Thank you Joesph!
Stennie
On Sun, Nov 5, 2023, 6:22 PM Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
It was a very different hawk count saturday than recent trips with good
north winds andor holdover birds. Land bird numbers were down too.
Checking out nearby areas before going to the tower also had small
numbers. I was a little late to see the phoebes come out of the roost but
there were only a couple around. Only 11 scissor-tailed flycatchers headed
out. 4 red-tailed hawks including one with no markings on a pure white
belly that was startled by a pickup with no muffler and a barking german
shepherd in the bed. Watched a cooper's hawk catch a meadowlark. A harrier
probably caught something in the sewage ponds. But only a few hawks.
The sandbar off Robbins Park has moved and much may have fallen into the
boat channel and only a nub was above water. Loggerhead shrikes were back
up on the wires with the lack of swarms of accipiters. One palm warbler on
the usual territory.
Hawks at the tower only totalled 8 species with 3 local additions. Missed
swainsons hawks, eagles and merlins etc. Birds were late getting up due to
fog and dew but a couple hundred turkey vultures accompanied 65
broad-winged hawks. There was smoke off to the northwest from a marsh fire
and lingering stuff in the air so vulture groups were first seen close to
the ground with higher birds slowly emerging but other than broadwings,
they had no friends. Accipiters and harriers continue by
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, a broad-winged hawk called from various sites
around the tower. Saturday he was still calling
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112019
After 2pm or so broad-wings started to drop into the mottes around the
tower and were done moving for the day. Several perched while hunting. On
the way home 5 were on phone poles near to Candy Abshier.
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112022
Many of the cooper's hawks are now adults
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112023
This was my only second male northern harrier of the fall, almost all have
been young of the year birds until the last front when some adult females
went by
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112024
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112025
The local red-shouldered hawks have a good alarm system for migrants and
sometimes other hawk species. One of the tw0 youngsters headed east to give
a second bird calling there whatfor.
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112028
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112026
A couple of hummingbirds were one stop wonders at the feeders
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112029
The new rock jetties offshore are a great addition for the bird count and
are allowing more mud to collect for that habitat. 6 american
oystercatchers spent the day there.
https://pbase.com/joseph_kennedy_36/image/174112016
They were joined by western willets, ruddy turnstones, a sanderling,
black-bellied plovers and killdeers.
Once they grow moss and barnacles etc there will be food to eat as well as
resting spots. Very few swallows for the day with barn swallows early and
then not many but mostly rough-winged swallows. Odd fall with no robins or
waxwings, goldfinches or siskins, pipits, franklin's gulls or almost no
winter birds. Maybe with the front coming at the end of this week.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
