Started the day at the Galveston jetty a little too early for pictures
partly due to the clouds. The pomarine jaeger was feeding on discarded fish
and crab bait on the jetty and moved around as the fishermen left. He is
eating very well and has had a very full crop every time I have seen him
but today it was extra full due to a good filling of chicken
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877289
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877291
Note that additional primary feathers have grown in but other feather
growth is a little random
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877305
The bird has little fear of fishing people but is moved when they walk
along the narrow jetty
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877293
A good look at jaeger feet
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877308
But the jaeger really ate the chicken when choosing between it and fresh
fish. There was also a very large dead fish nearby to provided food too
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877300
A young of the year piping plover was at the jetty for a while
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877284
and was feeding well
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877283
It also had a long argument with an adult bird with lots of displaying by
both. Each time the two plovers would get serious, a sanderling would stick
his nose into the discussion
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877267
A western sandpiper shows that it is also semipalmated
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877278
Black-bellied plovers arriving now have glistening breeding plumage
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877318
Which starts to fade as they start their molt
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877320
One of the two remaining eastern willet youngsters had lost much of its
baby feathers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877325
Young Caspian terns will still look like youngsters until the new year and
their begging cries will be common over the bay and gulf
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877326
Note that young Caspian terns can have yellow/orange legs like the royal
and sandwich terns
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877327
But the parents stay with black legs
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877328
The dunlin from last week was still present
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163893162
Short-billed dowitchers are arriving and rapidly losing their color
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877354
It seems to be hard work for them to sit down
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877352
A young of the year western willet was on the beach
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877356
Piping plovers come with all sorts of bands and flags. Had 11 birds for the
day with bling
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877364
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877365
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877371
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877368
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877372
Notice the tremendous number of little mounds out there where the first
lower tide of the fall left bare sand. Each represents food for a
shorebird. The amount of holes is higher than any time I have seen since
before Ike.
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877372
Lots of bigger food too
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877378
And the first baby plover with a band for the fall
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877379
More snowy plovers have bands this summer as they have been added to the
targets on the Missouri river etc
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877380
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877381
The second young of the year eastern willet that is lingering. He is less
advanced than the earlier bird
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877385
Killdeer do go out on the mud flats
Forster's tern chicks have already lost most of the first feathers and are
in pristine winter plumage but still have a few darker feathers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877387
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877388
Least terns are also molting and losing the yellow bill and black cap
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877390
Note they can show a carpal bar like a common tern
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877389
Up at Anahuac a summering coot has the same feather problems as the
summering gulls and jaeger on the beach
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877399
Young purple gallinules are starting to get a frontal shield
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877405
Lots of new broods of black-bellied whistling ducks
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877402
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877404
The tricolored heron chicks are just leaving the nests out in the middle of
shoveler pond
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877406
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877408
As are the white-faced ibis which are already losing their multi-colored
bills they had a week ago
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877409
Wood storks had gathered along the edge of the rookery
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877411
And some were up in the vegetation playing with sticks, apparently
stimulated by the birds on their nests
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/163877412
Lots more pictures that can be browsed at
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/inbox
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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