[texbirds] Some Lubbock highlights from the morning

From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2014 14:36:34 -0800 (PST)
Greetings All:
The high yesterday afternoon was 84; the weather channel claims that we're 
going to make it up to 31 at some point today though I have my doubts.  The 
bottom line: I picked yesterday to work on the field notes for February and put 
in some yard work (and was rewarded with three species of butterflies during 
two hours of yard work) and today to go birding (and am still waiting for core 
body temperature to come back up).

I worked the Canyon Lakes of Lubbock, from top to bottom, between 8:00 and 
11:00 this morning, fleeing when freezing rain started coating the world (most 
frighteningly my glasses and binoculars) as I worked the woodlands below Lake 
Six.  It was so cold that the wind was whipping mist up off of the water and it 
was freezing onto the first surface encountered - interesting to watch; not 
much fun to bird in.


There were no highlights at Buddy Holly Park (Lake One).

An injured Canada Goose was the sole highlight from Lake Two and the only 
Canada Goose seen along the entire length of the lakes.


Whistling at Erskine Marshland for several minutes kicked out a Sora.

There were no highlights at MacKenzie Park.

I actually managed to walk for twenty minutes at Mae Simmons Park (hey, it was 
up to 20 degrees and I was feeling stup, I mean adventurous, and it paid off 
when I came across a large flock of Dark-eyed Juncos feeding on a patch of bare 
ground and in their midst was a Fox Sparrow and a - gasp! - Golden-crowned 
Kinglet.  Other highlights from the marsh and woods: 2 Common Gallinules, 1 
Winter Wren, 1 Carolina Wren, and 1 Swamp Sparrow.

There were 5 Cackling Geese at Mae Simmons Park and these were the only 
Cackling Geese seen along the entire length of the lakes.


Lake Six is still sporting at least 6 female Common Mergansers upstream from 
the boat launch and 1 male Red-breasted Merganser just above the spillway.   I 
also came across a very large number of Double-crested Cormorants for this site 
- 192 - and a large number of Ring-billed Gulls for this site - 174.  Both 
species might be concentrated at the lakes by the fact that a lot of the 
in-town playas are either gone or frozen over.  One Peregrine Falcon was 
buzzing the mixed drifting flocks of cormorants and gulls - to comic effect.  
There was a single Canvasback just below Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The sole highlight from the woodlands below Lake Six came in the form of 2 
White-throated Sparrows in a mixed feeding flock of American Robins, 
Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Northern 
Cardinals.

There was a huge flock of geese flying northeast over the fields between Lake 
Six and East Loop 289 - roughly 3500 dark geese, at least 37 Snow Geese, and at 
least 14 Ross's Geese.  There may have been a few Greater White-fronted Geese 
in the mix but I couldn't pick any out.  


If I had not seen this flock of geese, I would say that this year has featured 
the earliest and most thorough pullout of geese from Lubbock since I moved here 
in 1998.   Geese essentially left the in-town playas by the third or fourth 
week of February and the pullout was astonishingly abrupt and complete.

A lot of the highlights seen today (Sora, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, 
and Fox Sparrow) have been in extraordinarily short supply, by the region's 
standards, this winter and the individuals seen this morning may well have been 
part of a spring movement northward.  If so, they are going to have to wait a 
day or two before moving along as it's very cold and there's a wee bit o' ice 
to the north.


Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock

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[texbirds] Some Lubbock highlights from the morning

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