Greetings All:
I spent 3.25 hours at the Purina Mountain Bike Trail in Lubbock this
morning. It was, as expected - given the lack of interesting, stalling
weather - slow but I did score two new goatsuckers for the Canyon Lakes
route this year.
Walking the old dirt road through the brush-dotted grasslands, I flushed 2
Common Poorwills and a Gray Fox eating a third Common Poorwill. The fox
dropped what was left of the bird and I got pictures of the remains.
Later, while working the densely wooded (by Lubbock standards) area along
the river between Parkway Avenue and the Golf Course, I flushed a large
caprimulgid from the ground up into some low foliage. I searched for the
bird in vain for a half hour in hopes of photographs but, given the size
(wingspan of a nighthawk, longer and thicker body), shape (long winged and
relatively long-tailed with a fan-shaped tail tip) and coloration
(rufescent brown above with buffy tail tips on the sides of each tail tip)
it was pretty obviously a Chuck-will's-widow. These are quire rare in our
area, generally being found in well-wooded areas in our eastern tier of
counties (Motley, Dickens, Kent) but they have been found in Lubbock during
fall migration in years past.
Other highlights: 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 2 Verdins, 1 House
Wren, 1 Carolina Wren, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 1
Nashville Warbler, 1 Cassin's Sparrow, 2 Vesper Sparrows, 2 Grasshopper
Sparrows, and 2 Lincoln's Sparrows.
Over three hours in one of Lubbock's best spots for migrant songbirds and 0
migrant flycatchers, 0 migrant vireos, 0 migrant thrushes, singles only of
two of the more common migrant warblers, 0 migrant
tanagers/grosbeak/buntings.
Only two more weekends of songbird migration left and, while I am glad that
birds are streaming, unimpeded, southward, I can't help but hope for at
least one stalling front.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
