Greetings All:
After another week of no rain I was not surprised to discover that Clapp
Park is now down to one rapidly drying pond by the main inlet. On one
hand, this one pond was clogged with egrets; on the other hand all of the
smaller ponds are dried mud clotted with rotting fish and dying immature
bullfrogs. Not a very tempting scene for migrant waterbirds at this point.
I was also not surprised, given the lack of interesting weather over the
last week, to find migrant songbirds in short supply: not a single empid,
no vireos, very few warblers, and even the the buntings are drying up. It
was nice, though, to see the first thrush of the season.
Highlights among the 32 species seen (last week I had 51 species at the
same site, covering the same ground): 7 Great Egrets, 25 Snowy Egrets, 3
immature Black-chinned Hummingbirds, 1 Western Wood Pewee, 1 Swainson's
Thrush, 1 Yellow Warbler, 1 Wilson's Warbler, 2 female and 2 immature
Painted Buntings, 1 Dickcissel, 2 female Orchard Orioles.
I had nothing new for the site's 2015 list.
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
