[texbirds] Trip to White River Lake (Crosby County) - Yesterday
- From: Anthony Hewetson <fattonybirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, leasbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Anthony Hewetson <fattonybirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2014 10:07:00 -0600
Greetings All:
Phillip Kite and I wandered over to White River Lake yesterday - just to
get a grasp on what things might be like during the upcoming CBC.
Highlights on the way over: 2 Snowy Egrets at Leroy Elmore Park (Lubbock
County), 18 American Avocets and 3 Greater Yellowlegs at the FM 40 x FM 207
playa (Crosby County), and 2 Common Ravens just west of White River Lake
(Crosby County).
We spent six hours crashing thickets on the west side of the lake, scanning
the lake itself, and looking for songbirds in the marina area. The good
news: the lake is up a bit and, at least for now is a waterfowl wonderland
(sixteen species of waterfowl were tallied). The bad news: despite good
seed crops and abundant insect life, songbirds were a bit on the sparse
side. Hopefully the waterfowl will take a full season liking to the
well-vegetated shallows at the north end of the lake and winter will arrive
in time to push some songbirds down.
Highlights from our lake and lakeside efforts: 1 Snow Goose, 11 Cackling
Geese, 1 Wood Duck, 19 Canvasbacks, 2 Redheads, 1 Greater Scaup hanging
out, mid lake, with a group of Ruddy Ducks, 2 Buffleheads, 1 Hooded
Merganser, 3 Great Egrets, 32 Ring-billed Gulls, 1 Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker, 1 Merlin, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 1 Pine Warbler, and 2 Swamp
Sparrows. Portions of the west shore look just right for the return of the
formerly somewhat regular Le Conte's Sparrows but non were found during our
stomp.
Two of these birds - Greater Scaup and Pine Warbler - were additions to my
regional list for the year.
Highlights from Crosby County during our return: 5 Common Ravens just west
of White River Lake; 24 American Avocets, 5 Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Lesser
Yellowlegs, 69 Least Sandpipers (not a typo - 69 - an astonishingly high
number for this late in the season), and 1 Wilson's Phalarope at FM 40 x FM
207 playa; 800 Sandhill Cranes south of Ralls.
Highlights from Lubbock County during our return: 6 Long-billed Curlews at
City Farms; 1 Great Egret and 3 Snowy Egrets at Leroy Elmore Park.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
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