Harahan Laughing Gull roost building up- on schedule

The Harahan Walmart is traditionally the focal spot for thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of Laughing Gulls that roost at night on commercial rooftops in the Elmwood area of Jefferson Parish in late summer and early fall.  The roost usually forms in July, and disperses in October, after which they take up roosting out on Lake Pontchartrain.  Their dispersal may be stimulated by the House of Shock firing up its pyrotechnics nearby as Halloween approaches, although I have never quite been sure what role that plays in the shift to the lake.

This evening, on schedule, there were hundreds- possibly thousands- gathering on the Walmart and Intralox roofs and adjacent parking lot. 

In the parking lot photos below (apologies for the dim lighting- it was cloudy and getting toward dusk), you will notice both black-gray-white adults, and brown juveniles.  These juveniles are birds that hatched this summer- they only keep this very brown plumage for a short while.  The adults are in various stages of transition from their breeding plumage, in which they have black heads, to their white-with-gray-smudge winter head dress.   By my count, there were 222 adults and 45 juveniles in this particular group.

It is often possible to pick out birds that are in their second summer because they retain faded remnants of their tail band.   These are less common than adults or juveniles, and I did not detect any tonight.

One advantage for birders who are just beginning to tackle the rather daunting challenge of identifying gulls, is that essentially every gull in the New Orleans metro area in summer is a Laughing Gull.  No need to sweat over identifications!

Peter

Stilt Sandpipers in the Causeway Retention Ponds

I just found myself running errands in the vicinity of the storm water retention ponds at Causeway x Earhart in Metairie, and decided to zip in for a quick look.

There was lots of mud- the habitat looked great for waders large and small.

There was one species of migratory shorebird present:   Stilt Sandpiper, of which there were three.  All in adult plumage.  This was a notable sighting for the city- a birder could easily pass a season without seeing one inside the hurricane levee.  What was doubly odd, was that there were no other migratory shorebirds present- just the resident Black-necked Stilts.  Normally, there is sort of a hierarchy one works through at small inland shorebird habitats like this one.  The lowest hanging fruit are Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Spotted, Solitary and Least Sandpipers.  Only after a site has attracted the presence of a few (or all) of these does one usually hope to start picking up some of the more selective species that require higher caliber habitat:  a Black-bellied or Semipalmated Plover, Western or Pectoral Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, etc..  It is usually only after one or a few of this second tier starts using a site, that one hopes to find something like a Stilt Sandpiper (or a dowitcher, White-rumped Sandpiper, etc.). 

The point is, it is odd to have three Stilt Sandpipers here when the site has not yet attracted any of the "easier" species.

Also present was a White-faced or Glossy Ibis (I couldn't see the diagnostic eye and face pattern), 20 White Ibis, 11 Snowy Egrets, and singles each of Little Blue, Tricolored, and Great and Cattle Egrets.  A pair of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks was on the shore, and a lone adult Laughing Gull was standing in the shallows. 

Peter

Visit to the Monticello wader roost

I happened to be in the neighborhood of the Monticello wastewater treatment plant this evening at dusk.  So, I took a quick stroll on the levee to see how the usual wader roost was doing in the cement-lined ponds there.  This site is right on the Orleans-Jefferson Parish line, in very urban surroundings. 

The roost was used by about 150 waders tonight, with a breakdown of something like 120 White Ibis, 20 Great Egrets, and 10 Snowy Egrets.  The ibis were all adults.  These were joined by five Anhinga.   No Cattle Egrets, and only two Wood Ducks (usually there are a dozen or two Woodies that fly in for the night). 

The biggest surprise was the paucity of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks.  The last time I was here a few years ago there were hordes of "Squealers."

There were three Black-necked Stilts, one of which was very vocal as it flew around, acting like it might be attending young.  There were ten or so Cliff Swallows, which as far as I can remember would be a new nester at this site (the species has been gradually colonizing the city from various directions).

The number of waders tonight was pretty low compared to some past counts I have had, but I suppose that some birds may still spending their nights at the nesting colonies.

This site always looks like it is ripe for something really unusual to show up- I need to keep checking it!

Good birding,

Peter