[texbirds-freelists] [texbirds] High Island Bird News April 16
- From: Sam Woods <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:46:37 -0700
APRIL 16, 2012
This day, clearly the best of spring 2012, SO FAR,
was wet and warblery. The day dawned dull, gray, and squally. The kind
of day that back home in England people could well complain about. But,
here in Texas, birders were out in force, and they were happy-really,
really happy. The bad weather looming over High Island all day offered
poor conditions for onward migration, and so any birds coming in would
be encouraged to spend some time in the High Island woods. And so it
proved. Initial forays around the woods during heavy early morning rain,
revealed nothing of what was to come. However, excited birders, with one
eye on the weather, and one eye on the NEXRAD, were not discouraged or
dismayed. After all, the commonly understood pattern is that migrants
move in during the late morning and afternoon, and so the morning would
not necessarily indicate much anyway. The rain eased mid-morning,
birders checked the NEXRAD again, which showed a massive movement of
birds heading into the coast, and more adventurous birders soon widened
their search circle to include Houston audubon's Smith Oaks sanctuary.
This brought a sudden change in events during the mid-morning, when
warblers began arriving in numbers and were soon stalked by an
increasing band of birders glued to the activity in that soon spread
through every large Oak. After birders returned to Boy Scout Woods with
news of male PRAIRIE WARBLER, a SWAINSON'S WARBLER or two skulking in
the Smith thicket, and handfuls of flame-faced BLACKBURNIANS, a clearout
of birders followed and Smith became today's undeniable hotspot.
Sometimes the drip at Boy Scout's Grandstand provides the most addictive
action of the day, and can be hard to tear yourself away from, although
today there was no holding back Smith where the mighty oaks held all the
trump cards. A heady total of 31 WARBLER SPECIES were noted in High
Island today. The big additions to the burgeoning spring 2012 warbler
list were _BLACKPOLL_, the aforementioned _PRAIRIE_, _BAY-BREASTED_, and
_CANADA_. But this was not just a day about diversity, it was also about
numbers of individual birds, with one studious birder calculating at
least 600 TENNESSEE WARBLERS were roaming the Smith motte there today.
Clearly Tennessees led the way, and were the most numerous of the
warbler species on offer today. Following firmly behind were
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, which although numerous too, with tens of
birds at least in the woods, they trailed substantially behind this
"tide" of Tennessees. Indeed, there were very few species of warblers
today that boasted just one or two individuals in High Island today,
unlike in recent days when numbers have been very low until this turning
point. Even GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER, which had only been recorded just
once previously this spring enjoyed a handsome day with several stonking
males present to feast on.
The biggest challenge recently had been
finding warblers at all, although today that was not a problem we dealt
with at all, as any cursory glance up in to the tall oaks of Smith would
soon reveal tiny flitting shapes within the trees, and lead to multiple
warblers within minutes. While this was NOT a true fallout by any
stretch, it was a mighty fine day which left birders in fine fettle, and
happy to have a substantial drop-in, and plenty of warblers working the
oaks looking in good shape, and avoiding the inevitable tragic stories
of genuine fallouts. Other big movers on the day were INDIGO BUNTINGS
and SCARLET TANAGERS which decorated many trees, especially where they
were baring mulberry fruits! In company with them were plentiful male
BALTIMORE ORIOLES, which though were still significantly outnumbered by
ORCHARD ORIOLES in the area. Smaller numbers too were out there of
PAINTED BUNTINGS which were often seen sharing the mulberry trees with
both oriole species and INDIGO BUNTING for an explosion of color that
was much appreciated by all. Another bird that had been slim in numbers
until today included COMMON YELLOWTHROAT which was heard singing in many
places, their familiar and welcome "wichety-wichety" being heard widely,
and often. RED-EYED VIREOS were also substantially more common today,
and had a smattering of YELLOW-THROATED VIREOS, WHITE-EYED VIREOS, and
WARBLING VIREOS for company too, the latter of which were the first
spring records for the area. Thrushes are still far from numerous, and
more are sure to come, but VEERY did make an entrance to the spring
today, as did GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH too. It was not all plain sailing, as
birders for once had to fight not the heat and humidity that had
dominated early spring 2012, but fought a genuine cold bite in the air,
and heavy rain falling down. However, the hardy and dedicated fought
through it, donned a rain jacket, wrapped up warm and racked up a hearty
warbler list. It was not uncommon on the day for people to have walked
away with twenty-plus warblers on their personal day lists. With further
inclement weather possible overnight, the hope is at least some of this
feast of migrants will be available tomorrow too. We sure hope so. When
the first warbler of the day is a BLACKBURNIAN, and the last is a
GOLDEN-WINGED it is ALWAYS a day to savor, and one we would be al too
happy to repeat again, tomorrow if needed!
Blue-winged
Golden-winged
Tennessee (LOTS)
Orange-crowned
Nashville
Northern Parula
Yellow
Chestnut-sided
Magnolia
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green
Blackburnian
Yellow-throated
Prairie (FOS-1 single male)
Palm
Bay-breasted (FOS-multiple birds, early records for species in general)
Blackpoll (FOS)
Cerulean (multiple individuals-some females)
Black-and-white
American Redstart
Prothonotary
Worm-eating
Swainson's
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Kentucky
Common
Yellowthroat
Hooded
Wilson's
Canada (FOS)
Yellow-breasted Chat
Sam
Woods
TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at:
http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds
High Island
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Other related posts:
- » [texbirds-freelists] [texbirds] High Island Bird News April 16 - Sam Woods
