Port Aransas Christmas Bird Count 2015

Yesterday I participated in the Port Aransas, Texas Christmas Bird Count, a CBC I've done for many years now. I covered my usual section, the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie's Pasture with Warren Pulich Jr, who founded this count back in the 1970s. We spent most of the day on the preserve and then spent about an hour at the end of the day on the South Jetty. Warren and I found 94 species of birds and here are some highlights.

On the Nature Preserve in the morning the most interesting bird was a Cassin's Sparrow, a species that used to be much more common in the area but is now rarely observed. Warren and I both got the impression of a Field Sparrow without a pink bill. Unfortunately it was a brief view and I wasn't able to photograph it. Another exciting observation was two Peregrine Falcons fighting in the sky over the mud flats. We could hear them vocalize as they dove at each other, but they were too distant for my camera.

It's a good year for Pyrrhuloxia! We counted at least 5 in the Nature Preserve and several other groups on the count observed this species as well. Here's one of the five:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2479932

Despite its name, this Common Ground-Dove is an increasingly unusual bird for Port Aransas, and we were excited to get a pretty good look at this one:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2479943

It's always a treat to see the thousands of ducks, mostly Redheads and Northern Pintails, that winter in this area. Here's a shot of a few hundred in the sky on the other side of the ship channel. You have to look closely in the sky to see the flocks:

In the early afternoon we saw a single small wild pig trotting across the flats. Warren remarked that it was dangerous for this small pig to be by itself out in the open, and we wondered what it was doing out there:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2479946

A few minutes later Warren spotted a coyote casually following the pig, and even nipping at it a couple times. I guess the pig was just a little too big for a single coyote to take on, and the pig eventually disappeared into the brush and the coyote didn't follow. Here's the only photo I got of the two animals interacting, a distant shot with my iPhone through my spotting scope:

The hour we spent on the South Jetty in the afternoon was uneventful, but we enjoyed seeing the common birds in the beautiful late afternoon light. I was happy to get this photo of a flying Brown Pelican:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2479956

It was a fun day in just about perfect clear weather. The temperature ranged from the upper 40s to the low 70s, and wind was light. What a great day to be outdoors counting birds! When we met with the other groups our unofficial total for the whole count was 174 species.

UPDATE: Co-compiler Joan Holt posted that the official total for the Port Aransas CBC is 182 species!

Posted on 16 de dezembro de 2015, 01:40 AM by mikaelb