeer - 26+
Spotted Sandpiper - 8+
Solitary Sandpiper - 1
Stilt Sandpiper - 2
Least Sandpiper - 127
Pectoral Sandpiper - 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 11
Western Sandpiper - 1 or 2
This ratio of Semipalmated to Western is a bit surprising to me, but I just
don’t think I’ve spent much time *in late July* in recent years scouring
through the early flocks of peeps.
As might be expected, absolutely every migrant shorebird now in late July is a
molting adult. I have been studying plumages at close range with a 20X scope
on every species and have not identified—to the best of my knowledge—a juvenile
of any species other than the locally-raised stilts and killdeer. They’ll
probably be arriving soon.
I noticed that other Hornsby eBird checklists are not listing many shorebirds.
About 80 to 90% of the shorebird activity at present is confined to the extreme
W edge, and usually just the NW corner of pond 1W. I usually park right at the
chainlink fence and gate at that west edge and set up my scope just inside the
“Authorized Personnel Only” sign to get the best vantage point to scan the
shorebirds in the corner. With recent rains, there are also usually a few
shorebirds foraging on the wet portions of the drying beds, dodging the various
trucks and equipment activity.
Chuck Sexton
Austin, TX
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