LABIRD-L for Saturday, February 17, 2001

Messages are displayed in the order they were received.  Subject  From  Time   Lake Martin Birds, Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, Feb. 17, 2001   Jay V. Huner   2:55pm   UL Lafayette Experimental Farm, Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana - Week of Feb. 11, 2001   Jay V. Huner   3:28pm   LA and the Great Backyard Bird Count   Allison Wells    4:00pm   Breaking news! NJ bumps LA   Allison Wells    4:06pm   surf scoter Yes   Carol Foil    4:48pm   Purple Martins at UL Lafayette Farm - Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana - Feb. 16, 2001   Jay V. Huner   9:51pm

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Subject: Lake Martin Birds, Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana,
         Feb. 17, 2001
From: "Jay V. Huner" <jjhuner(AT)MINDSPRING.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 2:55pm

Lake Martin, Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, Feb. 17, 2001 - Jay
Huner

Cold, High Winds, Light Clouds to Clear. Beautiful day and "nice" out
of the wind.

Walked the levee around the lake and spent about half an hour in the
Nature Conservancy's Cypress Island Preserve on the west side of the
Lake. Started walking about 9 AM and left about 12:45 PM.

THERE WERE AT LEAST 300 GREAT EGRETS VISIBLE FROM THE LEVEE/ROAD IN
LOW LYING BUTTON BUSH ABOUT 100-150 YARDS OUT.

Started to report an air boat in the Heronry but it turned out to be
TNC putting up "posted" signs.

1.    Pied-billed Grebe - 15
2.    Neotropic Cormorant - 5+
3.    Double-crested Cormorant - 250+ [Need to watch this flock
carefully as some seem to act like they want to nest in the Heronry -
a new phenomenon.]
4.    Anhinga - 3
5.    Great Blue Heron - 3
6.    Great Egret - 300+
7.    Snowy Egret - 4
8.    Cattle Egret - 1
9.    White Ibis - 10
10.    Black Vulture - 2
11.  Turkey Vulture - 2
12.  Wood Duck - 50
13.  Cooper's Hawk - 1
14.  Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
15.  Red-tailed Hawk - 1
16.  American Kestrel - 1
17.  Common Moorhen - 20
18.  American Coot - 3,000+
19.  Killdeer - 10
20.  Belted Kingfisher - 2
21.  Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
22.  Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
23.  Downy Woodpecker - 2
24.  Pileated Woodpecker - 1
25.  Eastern Phoebe - 10
26.  Loggerhead Shrike - 2
27.  Blue Jay - 2 [Hard bird to find at Lake Martin.]
28.  American Crow - 20
29.  Fish Crow - 5
30.  Purple Martin - 3
31.  Tree Swallow - 3
32.  Carolina Chickadee - 20
33.  Tufted Titmouse - 10
34.  Carolina Wren - 15
35.  House Wren - 2
36.  Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 5
37.  Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1 [First I've seen in Louisiana since
Christmas.]
38.  Eastern Bluebird - 1
39. Hermit Thrush - 5
40.  American Robin - 50
41.  Northern Mockingbird - 8
42.  Brown Thrasher - 2
43.  Cedar Waxwing - 15
44.  Yellow-rumped Warbler - 50
45.  Pine Warbler - 2
46.  Common Yellowthroat - 3
47.  Fox Sparrow - 2
48.  Song Sparrow - 3
49.  Swamp Sparrow - 15
50.  White-throated Sparrow - 30
51.  Nothern Cardinal - 10
52.  Red-winged Blackbird - 25
53.  Rusty Blackbird - 6
54.  Common Grackle - 3
55.  American Goldfinch - 5

Nope, didn't see the Bullock's Warbler.


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Subject: UL Lafayette Experimental Farm, Western St. Martin Parish,
         Louisiana - Week of Feb. 11, 2001
From: "Jay V. Huner" <jjhuner(AT)MINDSPRING.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 3:28pm

UL Lafayette Experimental Farm - Mostly Crawfish Pond Area and
Adjacent Wooded Wetland - Western St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, Week
of Feb. 11, 2001 - Jay V. Huner.

I only birded Tu, W, Th, and F with weather ranging from warm windy
and cloudy to frontal passage on F. Simply did not get bird intensely
except to keep up with birds on the ponds. No numbers at all of Th.

1.    Pied-billed Grebe - Tu-15, W-15, Th-+, & F-2
2.    Double-crested Cormorant - Tu-6, W-10, Th-+, & F-10
3.    Neotropic Cormorant - Tu-2, W-3, Th-+, F-4
4.    Great Blue Heron - Tu-1 & F-2
5.    Great Egret - Tu-2, W-4, Th-+, & F-3
6.    Snowy Egret - Tu-3, W-10, Th-+, & F-4
7.    Tricolored Heron - Tu-1, W-1, Th-+, & F-1
8.    White Ibis - Tu-8, W-135, & F-12
9.    White-faced Ibis - Tu-20, W-50, Th-+, & F-24
10.  Turkey Vulture - Tu-1 & W-1
11.  Wood Duck - Tu-2, W-20, & F-2
12.  Mallard - W-2
13.  Gadwall - W-2
14.  Northern Shoveler - Tu-4, W-4, & Th-+
15.  Ring-necked Duck - W-600 & F-1
15.  Northern Harrier - W-1 & Th-+
16.  Red-tailed Hawk - Tu-1
17.  American Kestrel - Tu-1, W-1, & Th-+
18.  American Coot - Tu-120, W-120, Th-+, & F-105
19.  Killdeer - Tu-3, W-6, Th-+, & F-5
20.  Greater Yellowlegs - Tu-1
21.  Laughing Gull - F-8
22.  Ring-billed Gull - Tu-3, W-3, Th-+, & F-2
23.  Foster's Tern - W-1 & F-1
24.  Mourning Dove - W-6 (shop area)
25.  Barred Owl - W-1
26.  Belted Kingfisher - Tu-1, W-1, Th-+, & F-1
27.  Red-bellied Woodpecker - Tu-1, W-2, & Th-+
28.  Eastern Phoebe - Tu-1 & W-2
29.  Blue Jay - Tu-2, W-4, Th-+, & F-1
30.  American Crow - Tu-10, W-30, Th-+, & F-20
31.  Fish Crow - Tu-10, W-5, Th-+, & F-10
32.  Carolina Chickadee - W-3
33.  Tufted Titmouse - W-3
34.  Carolina Wren - Tu-1, W-2, & F-1
35.  Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Tu-1
36.  American Robin - Tu-1, W-3, & Th-+
37.  Northern Mockingbird - Tu-1, W-2, Th-+, & F-1
38.  American Pipit - Tu-1, W-3, & Th-+
39.  Loggerhead Shrike - Tu-1, W-2, Th-+, & F-1
40.  European Starling - Tu-10, W-10, Th-+, & F-1
41.  Yellow-rumped Warbler - Tu-15 & W-25
42.  Common Yellowthroat - W-1
43.  Northern Cardinal - Tu-1, W-5, & Th-+
44.  Savannah Sparrow - Tu-10, W-35, Th-+, & F-35
45.  Song Sparrow - W-4
46.  Swamp Sparrow - W-8
47.  White-throated Sparrow - W-3
48.  Red-winged Blackbird - Tu-100, W-200, Th-+ & F-100
49.  Brewer's Blackbird - Tu- 30 & W-3
50.  Brown-headed Cowbird - Tu-200, W-80, & Th-+.
51. House Sparrow - Tu-30-shop area & Th-+

Worst week in weeks.


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Subject: LA and the Great Backyard Bird Count
From: Allison Wells <amw25(AT)CORNELL.EDU>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 4:00pm

Greetings, LA birders-

I just spent some time looking around at the most recent Great Backyard
Bird Count results <www.birdsource.org> and couldn't help but notice that
LA was not currently in the Top Ten list for highest number of reports (as
of 4:50pm). Given the number of you who (like many of us here at the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology) keep meticulous yard lists (and who are active
beyond the yard as well), we're really rooting for you. In fact, I'm hoping
this just means that you're all out birding still and will report your
sightings this evening while enjoying a nice cup of java...

Meanwhile, some current LA stats that you might enjoy:

Highest reporting LA locations (I'm bummed that Ouachita's not on here,
given my superb phonetic spelling of it recently!)

Baton Rouge  63
New Orleans 49
Lafayette 30
Slidell 30
Deridder  27
Chauvin  26
Shreveport  24
Arabi 22
Monroe 18
Leesville 17

LA is #10 in species diversity - 104 of 388 so far.
Species appearing on highest number of checklists:
N Cardinal (63)
Blue Jay (54)
Mo Dove (53)
N Mockingbird (41)
House Sparrow (39)

You can see results specific to LA and anywhere else on the continent, by
map or list, at the web site as the reports roll in (reports are uploaded
every 15 minutes or so.) If you haven't been entering your bird sightings,
please do (you can back-enter your reports from yesterday, and the count
runs through Feb 19).

Thanks to all of you who are putting your birds on the map!

Allison Wells
Communications and Outreach Director
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 254-2475
http://birds.cornell.edu
amw25(AT)cornell.edu


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Subject: Breaking news! NJ bumps LA
From: Allison Wells <amw25(AT)CORNELL.EDU>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 4:06pm

Heavens, you were just bumped out of the top ten - by New Jersey!

 >LA is #10 in species diversity - 104 of 388 so far.

Allison

Allison Wells
Communications and Outreach Director
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 254-2475
http://birds.cornell.edu
amw25(AT)cornell.edu


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Subject: surf scoter Yes
From: Carol Foil <lcfoil(AT)ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 4:48pm

She's still there across from the Lod Cook Center (LSU BR campus) as of 3:30
pm Saturday.

Carol Foil
Baton Rouge, LA
lcfoil(AT)attglobal.net


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Subject: Purple Martins at UL Lafayette Farm - Western St. Martin
         Parish, Louisiana - Feb. 16, 2001
From: "Jay V. Huner" <jjhuner(AT)MINDSPRING.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 2001 9:51pm

When I post our weekly bird list, I have from 3-6 lists to review. I
realized just now  that I missed our "martins" from yesterday when I
posted our list for the "week". I made a pass around the ponds around
4:45 PM yesterday and there were 3 Purple Martins sweeping across the
ponds in the high winds. I saw Purple Martins at Lake Martin last
Saturday and today and saw them over the Church Square in St.
Martinville last Sunday.

So, the martins are clearly back - not just scouts - at least in St.
Martin Parish.

Jay Huner