 |
September 16, 2006
On September 16, eight OG members braved warm and very humid conditions for our annual hawk watch trip to Smith Point in Chambers County. Fortunately, we had good looks from the hawk watch tower at several kettles of 200+ Mississippi Kites, with a Swallow-tail Kite thrown in for comparison. Southeast winds caused the kettles to move back and forth across our view several times before heading out across Galveston Bay. We had 11 species of raptors for the day. The nearby oak mottes were full of mosquitoes and a few migrants including Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-andwhite Warbler, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, an unidentified nightjar species and lots of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. We made the short drive to Robbins Park at the tip of Smith Point to look for shorebirds. There we had close-up views comparing Least Sandpiper against Western Sandpiper. Other shorebird species included Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone. We had a total of 66 species for the day.
-- Bill Saulmon |
