[texbirds] Laguna Atascosa NWR (Cameron Co.) 07/01/12
- From: "Rex Stanford" <calidris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TEXBIRDS" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2012 23:04:11 -0500
Please start sending your posts to texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
En route to Laguna Atascosa NWR (LANWR, Cameron Co.) we checked the resaca
that extends both north and south of Hwy. 510 at its juncture with Ted Hunt
Road. The highlight was WILSON'S PLOVER (3) in the recently somewhat
rain-replenished segment that lies north of Hwy. 510.
We had not birded LANWR for many weeks because of its being very dry and
relatively unproductive. Yesterday, recognizing that there had been some
rain in the area, we visited there in the hope of perhaps seeing the place
coming to life a bit after some life-giving rain. We have said for years
that LANWR often is a place of surprises, and yesterday proved no exception,
yielding some nice ones.
A quick trip down Lakeside Drive yielded a very long-billed (probably
female) Long-billed Curlew. We birded primarily the Bayside Wildlife Drive
(BWD) hoping to find migratory shorebirds. Our best luck in that regard was
when we stopped at the overlook atop the culvert at the outflow for Pelican
Lake, looking north/northeast at the water that had accumulated from recent
rains. Water was still in relatively short supply, but it extended from the
culvert far north/northwest into the large sandy area that recently had
seemed bone dry, and in a dry land a relative little can mean a lot to the
wildlife, including the birds. In this case, we found BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER
(35-40 est., a few in nice breeding plumage), BLACK-NECKED STILT (several,
widely dispersed), GREATER YELLOWLEGS (35-40 est.), and WILLET (70-80,
est.; almost all being the western subspecies, inornatus).
It was a nice contrast to see the dozens of Western Willets, which were
lighter-colored, relatively white-faced, longer-legged, thinner billed, and
more slender, less dumpy-looking than the very few Easterns. The Westerns
also, gave the impression of being more godwit-like in build and leg length.
They tended to feed in a group, albeit a loosely spaced one, and when one or
two took off, the others usually would follow.
It was the Greater Yellowlegs at that location who provided, from our
perspective, one of the most entertaining surprises of the day. Far back in
the remote, elongated water-covered area these large birds were rapidly
tracing very straight, long lines, back and forth in the water, with bill
tips (only) submerged as though they were skimming into their bills small
creatures of some kind. At this distance, we had, though, no chance of
detecting what was being ingested. The movement of these yellowlegs seemed
very unorthodox for this species in our experience, on account of the long,
very straight, linear movements of the birds, back and forth in the
elongated pool, looking very much like the kind of foraging we often have
seen with American Avocet, except that the yellowlegs bills were never swung
back and fourth but furrowed the water in a very straight line. At first,
just seeing these birds' size and pattern of linear movement, we thought of
avocets, but a moment's look at their quite plain plumage, more squat
posture, and less tilted bodies vanquished that impression. Nonetheless,
these yellowlegs' foraging pattern yesterday seemed far more linear and
systematic than the often darting, dashing, frantic foraging strategy so
often shown by Greater Yellowlegs. A somewhat humorous-looking sideshow was
a single Tricolored Heron striding immediately north of the string of
yellowlegs, paralleling their straight-line movement and their tendency just
to run back and forth while foraging. It really looked like it might have
been inspired by the many yellowlegs to constrain its own usual
darting-dashing behavior in the interest of getting whatever they were
getting.
The BWD itself was a disappointment relative to shorebirds, for we found
only a relatively few of each of the above species--Black-bellied Plover
predominating (6)--but we added a single RUDDY TURNSTONE.
A start of another surprising episode occurred when a Willet came dashing
across the pavement, in front of us, in pursuit of something that at first
looked like it might have been a crushed deep-blue can with something large
and off-white attached to it but moving rapidly--we at first thought it
might be due to wind movement. As the trash-like enigma approached the brush
on the west side of the road, it became clear that it was a very hurried and
harried Fiddler Crab (or, at least we think that was its species) waving it
large, single, fiddle-like claw over it head, seemingly as a defense. It
managed to disappear underneath some roadside vegetation. Up the road we
subsequently saw five additional such crabs along the roadside. We did not
recall ever having previously seen crabs cross this road, despite many past
journeys down it. The crabs--to us looking like Fiddler Crabs (but are we
wrong?)--seemed to be busily on the move, and the movement direction was, in
every instance, from the left (east) side of the road toward the right (west
side) of the bayside leg of the BWD.
The northern half of western leg of the BWD 13-mile loop provided another
surprise. Many dozens (150-180 est.) LAUGHING GULLS were congregated along
the west side of the road for about a 0.25 mi stretch, often looking toward
the road and giving the appearance of a crowd awaiting the passage of a
celebrity along the road. They were spread out along the road's west side,
sometimes 4 -7 deep, and although they were facing the road--the direction
of the wind--it quickly became evident that something in the short
vegetation on the roadside was the focus of their interest and the cause of
their strange-looking aggregation along the road. They stood there, studying
the substrate and, each would, from time to time, reach down to pluck off
the ground some food item. It often seemed small and oval, and we began to
wonder if baby crabs might be the cause of the feeding frenzy and that our
close encounters earlier with adults were part of some kind of herding of
offspring. That is pure speculation, but, for sure, the food items were
small. We had never seen anything like this in our many trips down this
road, and pictures were taken as a souvenir of this, for us, unaccustomed
encounter with the feeding habits of this gull. Our guess it that they were
feeding on highly seasonal goodies, possibly young crabs (but might it have
been baby frogs?)--although we saw no hopping movements. What we could not
figure out was the fringe of this avian crowd being out onto the road and
looking eastward, seemingly with some intent. Might they have been wondering
if even more of the same was available east of the road? They remained along
the roadside as we moved slowly on.
We picked up a few of the expected waders along the bayside portion of the
drive, but on the western leg we had another enjoyable surprise in the form
of a very large Texas Indigo Snake crossing the road, the picture of snake
elegance (even if that might seem an oxymoron to some folks).
There had been something over an inch of rain in the area in very recent
days, and the blessing of some rain continued, at least along the immediate
bayside area, in some degree, much of the time we were on that leg of the
drive. It had been years, literally, since we had seen the lovely Cenizo
(Purple Sage) in substantial bloom along the BWD. Yesterday, the areas of
the drive that have these hardy flowers were almost every one already in
moderate to heavy bloom and well on their way--if some rain continues--to a
veritable avian "ode to joy." This seemed to herald a welcome rebirth of the
natural beauty of this lovely place where green growth had substantially
healed the unsightly scars of the recent controlled burns. Seeing the
flowers breaking forth and the onset of shorebird migration made our return
to this place an occasion for rejoicing.
Rex and Birgit Stanford
McAllen
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