Cameron Parish, 07/20/2011

I could sense fall in the 90 degree air today, so I took a ride down to Cameron Parish to see what was moving.  Once I got down there, the wide open view on the coastal prairie let me see huge but widely spaced thunderstorms rolling through all around.  I managed to miss any big storms, but the areas I drove through were either painfully dry or drenched and covered by pools of standing water.

I birded Peveto Woods for a few minutes, but approaching thunder seemed to quiet the birds.  The bugs weren't bad at all, just a few mosquitoes.  Most of the birds were breeders (Cardinals, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, etc.).  The only birds in the woods that may have been migrants were Orchard Orioles.

There were migrants in other spots.  Western Sandpipers, Sanderlings, and Marbled Godwits were present on the beaches.  Purple Martins (photo above) were present in good numbers on powerlines throughout my route--even though some on the coast were still hanging around their nest boxes.  Small groups of Eastern Kingbirds in places that didn't look very suitable for nesting territories suggested that they may be moving, at least locally.