[texbirds] Lubbock Highlights today

From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:13:14 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings All:
I was quite busy - last night and this morning - getting out the monthly field 
notes for March and getting my local Audubon chapter's newsletter out.  By noon 
I decided I needed a little bit of fun:)

I birded Clapp Park for about 45 minutes.  It is pretty much a done deal, 
unless we get quite a bit of rain very soon, as a hotspot for shorebirds as it 
is down to two small puddles.  The uplands are also pretty crispy, trees are 
taking longer than I expected to leaf out, and it actually looks as though 
there will be some tree mortality this year - unless conditions improve.  
Birding wasn't too bad for a short visit and I managed to tally 22 species in 
short order with the following highlights: 2 American Wigeons, 2 Long-billed 
Dowitchers, 1 Common Poorwill, and 1 male Bronzed Cowbird.

Right after I stumbled across (over) the poorwill, I called Cameron Carver and 
he told me that I should go check out the Clark's Grebe spotted this morning at 
Lake Six.  I hadn't heard about this bird and it was just tasty enough to 
induce me to skip lunch and make a quick drive out to the lake.  I made two 
complete circuits around Lake Six - not finding the grebe until late in the 
second pass.  The first thing I saw during my first pass was a small group of 8 
Franklin's Gulls flying over the upper end of the lake, with some birds dipping 
down to float on the water a bit.  This group of gulls then moved onto adjacent 
Mae Simmons Park.  I followed them to the park but they kept going upstream, 
disappearing over the treeline - next stop MacKenzie Parki?

Then, at the first boat landing on the northeastern edge of the lake, I spotted 
a tiny tern perched on some debris just downstream from the landing.  It was a 
gorgeous, breeding-plumage Least Tern ... and I lurched into action in an 
attempt to get my newly repaired camera out and full of batteries.  As soon as 
I stepped out of the car it started flying and it just wouldn't stop.   I tried 
to get a photograph of this bird for about fifteen minutes, with no luck - as 
my point and shoot just couldn't get in on this rapidly flying bird before it 
moved out of view.  The last I saw of the bird, it was flying over the water 
just above the spillway.

I finished my first circuit of the lake, feeling very happy but wondering how 
on earth I managed to miss the grebe that I had set out for:)  I decided to 
make a second circuit and found the Clark's Grebe almost immediately - less 
than 100 meters below Martin Luther King Boulevard.  This one I did get a 
horribly digibinocular shot of - the image; it is to laugh.

Other highlights from the lake: a couple of flyover Chipping Sparrows and 3 
male Yellow-headed Blackbirds hanging out with the geese right at the Canyon 
Lakes Drive/MLK Boulevard intersection.

Not too shabby for just under two hours of actual birding!


Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock

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[texbirds] Lubbock Highlights today

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