Boomer Migration Prior to Rains

                                                        Yellow-rumped Warbler, View 1

                                                             American Coots

                                                        Yellow-rumped Warbler, View 2


102219

0750-0853/45-47 F (wind chill 41)/clear/W-5/54% RH/30.06-30.09 Hg and rising


Just prior to this two day rain that began very early Wednesday October 23, birds were flying in an erratic manner and preparing by eating as much as they could.

There were a dozen or more migrant Killdeer between Shorebird Jetty and the most southwest jetty.  I got the actual count when a man was walking his dog and drove them into the air and they went onto the secondary location.  There were some Killdeer there, a smaller amount, but I was unable to get an exact count prior to the incident.  There were at least six, but I used the dozen figure.

Since this was actually a minor seasonal cooldown, there were also a few ducks upon the water, which included eighteen Gadwall, a few Northern Shovelers (juveniles), and eight American Coots.
The coots didn't even notice me at Heron Cove, and just came nearer when the above shot was taken.

As many know, Ken Kaufman wrote a book on pishing, and gave many examples on the included CD, but I have developed many of my own calls over the years.  One that I came upon was actually learned from a Palm Warbler that I once encountered at Boomer Lake.  When the Palm Warbler moved out of my view, I used it to call it back last fall.

Several birds were in sycamores, western soapberry and even within the Bradford pear trees on the west side of The Cove.  I'm being very conservative when I say that there were thirty-five Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers in the area, along with the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, American Pipit, Chipping Sparrow, and Belted Kingfisher.  Of course, the pipit will never be located in a tree, yet it had been clearly observed in the lowland nearby.

The warblers, kinglet, sparrow, and kingfisher all responded nicely to my own pish, and I could have shown many more photos of the warblers.  The kinglet also availed itself, but was on the move, so out of the several shots that I obtained, none of them were worthy to be posted here.  The chippie also hung in the brambles, but writer managed to get a lot of good looks for an extended period of time and just might have come up with other birds.

Then the rain hit and my birding adventures were curtailed.  Perhaps tomorrow...

For the Palm Warbler Sighting:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2018/10/oklahoma-migratory-species-profile-palm.html