[texbirds] Port Aransas Charlie's Pasture, Nov 29, 2014

From: Mikael Behrens <mikaelb@xxxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 15:03:49 -0600
This morning I birded the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie's Pasture. 
This time of year I try to make an honest effort to bird this preserve and keep 
a complete ebird checklist in order to capture two things: the large number of 
ducks (mostly Redheads) that fly over to the island from across the ship 
channel, and the significant number of small plovers that use the mud flats.
While also finding and counting other birds, it's challenging to keep track of 
the huge flocks of ducks that come in from the north during the morning. 
Sometimes you can see distant flocks that look like smoke. And sometimes you 
don't realize hundreds of ducks are overhead until you hear their wingbeats. So 
the numbers I recorded were rough but approached 4000, split between "duck sp." 
when they were too distant to identify, and Redhead.

I didn't see any small plovers until I reached the end of the roughly 1.5 miles 
of trail and boardwalk over the mud flats. Looking east with my spotting scope 
from the covered bench that's west of the observation tower, I found 
Semipalmated, Snowy, and Piping Plovers foraging with mostly Dunlin, some 
Western Sandpipers, and a few Sanderlings. I had to resort to calling some 
birds "small plover" or "peep" when the distance was too great to positively ID 
them.

See my complete checklist below. I encourage you to check out this great 
preserve. If you're interested in seeing all the shorebirds you can, a spotting 
scope is essential. And if you're there early in the morning, take precautions 
against the Mosquitos!

Mikael Behrens
Port Aransas (just for Thanksgiving)
Nueces County


Begin forwarded message:

> From: ebird-checklist@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: November 29, 2014 at 2:21:46 PM CST
> To: mabx2@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: eBird Report - Port Aransas Charlie's Pasture, Nov 29, 2014
> 
> Port Aransas Charlie's Pasture, Nueces, US-TX
> Nov 29, 2014 7:36 AM - 11:21 AM
> Protocol: Traveling
> 1.5 mile(s)
> Comments:     <br />Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.8
> 55 species (+4 other taxa)
> 
> Snow Goose  1
> American Wigeon  4
> Northern Shoveler  3
> Northern Pintail  3
> Green-winged Teal  28
> Redhead  1737     All flyovers, sometimes in groups as large as 600, flying 
> south from across the ship channel.
> Ruddy Duck  9
> duck sp.  2100     All flyovers, sometimes in groups as large as 600, flying 
> south from across the ship channel.
> Pied-billed Grebe  2
> Double-crested Cormorant  8
> American White Pelican  73
> Brown Pelican  3
> American Bittern  1
> Great Egret  6
> Snowy Egret  7
> Tricolored Heron  2
> Reddish Egret  2
> White Ibis  8
> Roseate Spoonbill  12
> Turkey Vulture  2
> Osprey  1
> White-tailed Hawk  2
> Black-necked Stilt  2
> American Avocet  6
> Black-bellied Plover  4
> Snowy Plover  8
> Semipalmated Plover  29
> Piping Plover  19
> Killdeer  4
> small plover sp.  17
> Greater Yellowlegs  1
> Lesser Yellowlegs  4
> Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs  21     Too distant to distinguish.
> Stilt Sandpiper  14
> Sanderling  12
> Dunlin  128
> Least Sandpiper  33
> Western Sandpiper  20
> peep sp.  41
> Long-billed Dowitcher  40     Distinguished from Short-billed by sound.
> Laughing Gull  22
> Ring-billed Gull  63
> Gull-billed Tern  1
> Forster's Tern  11
> Crested Caracara  4
> American Kestrel  1
> Peregrine Falcon  1
> Eastern Phoebe  1
> Loggerhead Shrike  2
> Horned Lark  19
> House Wren  5
> Sedge Wren  5
> Northern Mockingbird  10
> Common Yellowthroat  3
> Yellow-rumped Warbler  8
> Savannah Sparrow  4
> Lincoln's Sparrow  1
> Red-winged Blackbird  30
> Great-tailed Grackle  5
> 
> View this checklist online at 
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20717749
> 
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

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[texbirds] Port Aransas Charlie's Pasture, Nov 29, 2014

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