Bird to watch out for: American White Pelican

A bird to keep your  eyes open for this time of year is the American White Pelican.  They are making their way south to the Gulf Coast from the northern prairies, where they nest in colonies.  The coastal marshes of southeast Louisiana are an important wintering area for the species.

White Pelicans will appear overhead almost anywhere, including over urban New Orleans.  They usually circle overhead, low enough to catch your eye as you as you glance skyward while walking to your car or doing whatever.  They are usually seen in flocks, commonly dozens together, wheeling slowly in the sky, white plumage flashing in the sunlight.  They are huge birds, and heavy, with broad wings with black tips.

There is perhaps no avian sight in Louisiana as stirring to me as when I am surprised by a flock of white pelicans circling overhead as I go about my daily business.  I suspect many others have similar emotions.

This note was prompted by a sighting:  a local observer reported 100 over Helios in Metairie today.

Keep your eyes skyward!

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy- New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com , or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing (and leading a bird walk) at Longvue Gardens in Metairie on Saturday October 26.  Come and join in!

Visit to Kenner wader roost

This evening I stopped by the wader roost in the Kenner City Park at Vintage and Loyola.  There were 150 waders roosting, mainly White Ibis, but with smaller numbers of Great, Snowy, and Cattle Egrets, and Tricolored and Little Blue Herons.  One Anhinga, and one Black-crowned Night-Heron.

I was mainly interested in whether spoonbills were roosting here- none tonight.

It was also curious that there were zero Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks.  I don't imagine that will last much longer!

About ten American Coots were present- not sure how many might have been new wintering arrivals.

Good birding,

Peter

Migrants this morning at LaSalle Park

A 25 minute visit to LaSalle Park this AM did produce an array of migrants, though not in huge numbers.  Still, enough to suggest arrivals from last night's front.

A mixed flock with chickadees mostly got away after frustrating me in bad light, but had at least a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and male Northern Parula.  The flock was on the margin of the main woods and the adjacent glade with shade trees, along the paved path.

Nothing was in the ragweed patch.

At the far end of the boardwalk, a small cluster of birds included five or so Indigo Buntings, a Summer Tanager (probably two), and a Northern Flicker.

I swished for a few minutes by the drip, drawing in a Gray Catbird.

Last night, a brief listen outside around 9:45 produced a single call note (by an overhead migrant- probably Wood Thrush).  However, another birder in Baton Rouge reported a higher volume of overhead notes around 10:10 pm, mostly thrushes.

Might be an interesting next few days- it is possible that the stalled cold front will allow birds to keep coming down to us, but prevent them from departing across the Gulf- perhaps causing them to accumulate.  Worth thinking about, anyway!

Oh yeah, the Roseate Spoonbill was back on Canal Street in Old Metairie this morning at 8 am.

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy- New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com , or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing (and leading a bird walk) at Longvue Gardens in Metairie on Saturday October 26.  Come and join in!

Roseate Spoonbill in Old Metairie

Today I had a Roseate Spoonbill in a new location- the narrow drainage canal along Canal Street, which runs diagonally from the I-10 overpass at Oaklawn, southeastward toward the pumping station on the 17th Street Canal, in Old Metairie.  1:30 pm.

This small canal usually has White Ibis, Tricolored Heron, and Snowy Egret in it.

I have also seen or heard of Spoonbills in a few other new locations the last few weeks:  one reported by a visiting birder in City Park just north of I-610 in a pond, and one that I spied last week in Kenner in the West Metairie Ave drainage canal at Indiana (which is near Williams Blvd).

Air is feeling nice outside now!  If the cloud cover continues tonight, it might be a good night to listen for call notes.

Peter
5:14 pm

for a copy of Birding Made Easy- New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com , or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing (and leading a bird walk) at Longvue Gardens in Metairie on Saturday October 26.  Come and join in!

Migration and tonight's front

A front is scheduled to pass tonight.  It may not get by us until morning, but winds have been out of the north half of the compass for a few hours now at Lakefront Airport- perhaps it is already passing.

There is usually a pulse of birds after a fall front-  it will be worth getting out and looking around after this one.  There may be call notes overhead tonight if there are north winds.

There should still be Indigo Buntings, Gray Catbirds, Common Yellowthroats, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks coming through with this front- among our last neotropical migrants (i.e., migrants headed for the American tropics to winter).  The earlier season groups (neotropical migrant vireos and warblers, etc) are over their peak in numbers now, but some should still be mixed in.

Early waves of birds that are primarily temperate zone winterers should be evident as well - such as Swamp Sparrow, PineWarbler (arriving on the South Shore- already present year round on the North Shore), and Eastern Phoebe.

It is also a good time to find a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  Keep your eyes on fences, powerlines, tips of small trees, etc- they often perch in the open.

It is hard to say whether the best birding will be tomorrow AM or the next day.  And of course, some fronts mysteriously produce little movement at all- while others are truly memorable.  Let's get out and look!

Good birding,

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy- New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com, or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing (and leading a bird walk) at Longvue Gardens in Metairie on Saturday October 26.  Come and join in!

A short stop at Bucktown Marsh

Today I stopped by the Bucktown Marsh on the way to work.

As before, a vocal Loggerhead Shrike greeted me from the picnic area.

Immediately in front of the parking area, on the scrub edge, a little party of birds gathered to fuss at my swishing:  3 Common Yellowthroats, a Marsh Wren, a Northern Waterthrush, and my first Swamp Sparrow of the fall.

Not much along the cut path along the lakeshore, until the far end of the thicket it passes through, where there were three more Swamp Sparrows and two more Yellowthroats.

Today I walked out to the tip of the peninsula for the first time in a couple years- there is good weedy habitat along both the lake and harbor edges of it.  On the walk out I put up three Savannah Sparrows- my first of the fall.  An immature (white) Little Blue Heron took off from the rip-rap shore, as did two Spotted Sandpipers, which  flew  in an arc over the water with their usual ringing weet weet weet and stiff wingbeats.  From the tip, I counted 115 Forster's Terns sitting on pylons (etc) across the way at West End, accompanied by about an equal number of Laughing Gulls and five or so Royal Terns.

I walked the scrubby harbor edge on the way back to the car, which looks great but produced nothing today.  The three Savannahs had ventured out onto the open ground in the center of the peninsula, and flitted back into the lakeside weeds at my approach.

"Land's End" sorts of places like this often seem especially likely to produce oddities, so it is a tantalizing spot. I will be back.

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com, or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.

I will be having a book signing at Longvue Gardens on Saturday October 26, when I will also lead a birdwalk on grounds.  Hope to see you there!

Migrants in a Katrina lot

Today I stopped by a shotgun-sized Katrina lot in Gentilly near UNO, that is overgrown with scrubby growth, tallows, and ragweed.  I have been checking it regularly for a few years now.

Today's visit produced the most birds there so far this fall- surprising given the lack of recent frontal activity.  Eleven Indigo Buntings, three Blue Grosbeaks, a White-eyed Vireo, and a Brown Thrasher.  Also, a Cardinal was present- quite likely my first ever there (Katrina-flooded residential areas in Orleans Parish are now essentially Cardinal-free).

Good birding,

Peter