Started on the ferry early in the day. Poked around good spots in Port
Bolivar that often have land birds. More has grown up since Ike but the
birds do not know it yet. The only migrant in several trips was this
Baltimore oriole
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421701
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421702
Ponds in the area have good numbers of mottled ducks
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421696
One pond had 2 broods of ducklings
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421697
Spotted sandpipers were on many edges and even streets
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421698
This bird poked around in buried gulf weed with a turnstone and took the
dried? food to the water to eat it
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421700
Birds out on bolivar flats included the usual common dunlins
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421705
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421707
And one of the very uncommon marbled godwits. At least they have been
uncommon or rare since last fall on my trips
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421709
The very wide flats had channels between dryer areas that were used by
non-breeding forster's terns
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421708
The top-side of this ring-billed gull was a mix of several aged plumages
and repeatedly had me looking
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421710
Semipalmated sandpipers are named for the very little webbing between toes.
It can be hard to see but the mud made it stand out better on this bird.
Many western sandpipers have more semipalmated toes but are not called
semipalmated
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421711
They are about the grayest bird out there among the peeps but some do have
a fair bit of color. Note the nice eye ring
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421712
The mounds raised by clams or worms are very different out where there is
usually a couple of feet of water compared to those which appear on each
low tide
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421715
The red knots were eating the surf clams
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421745
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421746
Some are not as red
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421744
A one-legged bird, not a bird standing on one leg had no color in its
feathers so would probably not breed and could summer here or south of the
nesting grounds
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421748
A couple of pairs of least terns were paired and mating. It is a long
process taking as much as 10 minutes. The male brings a fish but keeps it
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421751
Both birds dance and call with male and female calls very different. It
goes on a long time and sounds like little wind up toys
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421753
Things get more exciting and the male starts spreading his wings
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421754
With a nod, the female takes the fish
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421755
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421756
And if the tide stops washing over the sand inside the barriers we can have
eggs someday
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421757
Almost all of the gulls out on the beach were franklin's gulls. They seemed
to prefer standing on the edge of the water but with an incoming tide the
periodically had to move to the next edge
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421765
They never moved more than a few feet, from the outside edge of a bar to
the inside edge and next to the next bar
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421767
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421769
Most were in full breeding plumage and had a tinge of pink on the belly
which comes from eating shrimp
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421774
Others still have a small amount of older white feathers showing
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421773
I found two laughing gulls up on the beach trying to eat what looked like a
snake flopping on the sand. Was told that it was a shrimp eel. Both birds
did lots of pinching on the eel and both started eating on each end
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421826
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421825
One bird won the prize and started swallowing. The other tried but had its
eel end jerked out of its mouth
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421827
Ever hopeful it kept trying to get a piece of the eel
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421831
I found a little group of tree swallows lingering along the beach. With
binoculars one looked like it had a white rump on several occasions but I
never got a good look at it or got a pictures. Maybe white feathers
wrapping around like with a cooper's hawk?
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421837
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421839
One wet patch had a couple of hudsonian godwits. The male ruled the water
area on one side of the road and did not permit the female to land
anywhere. She went across the road and preened
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421847
napped
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421848
Stood around
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421850
Stood on one leg
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421854
Turned its head
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421855
And even napped on one leg
http://www.pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/165421856
Very exciting. A flock of a dozen males flew by when I was out on the flats
but never touched down on the salt water. I did not find any up in the rice
fields which had a small number of birds.
But a great day out there.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
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