Sunday, August 28, 2011

Cameron Parish, 8/27/2011

Birding yesterday in Cameron Parish was pretty nice, even with the temperature in the mid-90s.  A north wind was blowing, and there was a good showing of migrants.

I started the day at Holly Beach.  In the town itself, close-cropped lawns provided good habitat for Killdeer and a single Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  The Buff-breasted was fun to see.  Buff-breasted Sandpipers are one of those straw-colored birds that look plain from a distance but show a complex pattern when seen up close.






On the beach itself, 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were interesting.  They might represent incoming migrants, or a coincidence of summering birds.  Lesser Black-backeds are European birds that have gone from rare to regular in the past two decades.  Apparently the birds have managed to get a foothold in North America.























From the beach, I hit the scrub.  Acacia scrub is my favorite habitat at this time of year.  The short, thorny bushes offer great cover for migrants and I like winding through thickets of thorn trees and prickly pear cactus.  There was nothing unusual in the acacia yesterday, but some expected migrants were there in good numbers, including flycatchers, yellow warblers, and gnatcatchers.    

Next, I passed by Peveto Woods.  Peveto has some good tall oaks and a smattering of other tree species.  I worked the perimeter of the woods to see what was in the short stuff, but spent a little time in the taller woods.

While there, I got a brief unsatisfying look at a Warbling Vireo hidden deep in oak leaves just before it flew.  Just as well; a few minutes later I came across 2 Warbling Vireos in a locust tree and managed to get photos of one.












There were also fair numbers of warblers there.  Offhand, I think I had 7 warbler species, plus good numbers of flycatchers (including 6 Eastern Wood Pewees and 1 Olive-sided Flycatcher).

From Peveto, I took a ride through East Jetty Woods.  Best birds there were a couple of Lark Sparrows, but I had to leave quickly when a tractor came by spraying.

On the ride home, I passed down Chalkley Road, one of my favorite birding locations.  Near Sweet Lake Land Company headquarters, there were plenty of birds including big flocks of cowbirds, swallows, egrets.
Among the egrets in the canal by the road was a Wood Stork, not rare but always nice for a day in Cameron Parish.













Nearby was a young Red-tailed Hawk, probably the young of the nearby nesting pair.



















The icing on the cake for the day was the swallow show on Chalkley.  All day long I had been watching swallows fly by.  Most seemed to be Cliff Swallows, followed by Barns, and distantly by Banks.  However, as I approached the area near the Cameron Prairie NWR headquarters on the ride back, I began to see dense flocks of mostly Bank Swallows.  By the time I reached Chalkley Road, swallows were starting to congregate on lines there.  Again, it was mostly Banks, now followed distantly by Cliffs, and even more distantly by Barns.  There were also a few Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, and Cave Swallows mixed in.

Generally, swallows don't spend much time sitting down.  You have to be lucky to find a place where they congregate in the evenings, and the Chalkley Road area is usually a good bet.  Yesterday was the biggest group I've ever seen there, several times over.  Unfortunately, the day and the light were fading away, and I didn't get to look as long as I would've liked.  If I had the chance, I would have spent hours there.  I may have just seen the same things several thousands of times, but there's always the chance...

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