Tuesday, March 13, 2001

Vermilion flycatchers add color to birders' rainy-day outing

Many and varied sightings of different species make trip to area south of San Antonio special

We left home at 6 a.m. in a slow-falling rain. Not an ideal beginning for a birding trip to the lakes this side of San Antonio. Two friends and I, though, were setting out for a day of fun. We were to meet other members of the Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi. San Antonio birders Georgina Schwartz and Libby Huffman were to lead us.
   The rain did not stop, but at last a gray daylight came. We arrived at the meeting place and unlocked the gate to continue driving to our meeting spot. Inside, on a rod extending over a tank, sat a fine big hawk. At least it looked to be that, through the raindrops sliding down the window. "Must be a red-tailed (our most common hawk)," I said. Nobody argued.
   Driving along the narrow, muddy road, we came to a truck and a car parked by a rustic outhouse.
   A little farther along the trail, others from the group parked beside the road on what we later learned was a polder.A polder is a Dutch word for a mound of dirt, like a dike, that holds water in. This particular one was known as East Polder. The birders were pointing binoculars and a scope out over a pond full of ducks, many of them northern shovelers.
  
   Small gulls
   Knowing full well what birders were supposed to do, we looked too. Among the more common birds we saw were small gulls, not laughing gulls, all white, that seemed to ride high on the water.
   Could they be Bonaparte's? We are accustomed to sighting them flying behind the Wharf Cat as it stirs the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway in search of wintering whooping cranes. Or sometimes, on stormy days, they bob in rough water off the jetties at Port Aransas. With binoculars we could see the small black spots that winter clad Bonaparte's have behind their eyes. On the Internet the next day, in a census of birds of Lake Mitchell, someone counted 70 of them.
   There were other species of ducks, blue and green-winged teals, scaup, American wigeon, gadwalls, all waiting for the rain to let them continue their northern journey.
   Swallows were there also, dipping and fishing the air above the water, and darting between raindrops. Many of them were purple martins. Other smaller swallows were identified as barn, cave and later, tree. Swallows fly so fast and are so numerous that they can be hard to identify.
  
   Coup of the day
   Without working very hard we found 62 species, but the coup of the day was a pair of vermilion flycatchers that flew before us as we walked down a path during a temporary cease in rainfall. The tiny male was gorgeous, although not completely adult. His color was subtle rather than knockout vermilion. His mate, with a pale pinkish breast, was protective of him. No other would be allowed to take her darling.When we headed for home - surprise - the sun came forth, making lovely music. We took old U.S. Highway 281. It was lined with blooming bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. I can't think when I have been on a more successful bird trip.
  

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

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