2003 Birding (1 Viewer)

[Steve Gross]

After two Christmas Bird counts and two day trips (I'm on holiday, as I'm a teacher), here's the bird list so far for the new year.

I dipped on Groove-billed Ani and Purple Sandpiper yesterday, but the inland birding has been very good. Rusty Blackbird, Winter Wren (UK's Wren), three Vermilion Flycatchers, Bald Eagle, 500 Sandhill Cranes (in two sightings),and Barred Owl have been the highlights so far:

Pied-billed Grebe
Eared Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Tricolored Heron
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose (~10000)
Ross's Goose (30)
Canada Goose
American Wigeon
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Mottled Duck
Northern Pintail
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Ring-necked Duck
Common Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Northern Bobwhite
Sandhill Crane
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Wilson's Snipe
Long-billed Dowitcher (~5000)
Long-billed Curlew
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Barred Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Horned Lark
American Pipit
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
House Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown Creeper
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Rusty Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Total: 114 species

 

[Steve]

excellent list your off to a great start ! thanks for showing us.

 

[Reader]

That's a cracking start to the year Steve.

How about a write up on how your trip went so we can get the flavour of what happened together with what birds are important and what are common. As a UK birder we won't know which is which.

 

[Steve Gross]

John J:

I'm happy to oblige. The Christmas Bird Count on 1/1 was held west of Houston on what's called the Katy Prairie. It's mostly ranchland and rice fields, with many hunting leases and incroaching home building. There has been a lot of rain in our area lately, so many areas normally dry were quite full of water.

A fellow birder and I kind of helped to manage the 12 or so people who were responsible for counting the birds in the south part of our 15 mile-diameter CBC circle. We dropped off small groups and let them know their responsibilities. There were some patches that we birded ourselves, and those were a combination of hedgerow and open fields.

One stretch of open field is where the 5000 Long-billed Dowitchers were seen. This is a very high number, though the species is to be expected in our area in winter. They just kept flying in and flying in!

Previous to our dowitcher adventure, we birded a small bramble/hedge area bordering a ranch tank (artificial reservoir). It was there that we saw Winter Wren and Eastern Towhee. These are birds that are seen in small numbers each winter, and are highly sought after by devotees of the small, woodland-type birds.

Lots of ducks (most interesting in this group was one Common Goldeneye) and wintering raptors (Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel) spend November-March in our area, so all were expected. Numbers of Northern Pintail were up this winter, so it was postulated that we might have the national high for the species. I don't know if this will come to pass, as the numbers have not yet been posted on audubon.org .

The next day, I took a friend to see three different Vermilion Flycatchers, one Bald Eagle (an adult, with full regalia of white head and tail), and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes (mostly gray cranes with red topknots). All of these are expected species in the winter, but I enjoy seeing them whenever I can. We looked unsuccessfully for Couch's Kingbird, a South Texas bird which often drifts north post-breeding and during the winter in low numbers. This was the second year for these particular Kingbirds, but apparently they have sought the shelter of the property quite removed from the public road (Texas is about 98% private property and landowners are not often open to allowing trespass).

No real highlights yesterday, except for the joy and excitement my two nephews (8 and 11 yrs. old) showed when we began to see American Alligators at Brazos Bend State Park. As the day warmed up, we saw more and more. It's fun to see them.

Today was the Buffalo Bayou Christmas Bird Count. This covers the southwest section of Houston (the US's fourth largest city, with about 2.5 million people in the metropolitan area). A Western Tanager (a bird that really has no business in eastern Texas ever, let alone the winter) was sighted January 1 and each day since, but I tried for the bird this afternoon and it hadn't been seen all day. It would be a very good bird for the count, and I still don't know if anyone saw it.

My patch for the morning was Bear Creek Park, normally a good spot for migrants. It holds some good birds during the winter, including Rusty Blackbird (I spotted our first flock, about 27 birds), and Winter Wren. Today we had three Winter Wren, and I spotted a Barred Owl perched in a tree along our trail. I have heard this bird many times ("Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all...."), and had one fly over my head once, but I've never had a leisurely look. Today the bird treated my group to about 10 minutes of pleasure. Black eyes, vertical barring on the breast and flanks, and a yellow bill make this bird a joy to observe.

These are the highlight birds of my first four days of birding this year. Thanks for your suggestion, John J, I promise to 'spice up' my reports in the future so you'll have a better idea of what it's like over here.

Good birding.

Steve in Houston, TX