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Team Information: Wings Over Wastewater
Team Checklist
- Least Grebe Tachybaptus dominicus
- Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps
- Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus
- American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus
- Great Egret Ardea alba
- Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias
- Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea
- Tricolored Heron Egretta tricolor
- Snowy Egret Egretta thula
- Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
- Roseate Spoonbill Platalea ajaja
- Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
- Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
- Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis
- Canada Goose Branta canadensis
- Wood Duck Aix sponsa
- Green-winged Teal Anas crecca
- Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
- Northern Pintail Anas acuta
- American Wigeon Anas americana
- Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata
- Gadwall Anas strepera
- Blue-winged Teal Anas discors
- Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis
- Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus
- Cooper's Hawk Accipiter cooperii
- Sharp-shinned Hawk Accipiter striatus
- Red-shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus
- Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis
- Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus
- American Kestrel Falco sparverius
- Merlin Falco columbarius
- Virginia Rail Rallus limicola
- Sora Porzana carolina
- American Coot Fulica americana
- Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola
- Killdeer Charadrius vociferus
- American Avocet Recurvirostra americana
- Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca
- Solitary Sandpiper Tringa solitaria
- Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes
- Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius
- Dunlin Calidris alpina
- Western Sandpiper Calidris mauri
- Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla
- Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos
- Stilt Sandpiper Calidris himantopus
- Long-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus scolopaceus
- Wilson's Snipe Gallinago delicata
- Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) Columba livia
- White-winged Dove Zenaida asiatica
- Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
- Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus
- Chimney Swift Chaetura pelagica
- Belted Kingfisher Megaceryle alcyon
- Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
- Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens
- Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus
- Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe
- Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Tyrannus forficatus
- Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus
- Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata
- American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos
- Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor
- Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
- Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus
- Marsh Wren Cistothorus palustris
- American Robin Turdus migratorius
- Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos
- European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
- Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata
- Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas
- Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis
- Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
- Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
- Eastern Meadowlark Sturnella magna
- Yellow-headed Blackbird Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
- Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus
- Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula
- Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater
- House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus
- House Sparrow Passer domesticus
Team Notes
Participants: Catherine Winans, Allen Drozdowski, Greg Cook, Buck Buchanan, David Powll, Ted Drozdowski, DD Currie, Dell Little, Glenda Keilstrup, Marie Redwine, Debbie Hatfield, Barbara Tompkins, Amy Alonso, Jim Jones, Mike Wease, and Mary Lee Johnson.
Weather: Sunny with mixed clouds. A moderate wind from the sw with occasional strong gusts. Temps from high 60's to mid 80's.
Location: Village Creek Drying Beds, Arlington, Texas.
Time At Location: 4am to 7:30pm
Notes:
This was Fort Worth Audubon's second year of participating in the big sit and we certainly exceeded our expectations. We finished with 82 species, 10 more than last year! Our circle remained chock full of participants for most of the day. The weather was pleasant, the birding was fantastic, and the camaraderie was infectious.
Anecdotes:
We started the morning at four am out in the marsh, eighty yards west of last year's circle. Things started a off a little slow in the wee hours, but we did hear a Virginia Rail that made a brief appearance later in the day. We had four Great Horned Owls in sight at one time that made for great company as we awaited the dawn. Some of the highlights were Greg Cook locating distant flying Roseate Spoonbills not once, but twice. We watched a Merlin at our leisure for several hours as he made a meal of an unidentifiable passerine. The Merlin sat on a wire with a kestrel only 15 feet away giving a great side by side comparison of these two falcons. Later in the day a Peregrine glided over us as it was heading south. A Yellow-headed Blackbird showed up immediately after it was "wished for". We executed a devious scheme with an 8 foot ladder and a pickup truck which allowed us to locate one of the two extremely antisocial Least Grebes that have been here all summer. Catherine Winans plucked our big sit nemesis bird out of a very distant wall of green: a Northern Cardinal.
The ending to our day was rather dramatic as six Black-bellied Plovers dropped out of nowhere behind us for our eightieth species of the day. The plovers spent only a few minutes with us before hastily continuing their journey south. A much hoped for Snowy Egret showed up as the sun was setting. Accompanying the Snowy Egret was a Tricolored Heron giving us 82 species for the day. We had eleven species of waterfowl, eight raptors, and fourteen shorebirds.
This was so much fun that it's a shame to only do it once a year. Thanks to everybody who came out and looked, searched, waited, and watched.