Exciting Birding

We have had some very exciting birding over the last few weeks. While sighting only a couple of “rare” birds(white GBH and a lesser black-backed gull) we have seen our usual suspects doing cool things. Early this week we were drifting down on a whooper that was feeding close to shore when a Merlin flew in right at us and landed 10 feet away from the boat in a black mangrove bush. It stayed only 30 seconds or so when it realized what was going on and flew abot 30 yards down to the next mangrove. Everyone on the boat was able to get a great look at this small raptor.

Our tides were very low last weekend and we were unable to make our usual route through the back bays and I had just turned the Skimmer south for the return to Fulton Harbor when I looked up and spied a mature White-tailed Hawk kiting  about 100 feet high 30 yards away. I stopped the boat and watched the bird through the incredible new Nikon Monarch X  8.5X45 binos when he folded his wings and dove to about 30 feet and stopped again. It was a beautiful display of flight and I heard the crowed gasp. About 30 secnds later he made his final attack on his prey behind the cane about the same time his mate arrived and kited above him. I am sure some clients got great photos of these birds and will hopefully share them with us.

We did finally get a look at an Aplomado Falcon on the mainland last week. These birds were re-introduced on Matagorda Island some years back where we see them fairly regularly but I have never seen one along our Intra-coastal water way route until now.

The whoopers are still having a tough time finding blue crabs but we are getting great looks as they have been feeding on razor clams along the edge of the Intra-coastal Water Way. We have also been seeing the Lobstick “Scarbaby” in his territory along the edge of Sundown Bay. This bird was bitten by a snake as a juvinile and we indentify him by the long scar on the back of his neck.

The birding is great and the seafood is delicious and the weather is even better so come on down and see us!

Good birding!

Capt. Tommy

This entry was posted on 29. January 2009 at 16:26 and is filed under Skimmer Birding Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.