More Tropical Storm Birds

There were a couple of other interesting bird sightings during the tropical storm on Tuesday. After the "eye" had passed over us, I went outside to check on a couple of things and to put some more seed out for the birds that were showing up in large numbers. I had ten cardinals, six Eurasian-collared Doves and four Blue Jays. The Carolina Chickadees were trying to figure out where their feeders went and never got the idea to head to the ground to pick up a seed. I put the feeders back out pretty quickly once I saw that. As I was putting the feeders back out, a flock of about 50 Tree Swallows flew over. They were flying against the wind so the entire flock was doing a zig-zag pattern as they flew. They flew right over my head, so I got great looks at them. I've seen a flock like that once, but it was in January several years ago. The other interesting sighting was the hundreds of Purple Martins that were soaring overhead. It sounded like I was standing next to a large colony with all of them calling. I tried counting at one point, but couldn't. I would estimate there were 150 to 250 martins at a time flying around.

I sure wish I could have gone down to Galveston to see if any pelagics had been pushed onshore by Edouard's winds. I guess I'll have to look at Texbirds and live vicariously through those who had the chance.