Started off last Wednesday at Galveston's East Beach and found high water
levels. The normal sandbar and lagoon area near the jetty where the
pomarine jaeger usually sits was under water and water had been a couple of
feet higher up to the vegetation. About 1/3 of the tern nesting area was
under water and lots of the parking area was wet and all of the parking etc
west of the buildings was under water.
A preening Caspian tern on the beach showed off parts that are not apparent
when they just sit around
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017831
Black-bellied plovers continue to arrive
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017834
Had my first young of the year least sandpipers when some flew from the
flooded area to the shoreline but then headed across to Bolivar. Still
confuse me when they arrive
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017835
Arriving ruddy turnstones continue to molt rapidly
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017837
And a western sandpiper was all molted
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017840
Crossed the ferry over to Bolivar and found about 300 marbled godwits and
perhaps twice as many short-billed dowitchers in Fort Travis
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017860
With preening birds showing the diagnostic tail pattern
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017862
and sleeping birds
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017861
Most of the birds were feeding at a depth of about the bill length
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017864
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017865
It was great fun to listen to the group as they do lots of talking and
chattering among themselves. They were very tame and fed very close to 2
workmen taking a break at a picnic table. I never did quite see what they
were eating which was quite common as they started swallowing before the
bill came out of the ground. This was the closest I got
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017868
The dowitchers mainly stayed in wetter spots and were partly hidden in the
grass
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017858
Periodically groups of them would march off to find a better feeding area
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017859
Going out to Bolivar Flats, the water was very high and a pool lay across
the entrance road that was used by a couple of American avocets. The water
got into the vegetation and if the Wilson's plovers were still nesting they
would have been flooded out again like this spring.
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017883
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017882
I was the first person there since the water went down and it was great to
have no car, person or dog tracks out there. Offset by a lack of flats for
birds to feed on. Only had one piping plover but many snowy plovers were
all along the shore and off to the east to the cut which has really been
cut again.
My first young black skimmer of the fall was out there too
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017886
Periodically, the skimmers would think about moving but just trotted a bit
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017884
A young of the year Caspian tern flew by, one of about 65 caspians for the
day
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017887
A great blue heron was making good use of the signs at the bollards
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017888
The long-billed curlews were on station but were having to work for their
food as the high water had filled in all of the crab holes
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017889
Up at Rollover Pass, the water was in the parking lots and no islands were
visible. Large mats of water hyacinths were drifting out the pass and both
snowy and great egrets were riding them and grabbing things that did not
like the change to salt water. American Oystercatcher YM had not wandered
again
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017918
and was eating on oysters that had been tossed into the parking lot
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017917
A young black skimmer was sleeping
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017920
Woke up
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017922
And went back to sleep
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017923
A black-bellied plover was finding things moved by the high water
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017925
And a young of the year snowy egret was scavenging in the parking lot
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017933
The backs of the legs are yellow which can be quite extensive
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017932
And is starting to get some breeding feathers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017934
An adult red reddish egret
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017927
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017928
Contrasted with a young of the year bird
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017930
Out on Yacht Basin Road, a recently fledged white ibis was hunting
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017944
He caught a crab but each time he grabbed it the crab would grab both the
upper and lower bill
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017945
But would quickly drop it
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017946
and try again and get pinched again
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017947
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017948
The crab got away but I noted that the white ibis is another bird that is
semipalmated
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017951
Crossed back to the texas city dike and the water had been over all of the
beach recently and most was wet and sloppy. The area looked like a war zone
with birds lying all over
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018135
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018136
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018137
Which is how black skimmers keep cool. They also pant
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018142
Note how thin the bill is on the back bird
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018138
Which makes it hard for them to drink as there isn't much room to hold water
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018139
There was a good flock of least terns on the dike and 2 nice flocks on
bolivar but I had no young of the year birds at either spot. The terns kept
cool by submerging but not that they keep the wing tips dry
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017976
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017980
A couple of common terns there too
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017966
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164017970
Most wet spots had some least sandpipers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018143
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018144
Its only been a short time since the brown young of the year laughing gulls
hit the beaches. They are already molting into winter plumage
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018154
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018157
Some more than others
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018153
a ring-billed gull is also getting whiter feathers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018164
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018165
All the royal terns are eating feathers. Noticed that some have stubbier
bills
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018168
Than birds with longer more pointed bills
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018172
The young all have the stubby bill
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164018170
Lots more pictures from the day can be browsed at
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/inbox
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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