[texbirds] Nesting cassin's sparrows, lots of dickcissels, white-rumped sandpipers at attwater this am

From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
To: 4 Texbirds Maillist <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 18 May 2013 15:34:01 -0500

I spent the morning doing attwater refuge, some of the side roads and the
loop around Eagle Lake.
The refuge has really lots of dickcissels. And not much else on the tour
loop as the monoculture continues to eliminate habitat.

There were either 4 or 5 singing cassin's sparrows along the entrance road
between the parking lot for the pipit trail and the buildings. Not sure of
the number as they flew back and forth a bit when challenged by other
singers or birds that lit in the road.

One bird sang differently. Did lots of twittering rather than the longer
long. Turns out he was twittering for a female that came up to be twittered
at twice, mated once and went back to the nest site. Watched the female go
to the nest site 3 times but I could not see much of the sitting bird if at
all. The nest is in a thickish clump just above the ground. One of the
other males did some twittering too but I did not see a female with him.

When the large numbers were on the katy prairie a couple of years ago and
several years ago when I had them at Attwater, I never heard birds calling
or acting like today and had no evidence of nesting and the birds faded out
as the summer advanced.

A single lincoln's sparrow was back on the ditch in the wet part of tour
route which is not very wet for my latest ever by a couple of weeks.
Several savannah sparrows also around which ties my latest ever.

The recently plowed area along the east/west part of the access road had a
couple of puddles and a growing flock of white-rumped sandpipers. When I
left there were 10 but the puddles were rapidly shrinking with the strong
wind and 90+ sunshine.

Had a total of 2 least sandpipers for the rest of the shorebird list. Very
dry with only a couple of areas of fairly tall rice. No empids in any of
the usual spots and migration traps.

The eagle lake cemetary has a pair of great kiskadees so as this is the
second year at the spot they would appear to be resident. The only warblers
of the trip were a couple of american redstarts in the cemetary.

But there are dickcissels. Probably as many as I have seen in a large area
here in texas. Lots in small patches but not lots over large areas.

Almost no hawks. A red-tail looked like a krider's but was a somewhat
albino instead. one adult and a second year swainson's hawks were widely
separated.

Good to see green for a change but the lack of rice really cut down on the
number of birds. One area had a really good wheat crop where there usually
is rice. Corn looks good too.

-- 
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx


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[texbirds] Nesting cassin's sparrows, lots of dickcissels, white-rumped sandpipers at attwater this am

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