Charlie's Pasture 2015-11-27

In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition for me, I spent yesterday morning birding the long (over one mile) boardwalk of the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie's Pasture. For the past several years I've always enjoyed taking a break from the holiday to experience the wide open tidal flats here. And I think it's an important place to record complete eBird checklists from time to time. So many birds use this preserve, including declining species like Reddish Egret, Piping Plover, and Snowy Plover. And in late November it has always been a thrill to experience the thousands of ducks flying over, sometimes in flocks so large they look like smoke in the distance.

Yesterday there were far fewer ducks than in previous years. I recorded about 2000 total, compared to 5000 to 8000 in the past. I did not observe any small plovers (Piping, Semipalmated, Snowy) probably because there was much more water on the flats compared to previous years. So there wasn't as much drier habitat that the small plovers like. Despite these reductions, there were higher-than-normal counts of a few other species which was interesting.

Where the boardwalk starts its first long run over the tidal flats I encountered an extremely active feeding group of about 20 Greater Yellowlegs. I don't think I saw any Greater Yellowlegs outside of this group, only scattered Lessers on the rest of my walk. Here's a photo of most of the group with a Snowy Egret towering over them:

I recorded 76 Reddish Egrets which eBird flagged as unusually high. Once I got about two thirds down the boardwalk, these birds just kept adding up as I scanned southwest with my scope. And I added over half of this count scanning southwest from the covered bench on Salt Island. I saw both color morphs and didn't record how many of each, but I think there were more white morph birds. Here are photos of each:

eBird also flagged my count of 50 Tricolored Herons as unusually high. 42 of these birds were all in a single group -- the largest feeding flock of these birds I've ever seen. I observed this group from the observation tower on Salt Island, looking southeast at the far edge of the pond it overlooks. These birds were extremely active, constantly walking or running or even flying short distances as they foraged. The group included a few Little Blue Herons and two Roseate Spoonbills. Here are two poor photos I took with my iPhone through my spotting scope. You can see the density of these birds!

For the past couple years I've gotten interested in dragonflies, but winter is not a good time of year to find them. The only two I saw were a Variegated Meadowhawk and a Common Green Darner. (See the attached observation of the meadowhawk.)

I cover this preserve for the Port Aransas Christmas Bird Count (which will be December 14 this year). So this walk also serves as a good scouting trip. If you visit Port Aransas, check this preserve out! But be sure to allocate enough time to walk the boardwalk. If you're a birder, be sure to bring your spotting scope. And bring along some mosquito repellant!

Attached are my iNat observations, and here is my complete eBird checklist:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26029149

Posted on 28 de novembro de 2015, 11:41 PM by mikaelb