[texbirds] Some good birds in Lubbock today
- From: Anthony Hewetson <terrverts@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <leas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 20:43:47 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings All:
My only free time today was late in the afternoon/early in the prevening and I
had to make do with what could be found despite blistering heat. I spent an
hour in the riparian area below Lake Six, a half hour along Lake Six, and
almost a half hour at the 'shorebird flats' at MacKenzie Park.
The rains of yestereve were quite spotty. So far as I could tell they missed
the Canyon Lakes altogether; their only impact a very slight increase in water
levels. The heat was pretty horrific for May - close to the century mark - and
the usually lovely smell of willows in bloom was baked into an almost
unbearable sickly sweet stench. I doubt that songbirds care about such things
but migrant songbird numbers have certainly plummeted since my last visit to
these sites and I can fancy that the onset of oven-like conditions had
something to do with this decrease if I wants to.
Highlights from below Lake Six: 1 MacGillivray's Warbler, 4 Yellow Warblers, 4
Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 Chipping Sparrow, and 1 brilliant male Western
Tanager.
Highlights from Lake Six: 4 Cackling Geese, 7 Canada Geese, 4 Ruddy Ducks, 2
Snowy Egrets, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 1 Wilson's Phalarope, 7 Ring-billed Gulls,
and 2 Black Terns.
Highlights from MacKenzie Park: 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1
Western Sandpiper, 2 Least Sandpipers, 2 White-rumped Sandpipers, 1 Pectoral
Sandpiper, 1 Stilt Sandpiper, 2 Wilson's Phalaropes, and 1 Western Wood Pewee.
Typically, the coming weekend is the last decent weekend for spring migrants in
the region. Hopefully, some hardy souls will get out there and look for things
but they had best be carrying water, sunscreen, and bug juice.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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