High Island Week 6 ( Final Week)

 I thought that I was going to miss this week because I had a golf tournament for my church that I was signed up for on my weekly Friday trip.  It turned out that things were really slow during the week and I had almost no appointments on Thursday, so I asked my associate to cover for me and came a day early.

 What a difference a week makes!  I got there at 8 am and I was the only person there!  That should have told me something.  The mosquitos were just as bad as tthey were on my trip last year (See Pre-Ike).  I put my 40% DEET on and got some relief, but they were still irritating.  The starlings had taken over Boyscout Woods.  There were some Mockingbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, a Common Yellowthroat, and a couple female Indigo Buntings... NOT a reason to get up at 5 in the nighttime.  The Purple Gallinule was still in the same place.  A Pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds were at the top of a tree a ways away.  There were Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows and Purple Martins flying overhead.  The Tropical bird Tours group was gone.  Too bad I enjoyed their company.  I met a number of people that I hope to see next year out there.  I had not gone up onto the observation tower but had meant to so I went up there to overlook the woods.  You could see the Gulf from up there over the trees.

As I was leaving, a lady was getting ready to leave with a truck load of small oak trees.  She has acreage on Galveston and lost a huge number of trees (100+) to Hurrican Ike.  The HAR was willing to give her some trees to restart things.   Her proplerty was a habitat fot the birds before the devastation of Ike.  She was very interesting to talk to.  I hope that things can return to some semblance of normal soon.  She said that everything was up on the Rookery the day before.  (Looking back, I believe that everything was up on the dike because nobody wanted to brave the mosquitos in the woods)

Leaving Boyscout Woods, I went to Smith Oaks.  I was the only person parked out there too!  I felt sure that somebody would have at least gone to the Rookery!  While on the dike, the infamous Prothonotary Warbler from weeks past was calling at the stairs of the Rookery entrance.  I was able to find him and get some decent pictures until he moved on.  Later that morning I was trying to find him and everytime that I was ready to shoot a new picture, he would move.  Eventually, I chased him off by trying to follow him a little quicker than I normally would.  That was the last I saw him, although I did hear him again later.

Back to the mosquitos, I wa getting attacked so much that I put on a net that I had bought after seeing a fellow birder wear last week.  It obviously helped tremendously with the mosquitos around the head, but the vision was not as good as I would have liked.  It turned out that I missed a spot on t he back of my elbow and nust have had at least 20 bites on a spot about 2 inches square.  I am itching as I type this and am going to take a break to put on some cortizone cream.

Okay, I am feeling better.  Well, the birds were pretty sparse.  At about 2 pm there was an influx of Eastern Kingbirds.  There eventually were kingbirds everywhere.  And they were noisy, chasing each other and calling to their friends.  It made it hard to find the other birds that had come in.  I saw a couple of Magnolia Warblers, a number of American Redstarts, including a couple of mature males that I had not seen before, a number of Yellow Warblers and a Prothonotary Warbler,a Black and White Warbler, a couple of Chestnut-sided and Bay-breasted Warblers, Red-eyed, White-eyed, and Yellow-throated Vireos as well as a lifer a Philadelphia Vireo.  All of these birds were in small numbers.  Another surprise that I had was a pair of Cedar Waxwings.  Most of these birds were at or near the drip in Smith Oaks, which had not been very productive in the past for me.  Also, I saw a number of Orchard Orioles, comparitively speaking, and some Baltimore Orioles too. Here is my Philadelphia Vireo:

When I was trying to find  pockets of birds that I had not seen, I went down the path away from the Rookery up on the dike and found another pond that did not have good visibility from the path.  I saw a number of Anhingas, some Tricolored Herons, and Snowy Egrets.  There were a number of Prothonotary Warblers calling there too.  Unfortunately, I could not get any pictures because of the thickness of the brush.

So I worked really hard and saw a number of bird species, but no real good numbers of birds except Eastern Kingbirds.  The two species of birds that were in such high numbers last week and almost absent this week were the Grey Catbird and the Rosebreasted Grosbeak.  I didn't see a single male Grosbeak and only a few females.  There was a smattering of catbirds but nothing like previous weeks. 

I have decide that  I will not be going back next week as I believe that the season is over.  Too bad. Soon  I will have a special  post just about the Rookery  and another with a summary of the season.

1:57 PM - May 29, 2009 - post comment