The Secret of my (our) Success (Great Texas Birding Classic) - Part II (long)
Miliff@aol.com
Mon, 1 Jun 1998 20:51:10 EDT
Hello all,
The saga continues
12:01, May 1: We are standing in the pitch dark in a high wind near Anahuac
NWR trying to hear the whispery song of Seaside Sparrows that were there the
DAY prior. Who even knows if they sing at night down here? (they do).
Needless to say, no sparrows. We curve around down the long dirt road and go
into Anahuac NWR proper. Barn Owl, Purple Gallinule, Black Rail, (dare we say
Yellow Rail), or Seaside Sparrow would all be new for our big list (standing
now at about 255). A few minutes braving the cool breeze and a Barn Owl
sounded off. We deemed the rest unlikely or impossible, and decided to try to
hear the nocturnal call of a Canada Goose I had had on a farm pond in the far
North section of coast (and WAY out of the way) and try to make it to our dawn
site before dawns light. Both drivers still awake (I was not) shouldn't have
been and admitted to seeing various hallucinations "pop out of the road".
Scary. In any event, my recall was imperfect in the dark night, and I'm not
sure we ever got near the pond. If we did, no goose was feeling talkative.
Our timing was off and we found ourselves behind schedule as dawn was
breaking. We had planned to go easily from the north part of the route to the
south, but now might mix it up a it. My only Hairy Woodpecker in my week of
scouting that section of the route had been at Martin Dies S.P. the day
before, so we opted to check for that first. A quick drive through, a lot of
tapping on trees and Barred Owl imitations got us needed species like Barred
Owl (well after dawn), Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Pileated
Woodpecker, along with Swainson's Warbler, Carolina Chickadee, Yellow-
throated, Prothonotary and Pine warblers. No Hairy Woodpecker to our dismay,
but the clock was ticking and certain other stakeouts had to be hit on
schedule (Red-cockadeds are difficult long after dawn). Along the way, a
Brown Thrasher flashed across the road and saved some headache later - I had
found no good location for that species and migrants were surely almost
totally passed through at this point. First we hit my Louisiana Waterthrush
stream, where the bird was no longer singing, but thankfully gave a few quick
chip notes for us before we turned and sprinted (literally) back down the
trail. So it was on to the Red-cockaded nest trees, where Bachman's Sparrow
and American Goldfinch cooperated as well, though Brown-headed Nuthatches were
keeping silent. We ran into our archrivals there, and to Ned, their look of
despair indicated that we might be in better shape than we thought. The
latest leeks from the administration indicated that we were up by two species,
or neck and neck, depending on which leek you believed. Lacking only the
nuthatch, we headed out (expecting to pick it up along the way). As we slowed
for our first turn, a flicker called. A complete surprise, this was a bird I
had missed in my week of scouting up there, despite spending three days in
that very area! Bonus bird! A short stop just thereafter garnered the
nuthatch, and two quickies after that got Prairie Warbler and Red-headed
Woodpecker. Then we headed out to Lake Sam Rayburn where I had found Belted
Kingfisher (always tough, even on three-day-Big-Days, it was missed by the Mac
Attack). Two Wood Ducks that Ned spotted flying far out over the Lake were a
save (our best spots had failed to produce thus far) but Bald Eagle (a bonus
we hoped for there) was a miss. On the way out, a desperation kingfisher stop
produced a calling bird like clockwork. All reasonable targets achieved, we
dropped south into Jasper to clean out my best scouting discovery of the day
before: a residential bird feeding station with PINE SISKINS!!! A total
surprise when I found them, we ticked one easily on the thistle feed (the only
one of the Classic) and resolved to spend a little spare time trying for
American Robin (purported to nest in Jasper, I had not found one the previous
day). Luck was on our side again. Just before leaving town Ned suggested we
pull into the cemetery as a last ditch effort for the robin. Andy picked one
out far in the back - a gorgeous adult male. You've never seen such
excitement over a robin - I thought Andy was kidding at first! We spent a few
more minutes back at Martin Dies S.P. for the Hairy Woodpecker, to no avail.
With all ducks in a line in the northernmost part of the route, we
dropped as quickly as four wheel would carry us, to Beaumont, where a few
lamed Snow Geese on the pond in front of the hospital (not surprisingly) had
not left. Fish Crow there too...got it, Got It, GOT IT!!! A quick cruise
through "Cattail Marsh" (a series of sewage ponds and marshland with a system
of dykes in between), produced just one new bird - Baird's Sandpiper. The
location is a great one, but and I was surprised we didn't add more there, but
our list was pretty complete by that point. From then (about 11:00 a.m.) on
we were filling holes and connecting the dots, going from stakeout to stakeout
and hoping for a little luck in between. We knew we'd need our share of it to
hit the 300 we had our sights set on. A quick turn off Rte. 10 found the
Hudsonian Godwits and Buff-breasted Sandpipers in flooded fields, which
coincidentally, had been the location I had scouted first upon arriving two
weeks prior. The flooded field situations there change daily, and I had seen
four different fields full of shorebirds over my four visits to the site - but
fortunately the productive field that Ned had found the day before was still
good. With two more shorebirds under our belt, we bolted for Anahuac -
electing to skip the field where Ned had seen a Glossy Ibis (pretty rare in
Texas) the day before. Our Seaside Sparrow location did produce in the day
(though was a bit out of the way), and a few Purple Gallinules were out and
about at Anahuac, as we had hoped. Not much else to get, so we rolled on to
High Island to try to clean up a few migrants. No Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
there, no Orange-crowned Warbler, no Philadelphia Vireo, and no Cape May
Warbler. In fact, we got nothing new. It was clearly a pretty poor day for
migrants...so we cut our losses and tried to make the Bolivar ferry, figuring
on jumping across to Galveston, getting the stakeout Pacific Loon (the Red-
throated apparently had left), coming BACK across on the ferry, and spending
all our extra time pouring through the gulls and terns coming to roost on
Bolivar Flats. Our final hours were the best.
With a few spare minutes, we walked the marshgrasses and kicked up
some Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows fairly easily. No other bonuses
distracted us, and we managed to tear ourselves away from the birdy saltmarsh
and head back to the ferry. Would you believe we were the LAST car on?!? We
scanned constantly on the ferry ride across. At one point my binoculars
strayed above horizon and fell on...a frigatebird (female/immature). We
hadn't even realized frigates were a possibility so early. Apparently they
are, but the thrill was not dulled. Nothing else (no Bonaparte's Gull) on the
ferry, but we were all still high from the frigatebird. Mental state must go
a long way...on the drive through Galveston Ned and I picked up on a distant
dove on a wire. We whipped around, pulled up the street, and confirmed our
suspicions - Eurasian Collared-Dove!!!! We took photos and made sketches,
with twinges of worry that the judge panel might view this species with
caution - since it wasn't (and still isn't) on the official Texas list. As we
pulled up at what I thought was a secret viewing point for the Pacific Loon,
we met the Mac Attack, who were all obviously riding high after visiting
Bolivar Flats. Tony Leukering couldn't keep quiet, competition or no, and
spilled the beans promptly. They had just had a NODDY (Brown?) at the flats.
Feeling indebted, we called them over to peek through our scopes at the
Pacific Loon that we (eventually) found close to a mile away. An eye for an
eye, and we were off to Bolivar with our enthusiasm redoubled. The return
ferry trip had a male frigatebird! Nothing new though. By our calculations,
we needed 5 more species. We knew we'd get Piping Plover. We were counting
on the noddy remaining for us. Lesser Black-backed was a near certainty among
the big flocks at dusk. The extra two species could be anything...but would
have to be really good - Bonaparte's Gull, a jaeger, a rare tern, Curlew
Sandpiper...
. We arrived and scanned frantically for the noddy. Nothing. No good
gulls, no noddy. Piping Plover was present as expected. Finally Ned cried out
"want to see the noddy". We all three quickly got on the bird flying up the
beach towards us, and despite its worn, brownish plumage, immediately realized
it was a Black Noddy!!!! The cap was sharply defined and white, the bird was
small, and the bill was thin and droopy. Jon Dunn had found the second state
record for Black Noddy about 15 miles to the north about 2 weeks prior, and we
presumed this was the same bird. It was a life bird for all three of us (what
a way to close the competition, huh?). I was able to crawl right up on it on
my belly and take some close range pictures (with 300 and 600 mm lenses), but
finally trudged my muddy self back to my scope and started working the gulls
again. As more and more birds came into roost, the bonus birds appeared one
by one. First, a first-year Iceland Gull revealed itself from the crowd. A
spectacular bird for Texas, this bird may have been the same as the one I had
two weeks prior. Then a first-winter Great Black- backed Gull appeared amidst
the growing throng of birds, and, finally, as daylight slipped away, a third-
winter Lesser Black-backed Gull emerged. Number 300!!! We kept the vigil
until dusk, but no Bonies, no jaegers, nothing more. Still we didn't throw in
the towel, and tried several Black Rail marshes before turning in our lists,
details on our great birds there at the end, shooting the breeze with the
competition, and hitting the hay.
Very cool. The awards banquet the next night was good fun, the highlight of
which were the youth teams which reported on their successes over the several
days. The under 13 teams (Roughwings) obviously were the best! Great to see
such youth participation. Ned, Andy, and I all got our start at that age, and
it was appropriate to close the competition reminding ourselves that we began
in the same place.
So...to make a long story short, we won!!! The fearsome Compaq
computers team ended with 297 species
(we had been docked two, since our details on the Short-tailed Hawk were
deemed unacceptable and the Collared- Dove was not included since it was not
yet on the state list (raving about this could occupy another four pages!)).
The irony of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker tip becomes paifully clear, since
they ended up losing by...one bird. The Mac Attack team had had a poor
morning on the last day, but had found Texas' first King Eider the day prior.
Between the eider and the noddy, there was no argument that their list made up
in quality what it lacked in quantity (which wasn't much - they ended with
285). The King Eider/Black Noddy combination was almost certainly a first
ever. Best of all was probably Oscar Carmona's result from the Lower Rio
Grande Valley - their one day total (in the Rio Grande Valley only!) of 231
narrowly missed the record one day count for the country (when teams are not
retricted to a certain region of Texas). A truly fantastic total, their
result received a well-deserved standing ovation at the awards.
My thanks go out to the Texas Classic staff, the hospitality of the Texas
birders and Texans as a whole, to my teammates, and to all those who taught me
to tell a Royal Tern from a Caspian over the years. You know ywho you are!
Best,
Marshall Iliff
Miliff@aol.com