[texbirds] Re: Migrating Couch's Kingbirds
- From: "John Arvin" <jarvin@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <upupa@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:41:21 -0500
Martin et al.,
Couch's Kingbirds are partial migrants (as are Great Kiskadees). Some
seasons fair numbers remain to winter and some seasons their withdrawal is
virtually complete. They gather in pre migratory staging groups that can be
quite large (110 at Anzalduas Park associated with a heavy fruiting of
Anacua along with about 90 Great Kiskadees at the same place. Great
Kiskadees are regularly observed migrating at the "River of Raptors" site
in Veracruz. In the Valley the reduction in kiskadee numbers is hardly
noticeable but at my familie's ranch in northern Jim Wells County they are
strictly summer residents. Likewise with the kingbirds. I was just there
briefly this week and the kiskadee pull-out had already taken place but
there were still a few Couch's Kingbirds around various tanks.
John C. Arvin
Research Associate
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory
103 West Hwy 332
Lake Jackson, TX 77566
jarvin@xxxxxxxx
www.gcbo.org
Austin, Texas
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From: "Martin Reid" <upupa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 7:46 PM
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] Migrating Couch's Kingbirds
Dear All,
While showing a couple of visiting birding friends from England around
Mitchell Lake Audubon Center on the south side of San Antonio this
afternoon, we saw a few groups of up to a dozen Scissor-tailed Flycatchers
on the wires at various points. Nice enough, but the last group we saw -
six or seven birds along the road next to the Police Academy - were
accompanied by fifteen Couch's Kingbirds. This is the first time I've seen
more than 3 birds in a group (other than feeding youngsters), and the first
time I have witnessed migration for this species. Does anyone else have
experience of this? FYI The TOS Handbook talks about them withdrawing from
the northern parts of their range in the winter; I saw two at their
traditional breeding site by the Botanical Gardens on Monday.
Also, the Black-throated Gray Warbler was still at Denman Park in NW San
Antonio yesterday morning, along with a Pine Warbler, a few Orange-crowned
Warblers, and 10+ Nashvilles. We were on limited time, and did not cover
the entire park.
Finally from yesterday afternoon I caught the tail end of some raptor
migration from our apartment complex at Fredericksburg Road and Wurzbach in
San Antonio:
TUVU - 222; excluding obvious non-moving birds
BLVU - 13; ditto
SWHA - 43 (minimum)
BWHA - 6
COHA - 4
Martin
---
Martin Reid
San Antonio
www.martinreid.com
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