[texbirds] Recap: Granger Lake area fallout - 5/16

From: Chuck Sexton <gcwarbler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: TexBirds TexBirds Posting <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 18:54:07 -0500
TexBirders,

I spent about 7 hours checking out several patches of woods and  
scanning Granger Lake today.  That area had had a strong storm which  
dumped about 0.5" of rain after midnight so conditions were really  
good for a fallout, and I wasn't disappointed.  I ended the day with  
about 90 spp including 9 flycatchers (with 4 Empidonax), 5 vireos  
(all singing), 3 thrushes (1 Veery, 1 Gray-cheek, and oodles of  
singing Swainson's), and 15 spp of warblers.  The warbler list  
follows and I did not even try to dig out the local nesting  
Prothonotaries or Louisiana Waterthrushes:

(Pardon the old sequence...)

Nashville - 2
Yellow Warbler - 20
Chestnut-sided - 2
Magnolia - 8
Black-thr. Green - 5
Blackburnian - 3 (incl. 2 males)
Bay-breasted - 1 female (co. tic for me)
Black-and-white - 2 females
American Redstart - 8
Ovenbird - 1 singing
Mourning - 1 male
Com. Yellowthroat - 1 female
Wilson's - 5
Canada - 2 males
Yellow-breasted Chat - 2

All those numbers are very conservative since activity was literally  
swirling around me in the woods.  Two major resources attracted the  
most warblers and vireos:  Parts of the hackberry componant of the  
canopy floodplain forests at Granger have been heavily infested  
(nearly defoliated) the past 2 months by hackberry butterfly larvae.   
There are still larvae all over the foliage, chrysalises in the  
weeds, and of course, a mass of adults hatched out recently.  I often  
concentrated my search efforts on these stressed hackberry trees  
which yielded one to several foraging birds in easy view.  The other  
resource was some type of tiny insect (flies?) associated with the  
blooming tassles of many of the pecans.  Yellow Warblers in  
particular, along with lesser numbers of Wilson's and a few others,  
were heavily involved with flycatching those little gnats or  
whatever.  As expected, fruiting red mulberries were magnets for the  
hordes of Swainson's Thrushes, along with a handful of catbirds, one  
Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and a woodland Eastern Kingbird.

On the edges of the lake, there were scattered flocks of waterfowl  
including a mass of about 100 Blue-winged Teal (with shovelers,  
gadwall, and wigeon mixed in) on a pond at the Sore Finger Unit.   
Over the open lake there were at least 70 Franklin's Gulls, a few  
Black Terns, at least one Forster's, and a 1st-summer LEAST TERN,  
perhaps the best bird of the day.

Masses of swallows were foraging over and around the lake (and just  
about everywhere).  Over the freshly mowed lawn at Friendship Park,  
mixed in with Barn and Cliff, were at least 20 Bank Swallows, the  
best grouping of that species I've seen in awhile.

I'd rate this as one of the best fallouts I've seen in the Austin  
area in many years.  The density of birds on the "Big Tree  
Trail" (our local name for the trail along the San Gabriel River from  
CR 347) was just amazing.  Almost every tree seemed to have one to  
several birds in it.  I was very conflicted when, at 3:30 p.m., I had  
to pull myself away from those woods and race home for some family  
obligations.  Drat!  Otherwise, I'd still be there right now.

Chuck Sexton
Austin
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[texbirds] Recap: Granger Lake area fallout - 5/16

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