Golden Triangle Audubon Bird Alert -- April 24, 2009

This spring migration season has been difficult to provide alerts. The first half of April brought many good days for migrants with two fronts passing through as predicted many days in advance. The field trip on April 18 hit an excellent day in advance of the heavy rains later that afternoon. April 19 was very good, but activity has diminished slowly since then.  There is some evidence that migrants are not spending as long in the woods as normal.

The last two or three days have been very slow with strong south winds (forecast to continue for at least two or three more days).  However, the wind flow is from over the Bahamas, across Cuba to the Yucatan curving back up to produce the southerly winds over the northern two-thirds of the Gulf. Perhaps related to this rather unusual wind pattern, a male Black-throated Blue Warblers was seen briefly in Sabine Woods on April 23 late in the day.  It was seen two times, about one hour apart at about 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. but could not be relocated despite an intensive search.  However, it (or another identical bird) was seen two times very late in the day today (April 24).  A large influx of Gray Catbirds was also observed late today.

In west Jefferson County, there are interesting birds. On Monday April 20, there were two Hudsonian Godwits in a field to the west of the southern part of South China Road, just north of the bridge over Ground Bridge Gully, and there were also two immature Swainson's Hawks as well as a Krider's Red-tailed Hawk in the vicinity.  Today (April 24), the activity had moved to Johnson Road at the point where it makes a turn to the west (and Heisig Road goes off to the east).  The two or three fields west and north of that corner were very active with hundreds of White Ibis.  There was also a flock of about 100 Pectoral Sandpipers, many Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, one American Golden-Plover, and two distant probable Hudsonian Godwits.  But the real surprise was that there were almost 50 Swainson's Hawks, all immature birds, mostly on the ground, but always two or three in the air.  One of the local Crested Caracaras was also noted there.

Along Aggie Drive, in a field half way between the A&M buildings and the first LNVA canal, on the west side of the road is a compartment which is darker and rougher than the others.  It is probably the fifth of the nine compartments.  On Monday April 20, four Buff-breasted Sandpipers were seen (but a lengthy scan of the field for more was not conducted).  Today (April 24) there were over 50 Buff-breasted Sandpipers in the field.  You cannot locate the birds with the naked eye, even if they are only 25 or 30 yards out.  You need to scan carefully with binoculars or a telescope.  The three Upland Sandpipers that were on one of the levees of this field on April 20 were not relocated today.  A flooded field way back from this field had about 30 Fulvous Whistling-Ducks and 250 Blue-winged Teal on it today.

John A. Whittle