Started the day at dawn on east beach where the pomarine jaeger quickly
moved out onto the sand where he usually sits. He was different today and
stood up when I was around rather than lying down. Napped but was alert
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164415999
New feathers appear but very slowly
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164416009
It will be a long time until there is a true jaeger tail
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164416007
The beak is almost all molted
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164416012
Numbers of dunlin, freshly molted have arrived in the last week
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414788
and were bathing and sleeping
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414796
A single lesser black-backed gull was down the way
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414807
I had my first look at piping plover N02 across the channel on Bolivar
Flats last week
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414813
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414818
It takes a long time for a plover to preen every feather one at a time
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414827
But you can get a good look at all the field marks
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414832
Snowy plovers were there too and defended puddles against other snowy and
piping plovers. A ship wave would start territory claiming all over again
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164414842
Lots of sand out on bolivar flats and black-bellied plovers were finding
lots of food
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417082
As were dunlin
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417083
I still have not seen any of the usual large flocks of short-billed
dowitchers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417101
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417099
The main flock of 8 red knots including the 2 banded birds was still
present but were feeding singly all along the way
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417088
They fed by flipping bits of beach debris like turnstones rather than
probing like dowitchers like they did last week
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417089
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417090
They are really good walkers. This one was walking east way down the way
where the land curves around to the jetty base and ended up almost at the
bollards. It could walk faster than I was wading
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417091
It eventually flew back and joined the other 7 birds napping in sand
depressions
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417093
Western sandpipers also
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417106
Beach traffic has good points as it provides places for birds to roost.
When I was leaving and the tide coming in all the small plovers were going
to bed
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417105
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417086
Debris provides wind cover even for standing birds
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417104
The birds of the day were over 2000 brown pelicans resting not far from the
bollards
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417115
The herd kept shifting
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417116
and resettling
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417117
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417119
A lack of wide-angle lens really does not do justice to the numbers
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417121
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417122
A hard-head fisherman shifted many of them well down the beach
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417124
Construction at rollover pass closed the east side and made the west side
too busy for birds. Headed to the texas city dike where the hot afternoon
had the black skimmers suffering from heat prostration
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417130
This great blue got two fish in quick order but was after more
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417132
And the western willets help clean things up
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417134
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164417133
One of the sights of the day were the astronomical number of small crab
fingers and claws all along the beach
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164419791
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/164419792
If they resulted from a molt, where are the other parts of the shells.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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