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FOR THE BIRDS
Last of the migration . . .
 | | Birding enthusiasts Nan Dietert and Lyndon Holcomb are reporting on local and area birding. To report a sighting, contact them at lyndonholcomb@yahoo.com. |
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What else is there to talk about except the migration? It's all around us; it's in motion. The proof of migration is in the tops of the trees, in the low foliage, on the ground, flying overhead, in the mud flats and on the beach.
The boundlessness of color, shape and size seems to be unending. The abundance and variety of birds coming through the Coastal Bend and returning to their breeding grounds is evidence of each spring'spromise of renewal. The returning survivors will produce the next generation of their species. Every bird is hungry, hopeful, energetic and on an adrenalin rush to fulfill the urge of instinct --- an urge strong enough to propel them across continents. We are right in the midst of this event here in the Coastal Bend. With a little help from the weather and the last "push" of the late migrants, everywhere you look there are "good" birds.
Wednesday, April 30, the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center gave us a good surprise visitor. A prairie falcon, off his western route, flew right over our heads late in the morning. What a great sight for eastern birders.
We have been moving about in the mud flats lately, and the color of migration was close at hand. We took our eyes off of dunlin and Wilson's plovers, turned around and saw eight Baltimore orioles and four painted buntings in the black mangroves.
Dressing up is the name of the game in the spring, and the beach is full of color this time of year. The ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, red knots and dunlins are all vying for attention, each trying to put on breeding plumage to "out-red" the other before returning north.
Our own laughing gulls are now sporting their red legs and bills, showing which ones are in the height of their breeding plumage. The terns that breed in our area are breathtakingly elegant this time of the year. Many of the black terns are shimmering in their black tie formal wear, as they stop in briefly on their way to the northern prairies to breed.
The Wilson's phalaropes are in small ponds everywhere and most are "dressed to kill." They "spin like a top" in order to feed on small insects and larvae brought up to the surface. People who are unfamiliar with this feeding pattern go crazy over this interesting behavior.
Of course, the warblers that have been falling out and into the birding center and the Joan and Scott Holt Paradise Pond are all convinced that they are the most beautiful of the spring migrants. The blackburnian, the Canada, the bay-breasted, the chestnut-sided, the Wilson's, the mourning, the blackpoll, the magnolia, and the female cerulean warblers ("wow" birds!) are all remarkably beautiful; they look like ornaments on a Christmas tree!
Speaking of decorations, what about the "big eight?" A friend of ours from Austin mentioned the "big eight" to me the other day, and I'd not heard of the term, but from the birds we'd just been looking at, it dawned on me what he was referring to. In our area they are the two tanagers (summer and scarlet), the two grosbeaks (blue and rose-breasted), the two buntings (indigo and painted), and the two orioles (orchard and Baltimore). The "big eight" equals big color!
Last weekend was the Great Texas Birding Classic, and many of the very best birders in our area competed in it. There were classes for the veterans and for the young and soon to be veterans.
What a thrill for Larry Jordan, one of our own from Flour Bluff. He was on a veteran team that found a rare tropical flycatcher. The piratic flycatcher is a small bird (six inches) and was spotted at Pollywog Pond (northwest of Corpus Christi). He is still there and can usually be found in a large mulberry tree on the north entrance trail (not too far down). You will find it on the left, and the tree is tagged with a bright orange tag (low). I've been told late in the evening is best. Take plenty of bug spray, as you will "pay for this bird." There are tons of mosquitoes (we paid plenty and did not get him)!
Take in the migration; it'll be a long hot summer!
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