[texbirds] Lubbock highlights this morning/early afternoon
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:26:35 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings All:
I spent from 9:30 to 12:15 chasing critters at Clapp Park and the neighboring
arboretum. Things started slow: it seemed like the sun had almost completed
stolen away the dew by the time birds really started moving. By far the best
patch was towards the end of the day when the large oaks over the courtyard
adjacent to the Garden and Arts Center kicked out 1 Warbling Vireo, 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 2 Nashville Warblers, 2 Orange-crowned Warblers, 1
Yellow Warbler, 1 brilliant adult male Pine Warbler (not sure if this is the
same bird that has been nearby for the last several weeks - would be interested
in hearing from the folk that saw that one regarding sex and age?), 2
Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Black-throated Green Warbler, and 1 Wilson's
Warbler. Elsewhere in the arboretum highlights included 1 immature female
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (amidst a horde of 3-5 Black-chinned Hummingbirds), 2
additional Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 Gray Catbird, and 1
adult female Blue Grosbeak.
I also had a very fresh Great Purple Hairstreak (one of my favorite rare but
regular butterflies from the region) flitting amongst the oaks next to the
Garden and Arts Center - cool!
Clapp Park was nicely flooded by recent rains and had a healthy assortment of
waterbirds (nine species of duck - the best I've seen there so far this season)
including 1 female Wood Duck, 4 American Wigeons, 1 Green Heron, 1
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and 162 American Coots (a pretty good number for
this site) as well as a few notable land birds including 2 Cooper's Hawks, 2
American Crows (not odd for the region but a bit odd for the site), and1
MacGillivray's Warbler. Clapp Park was notably low in migrant songbirds
despite stellar conditions but the goodies at the arboretum were more than
enough to make up for that downer.
I spent another half hour surveying the oaks at the northwest corner of the TTU
HSC building (there has been a lot of good stuff there the last few weeks and I
thought it might be nice to try it with binoculars for a change) and picked up
1 Peregrine Falcon atop the building and 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 Nashville
Warbler, 2 Wilson's Warblers, and 2 Clay-colored Sparrows in the oaks.
Not too shabby for a day when I slept in:)
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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