[texbirds] Many dead birds, Bonaparte’s everywhere, huge FOTE flock

From: MBB22222@xxxxxxx
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:07:27 -0500 (EST)
During past couple weeks I found many dead birds when traveling along the  
Brazoria and Galveston county beaches. Wonder if there is any explanation 
for  that as I do not recall ever seen so many dead birds in those places in 
so short  period of time. More than dozen of dead gulls, terns, pelicans and 
cormorant. 
 
During last weekend when checking beaches in those two counties Bonaparteâs 
 Gulls seemed to be everywhere often foraging in flocks up to 20-30 in 
breaker  zones, very close to the shore line.
 
But perhaps the most incredible sighting was on Saturday when right before  
sundown I watched a huge Forsterâs Tern flock of thousand of perhaps more. 
About  200 Black Skimmers, some gulls and a few Royal Terns were part of 
this large and  very long flock (so with my long lens I could only get a small 
part of it to fit  inside the photo). When sun was setting down  FOTEs in 
groups of few to 20  or so kept breaking away from main flock and disappeared 
over the Gulf waters.  As I do not remember ever seeing so many FOTEs in 
January I did eBirds search. I  was` lucky as the month of January was the only 
month I could perform the search  for FOTE high count records in Texas 
during all recorded years. When trying  to pull records from other months 
database choked.  The highest counts on  record is one time 500, one time 450 
and 
three times 300 or more. Unfortunately  my count is way too imprecise, with 
huge error margin (even that number was  probably way over 500) to be even 
consider to report. But for sure it was a  spectacular view, at least to 
somebody who likes terns.
 
Here are a couple shots showing part of huge FOTE/BLSK flock:
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524733_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524733) 
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524735_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524735) 
 
And here a few examples of BOGU foraging in or between breakers:
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524704_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524704) 
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524724_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524724) 
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524714_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524714) 
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524732_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148524732) 
 
And more photos here:
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/bonapartes_gull_flock_feeding_in_breakers__utc_jan
uary_ (http://www.pbase.com/mbb/bonapartes_gull_flock
_feeding_in_breakers__utc_january) 
 
Mark B Bartosik
Houston, Texas
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field)
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[texbirds] Many dead birds, Bonaparte’s everywhere, huge FOTE flock

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