Spent the last Saturday of the hawk watch this season down at Smith point.
It was a great day with hawks starting moving early and lasting well into
the afternoon. Lots of late birds and interesting migratory turkey vulture
behavior.
Got down to the area about sunrise. Lots of marsh, sedge and house wrens
out near robbins park with lots of singing and calling. Good numbers of
bluebirds high overhead during much of the morning and a few American
robins early on. The single red-breasted nuthatch of the last month tooted
past. A single scissor-tailed flycatcher landed on the fence. Lots of
eastern phoebes everywhere being territorial and lots of calling. Not a
whole lot of swallows and all I saw were tree and rough-winged.
One big flock of sandhill cranes went east and another group was heard.
Only a few white pelicans and one group flew by with their feet down.
Biggest flock of white-faced ibis was going east like most of that species
while some white ibis continue going west.
Had a bald eagle go over the car near the JP office on 521 heading to the
sound of the hunters. Hawkins Camp road had an almost adult white-tailed
hawk, 2 red-tailed hawks, 3 northern harriers and 5 kestrels. A
white-bellied bald eagle was over 521 north of Fairview on the way home.
Crested caracara were patrolling 521 for road kill goodies before dawn.
The mix at the tower is changing. About 400 turkey vultures offset only 2
American kestrels and no other falcons. Still several dozen broad-winged
hawks. One mangy swainson's hawk and a steady stream of northern harriers.
Both cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks continued. 1 bald eagle over the
tower kept going up high.
There was a good number of red-tailed hawks with a changeover during the
day. Early on there was a adult bird with a mostly whitish tail base and a
Krider's type bird. Other adults had distinct marks. Later there were
several young of the year birds with different under-wing markings. The
last bird was the only with really large upper wing panels and it did
several passes. So almost all counted birds were distinct. But a few more
and that would have dropped as a counting tool.
The first broad-winged hawks were up at 8:45 compared to a normal start of
10am recently. Turkey vultures soon after. Birds were in sight 100% of the
time until maybe 1:30pm.
For an hour or so in the am, there were two groups of turkey vultures who
sometimes merged totaling 80 birds. Almost all were young of the year birds
with some starting to get red heads. They vanished and the next group was
smaller but was almost all adult birds.
Then after lunch there were maybe 250 turkey vultures in the hour. One
group was up very high sheeting west and apparently not coming back. They
had a great wind to keep crossing the bay. At the same time birds were
coming back from the west and more came in off the bay and almost looked
like some came from Bolivar. They were not birds that started across but
came back which happens often. Clouds up there and up higher and the local
wind were all from different directions which different tiers of vultures
found and used.
Only had 2 guests at the tower late so many missed what was a great day.
Great weather for hawk watching too and the wind really tried to do some
northish direction all day. Did get rather to the west and east at times
but kept birds moving.
A few geese with numbers of snow geese went over in mid morning but there
was no rush of ducks with with opening of the hunting season as occurs in
some years. Not many guns heard from the point but further east there was a
good deal going on but no flying birds there either.
Still a good forecast for the last 2 days.
--
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
