Hi All,
With all the rain recently, I decided to visit some of our playas that have
been good for shorebirds in the past. Was I off the mark!
I started with the Bison Rd Playa near Levelland. There was a little water
in the front area and there were 2 Avocets and 1 Grackle at the playa.
That's it. They've installed something new at the playa's edge, it looks
like a pump to me, and they were spraying water straight up out of a pipe a
little ways away. They were also working on the pivot, so who knows, but
this may be a less reliable location from now on. Time will tell.
I decided to stop at Reese Playa across from the golf course on the way
back. There was some water at the north end, but it was mostly covered by
vegetation. A few Mallards, a Black-crowned Night Heron, Red-Winged
Blackbirds, Western Kingbirds, and Barn Swallows were about all that was
around.
Since I now had some time on my hands, I decided to head up to the playa
just east of Abernathy at the intersection of CR 5200 x CR 2800. This one
was dry except for a couple yards of the inlet. The highlights were my
first wood-pewee of the season and a singing Ring-necked Pheasant that I
tried hard to turn into a rail :) Then Brad's description of a bicycle
brake barking popped into my head and it was a rail no more!
I had never been to the playas where the American Golden Plovers were last
fall, so I decided to head a little further east and see if they had any
water. The playa near the intersection of Vetch Ave/CR 400 x CR 5200 was
also dry, but there was a singing Dickcissel on the wires above :) I wanted
to record it, but the first truck to come up behind me this entire trip
suddenly appeared and there was no where to pull over, so onward I went.
The playa near Vetch Ave/CR 400 x CR 5300 was also dry and there were only
two Western Kingbirds here. I almost headed home at this point but then
looked at my map and realized that the Becton Playa was only a minute away.
Why not?!
On to the Becton Playa at CR 3600 x CR 5300. I have not enjoyed my visits
here in the past because I was unable to see over the vegetation into the
playa. I hadn't thought about it until I arrived, but those trips must have
been in the fall or during a wetter spring because I had great views of the
playa this time! This was by far the best stop. It was almost dry except
for a line of water in the middle only a few feet long, but the rest was
still mud and had a handful of shorebirds! Here I had the Baird's
Sandpipers (I really looked for a White-rump among them, but to no avail),
Semipalmated Sandpipers, Wilson's Phalarope, Stilt Sandpiper (these last
two took off when grackles harassed the flock soon after I arrived and
never came back. They both appeared to head south), a Lark Sparrow, several
Horned Larks (thanks, Brad!), a Swainson's Hawk, Cattle Egrets, Avocets,
and a vocal Bobwhite. A scope was definitely needed here and, even with
one, it took lots of study to ID a little bird because of the distance,
wind, and heat shimmer.
All in all, it was a long 5 hours with very few birds, but I did enjoy
several of the birds and probably got my last fix of shorebirds before they
start their return migration (which can be as early as June!).
Back home, I checked the Rayless Greenthread flowers in the front yard and
all was quiet except for a stunning genus Villa fly (yep, it looks like a
bee!). These are one of my favorites. As Anthony noted in his email
earlier, when the birds start quieting down it's time to enjoy our gorgeous
insects, butterflies, and moths!
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Miller
Lubbock, TX
(o,o)
/)_)
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