Beach Surveys, 2/26/2011

Yesterday, Mac Myers and I conducted a set of LSUMNS-BRC/ABA beach surveys in Cameron Parish. The most notable aspect of the day was the persistent sea fog that rolled in and was especially dense later in the day.  Also noteworthy was the huge number of scaup offshore with a few scoters mixed in; we had several Surf, 2 Black, and a sleeping scoter that I suspect was a White-winged.  Gull numbers were so-so, although there were good numbers of Ring-billeds, a fair number of Herring, 2 Lesser Black-backed and some Bonaparte's.  There was also a Glaucous Gull  (photo above; click 1 or 2 times to enlarge) on the rocks of Holly Beach.  Note also the color of the pouches of the pelicans in the photo.  There's been some talk lately about the brown pouch color of Atlantic versus red of Pacific Brown Pelicans, and the fact that red pouches have been seen in Louisiana.  In this photo, one pouch is red, the other brown.

Winter Bird Atlas Birds

Painted Buntings and Yellow-headed Blackbird, Lacassine Quad

Wilson's Phalarope, Kaplan North Quad

Dickcissel, Duson Quad

White-winged Scoter, Grand Bayou Quad

I didn't have as much time to put into the Louisiana Winter Bird Atlas (see http://ebird.org/content/la/about) this year as I would've liked.  If I'm calculating right, I birded in 25 quads, and logged 174 species.  I've had a strategy over the past few years of putting a few hours per year into a quad so I could get a rich picture of the diversity an area; every year the picture shifts a little, and different birds enter or exit the picture to some degree.  This year, I managed to reach the 20-hour threshold for a few of these pay-as-I-go quads.  I also added a few oddball species that are blips on the radar in terms of frequency but add interest to the overall picture.  Above are a few photos of uncommon birds, including Wilson's Phalarope, a new species to the winter project.