Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - The flocks of October include hawks, 'l.b.j's'

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Tuesday, November 2, 1999

The flocks of October include hawks, 'l.b.j's'

It is always over before its savor has dissolved. . .October, our loveliest month. And so it was this year. The first weeks were besmirched by the threat of a late hurricane, but from then on it was one long, delicious breath of invigorating air. Birds arriving from the north to spend the winter must find it almost as overwhelmingly pleasant as those of us who have suffered the summer here.
   Last week we went for an afternoon ride in the golden sunshine and headed for the Fred B. Jones Sanctuary on the Koonce Loop out of Portland. On Moore Avenue, a block beyond the water tower, we saw many golden brown bird bodies dotted about a green swatch in the middle of plowed fields. We turned around in the first convenient wide spot, and returned to have a look. In my superstitious way, I thought they might be marbled godwits, since I had written about them last week, but they were long-billed curlews. They had spread themselves less conspicuously for blocks on either side of the green spot and across the highway. All were working with heads bent over, probing the moist soil. I estimated 400 of them.
   In the back part of the field across the highway, a large flock (maybe 200) of shorebird types rose, took a turn around and settled back. As they flew I saw the black, under-wing patches characteristic of black-bellied plover in winter plumage.
   We drove on, admiring scissor-tailed flycatchers decorating the wires along the way. They flew out now and then to show off their bright peach, autumn plumaged breasts. Occasionally the lines were punctuated with bandit-masked loggerhead shrikes and handsome rust-and-blue kestrels.
   When we turned into the far end of the Loop, on the road and on wires were many black birds. With binoculars we decided they were young male red-winged blackbirds with faint, just developing red and yellow patches. Alas, there were also many brown-headed cowbirds. Here, too, were hundreds of meadowlarks. Since the species can only be definitely separated by song, we guessed these were eastern meadowlarks. I remember once enjoying the much less familiar song of a western meadowlark in the Jones Sanctuary, about two blocks from this field.
   At the bridge in the hollow, another new arrival worked. . .a belted kingfisher. He was a fresh plumaged male with blue crest and slate blue breast band. Although the field guide shows this area as their year-round range, we seldom see this bird in summer.
   We drove slowly through the shady hollow, then to the crest of the hill where the panoramic view lacks nothing but a pullout from which to enjoy it. The Harbor Bridge dominates the view of Nueces Bay, and, just below the road, a shallow inlet is usually occupied by a cavorting reddish egret or a stalking great egret. Brown pelicans also fish here.
   In fields behind the sanctuary were many kildeer. Behind them, above the brush, a northern harrier hunted. It was a day of flocking with few birds occurring singly. Even the l.b.j's. (little brown jobs) which were surely newly arrived winter sparrows were not alone. We thought we made one of them out to be a vesper sparrow and another with white corners on the tip of his tail was surely a lark sparrow. Across our path flew a probable Cooper's hawk.
   We had used up the afternoon without getting to the sanctuary. What was worse, we had almost used up October. Never mind. What we have lost in daylight has been more than made up for in cool. The long, hot summer is over at last.
   The Coastal Bend Audubon Society will meet at 7 p.m. tonight at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. The program, given by Gene Blacklock, will be a video of a tour of Alaska.



Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

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