The Grind

Slim pickings right now. Just not many birds to find. The montane invasion out west seems to have leveled off and the Tamaulipas Crows in the Rio Grande Valley so far have not been the vanguard of an eruption from the south. No choice but to grind on looking for the six remaining non-review species that I feel like I have a chance for.

Monday November 20th had me heading east to check a site in Chambers County that usually yields walk up American Woodcocks for the Old River CBC. Damn my luck the county is "improving" the park and that area was full of heavy equipment. No reason to stop.

Great Horned Owl
Hooks Woods, High Island TX

I worked my way down the coast, cruising through Anahuac NWR just because. I hit Hooks Woods in High Island next and worked the back area where the Bolivar Peninsula CBC sometimes gets American Woodcock. No luck but I did flush a Great Horned Owl.

On the Bolivar Peninsula I found a shrimp boat in close and caught up to it and started scanning the decent sized gull flock behind it. I must have scanned at least 50 boats like this year. This time there was a larger bird that looked darker chasing through the Laughing Gulls. I watched it for sometime looking for a definitive view. The belly was definitely paler and it was definitely darker and larger than the Laughing Gulls. Finally I was able to see what I needed, the pale in the underside of the primaries that let me call this a Pomarine Jaeger for Year Bird 494. Onward

Rollover Pass had birds but nothing uncommon for the day, more terns than gulls. On Tuna Road at the now giant hole that swallowed by car in March I was able to see my first of season Bonoparte's Gull chasing a barge in the Inter Coastal Canal. That might be a strategy for Little Gull in my end game, posting up on the canal and watching the flocks behind barges. They seem to have large number of Bonoparte's and maybe a Little Gull would join them.

Barn Owl
Bolivar Flats

When I passed the Barn Owl box on the way to the Bolivar Flats I could see the resident owl's head sticking out. With a scope I could see something small and light moving around behind it, so I'm guessing there are owlets in the box too, or at least one.

Other than a flyby gull that I thought could have been the Great Black-backed Gull from last week there was nothing rare on the flats. I did find a load of Piping Plovers, 18 in total and 6 of them were banded.

"White-over-Green" banded in 2012 on the Bolivar Flats

I've been having a good time looking for banded Piping Plovers and have found several. I report all of them if I have enough information and have started a spreadsheet to track them. If there are numbers on the leg flag I try my best to get it, but you can't always see it. Click here to see my spreadsheet.  I'm hoping my spreadsheet will help identify bird if you can't read the number on the flag (not all flags have numbers either) So far my oldest bird is a 5 year old bird.

Time to head home. I'll be back on the coast soon.