Golden Triangle Audubon Bird Alert -- October 11, 2009

The first real cold front of the season came through on Friday October 9.  However, rain behind the front persisted significantly into Friday evening, and many night migrants likely did not make it to the Triangle or on down to the coast on Friday night.  Nevertheless, there were reasonably good numbers of hawks over the Smith Point Hawk Watch.  These included quite good numbers of Broad-winged Hawks for ten days into October. The relative number of Cooper's to Sharp-shinned Hawks seems to be on the high side. American Kestrels and Northern Harrier numbers are down – let's hope they are just late migrating this year.  West Jefferson County is still relatively devoid of birds, and only a very few raptors have arrived so far.  No sparrows were noted either. The flooded field east and north of the S China Road/Lawhon Road intersection was home to many Mottled Ducks.

Steve Mayes reported 12 species of Warbler at Sabine Woods, as well a s Groove-billed Ani, which may be the same bird that has been seen in the area twice before. By Sunday morning, many more passerine migrants had reached the coast.  At about 10 a.m. Sabine Woods suddenly came alive with warblers and other species, and apart for a siesta in the middle of the day, this continued through 4:30 p.m.  At least 19 species of warbler were seen during the weekend.  American Redstarts were the most numerous species, but there were many Black-and-white Warblers. Other species present included several Northern Parulas, several Magnolia Warblers, several Black-throated Green Warblers and smaller numbers of other species: Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow Throated Warbler, Palm Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Ovenbird, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warbler, Wilson's Warbler and two male Canada Warblers. Vireos included several Red-eyed and White-eyed, as well as at least one Yellow-throated and one Philadelphia.  At least two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks passed through, and there were several Blue Grosbeaks, and a multitude of Indigo Buntings.  Flycatchers included many Eastern Wood-Pewees , one or two Least Flycatchers, and migrating Scissor tailed Flycatchers. (A gathering of 35 Scissor-tailed on Highway 90 near China on Saturday was impressive. There were at least two female and one male Summer Tanager, and a Baltimore Oriole was seen on Saturday. Catbirds were present, along with one Swainson's Thrush.  One Yellow-billed Cuckoo was seen on Sunday.  Many noisy Brown Thrashers were present. Other species present in numbers included Ruby-throated Hummingbirds – everywhere in the oaks – and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. Two or more House Wrens were trying to out-compete the Carolina Wrens as to who could fuss the most.  Two or three Broad-winged Hawks passed through, and the resident Great Horned and Barn Owls were seen. Perhaps the most interesting sighting of the day was a group of three calling Crested Caracaras that passed over and briefly landed in the north part of the Sanctuary on Sunday morning.

The next cold front is currently expected to arrive late Thursday.

John A. Whittle

Golden Triangle Audubon Society

P.O. Box 1292

Nederland, TX 77627

Note that these Alerts (and perhaps some "extra" reports) are all posted on the Golden Triangle Audubon Website at www.goldentriangleaudubon.org (often before they are distributed by email).  Look for the links in the News Items panel on the right side of the home page.

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