Yesterday (04/15/12), in mid-to-late afternoon, we birded Laguna Atascosa
NWR (LANWR, Cameron Co.) with emphasis on the Bayside Wildlife Drive
(BWD). Yesterday was very hot but we headed on over to LANWR being firm
believers, based on experience as regular visitors, that this refuge can
be a place of some very nice surprises, even when, due to drought, it has
had some tough times. Yesterday confirmed that impression when we toured
the BWD.
The recent presence of wind-driven high tides--still high when we were
there, but obviously not near what they had been before--had created
tidally flooded areas between the shoreline mangroves and the vegetation
lining the tour road. The star of the show there yesterday was WHIMBREL
migration. We had thought we might see one or a very few of that species,
as we knew they were migrating. What was a very nice surprise was that
individuals of this species were strung out, like avian jewels on a
necklace, along much of the BWD as it borders the bay (Laguna Madre). Not
far from the water, but cleanly up onto the shoreline out of reach of any
waves, these strikingly handsome birds appeared, sometimes individually
and sometimes in small groups (3-6 birds), in a variety of settings--on
the damp shore, along the wrack line, on sandy flooded areas on the west
side of the mangroves, and, farther south, in the marshy vegetation behind
the mangroves just as the tour road starts to head away from the shore and
upward toward Stover Point. By the time the road turned away from the
shoreline and headed into higher territory, we had counted 25 Whimbrel. We
greatly enjoyed these elegant, long-necked, alert-looking birds as they
strolled along the shoreline, usually heading southward. (That direction
might have been a concession to the importance of keeping their feathers
unruffled by the very stiff southeast wind as they foraged the open
shoreline.)
If there had been Whimbrel foraging on the shoreline south of Stover
Point, we would have had minimal, if any, chance to see them, considering
the proximity of the tidally narrowed shoreline to the extensive
vegetation between it and the tour road. When we finally had driven past
Bayside Lake (on the right)-dry as a bone-and had arrived at its outflow
area to Laguna Madre (left of road), we stopped to look for birds, for
there was plenty of shallow water in the outflow area thanks to earlier
tidal flooding. We found only a single WILLET, but six Whimbrels suddenly
appeared from the north, swiftly over-flew the outflow area and apparently
headed for some point farther south along the shore. Possibly they were
some of the 25 Whimbrels sighted earlier, but, alternatively, they might
have been additional individuals, possibly from along the extended,
vegetation-obscured shoreline we had passed before stopping at this open
view of the bay. We, therefore, saw yesterday at least 25 and possibly as
many as 31 Whimbrels along the BWD's shoreline.
Other shorebirds seen yesterday along the BWD were few and far between:
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER (9); YELLOWLEGS (1, too distant from Plover Point in
tidally flooded bay to discern species); WILLET (12, at least); and LEAST
SANDPIPER (4).
Waders also were hard to find yesterday, but at one point we were
surprised by the overflight of a line of 7 richly colored ROSEATE
SPOONBILLS heading southward! Displayed, for a stretch, against an
intensely blue sky, the sight was nothing short of spectacular. (Another
of that species was seen on a distant island.) The only other waders found
yesterday were WHITE IBIS (1), GREAT EGRET (several), REDDISH EGRET (1,
dark morph, but with at least two white primaries in each wing);
TRICOLORED HERON (2); GREAT BLUE HERON (several). We often have found
reduced numbers of waders along LANWR's BWD bay shore when there is a very
stiff southeast wind. We wonder whether they seek the south shore of SPI
to provide some protection against the prevailing wind.
Raptors were in moderate supply: OSPREY (4, one observed catching a fish);
NORTHERN HARRIER (1 female); HARRIS'S HAWK (1); WHITE-TAILED HAWK (2); and
CRESTED CARACARA (2). Those were fun, but where are those Aplomado
Falcons?
We hope that this extraordinary refuge soon will have all the rain that
its vegetation and wildlife so sorely need.
Wishing everyone exciting springtime birding,
Rex and Birgit Stanford
