SMNWR 10/21

The plan was to hit Lighthouse Pool and Tower Pond when the tide was high in the bay to show Cyndi, who had been out of town for a week, the incredible avian show I encountered on Tuesday. Not quite. Lighthouse Pool was good, but had only a small fraction of the birds that were present on Tuesday; herons, egrets, and ibis were almost completely absent. Eleven Marbled Godwits and some close and identifiable, by plumage, Long-billed Dowitchers were highlights.

Elsewhere on the refuge –

East River Pool – dozens of herons and egrets on the far shore, a King Rail walking in the open adjacent to the boat launch. The water level is dropping, so things may be picking up here

Mounds 1 – two White-faced Ibis

App. Bay – Am. Flamingo on oyster bar with many Brown Pelicans

Tower Pond – two Pectoral Sandpipers, six Am. Avocets, three Reddish Egrets, and the usual suspects. Numbers were good, but not what I expected given the tide

Mounds 3, south end – Bl-w Teal, Gr-w Teal, Am. Wigeon, Gadwall, N. Pintail, Redhead; nine White-faced and seven Glossy Ibis. Well worth walking the short distance beyond Tower Pond.

Totalled 64 species in 20 families with my usual no effort to find passerines.