The Big Sit

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="096d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Fauna and Flora of Kerr County, Texas</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Fauna and Flora of Kerr County, Texa"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Guide"><U>Site Guide</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Birding Safety"><U>Birding Safety</U></A>   |   <B>The Big Sit</B>   |   <A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kerr County Pix"><U>Kerr County Pix</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Birds"><U>The Birds</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mammals"><U>The Mammals</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Reptiles"><U>The Reptiles</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Amphibians"><U>The Amphibians</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Fish"><U>The Fish</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links and Contacts"><U>Links and Contacts</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Kerr County Bibliography "><U>A Kerr County Bibliography </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering BCV/GCW Audiotape"><U>Ordering BCV/GCW Audiotape</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark Lockwoods Books"><U>Mark Lockwood's Books</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="More Bird Info"><U>More Bird Info</U></A></div> <div> The Big Sit</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The Second Annual Big Sit @ Ingram Dam Lake Dam</B></div> <div> <B>Kerr County, Texas           12 October 2002 -- species</B></div> <bR> <div> Tony Gallucci </div> <div> 12:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. = 20 hours</div> <div> Temp: º F; Winds:  mph;  precipitation</div> <bR> <div> Location is on a boulder just off the road on the bluff above the dam (South side) at Ingram Dam Lake. The lake (120 acres) is west, grading into the Guadalupe River; north is the Dam Store center and subdivisions on the west side of Ingram and the high school; east is the riparian woodland and cypress-lined Guadalupe River; south is a juniper-oak scrub slope. Below is a talus rock slope with scattered shrubs; a juniper-oak thicket; a mid-aged cypress riparian woodland; immense piles of flood debris; and a minor marsh below the dam.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The First Annual Big Sit @ Ingram Dam Lake Dam</B></div> <div> <B>Kerr County, Texas           13 October 2002  --  61 species</B></div> <bR> <div> Tony Gallucci (brief visits by Greg Lisciandro and Bob Dowler)</div> <div> 12:00 - 12:30 a.m., 6:45 a.m. - 3:55 p.m., 5:40 - 8:00 p.m. = 12 hours</div> <div> Temp: 58-73º F; Winds: NNW 2-17 mph; heavy overcast all day, no precipitation</div> <bR> <div> Location is on a boulder just off the road on the bluff above the dam (South side) at Ingram Dam Lake. The lake (120 acres) is west, grading into the Guadalupe River; north is the Dam Store center and subdivisions on the west side of Ingram and the high school; east is the riparian woodland and cypress-lined Guadalupe River; south is a juniper-oak scrub slope. Below is a talus rock slope with scattered shrubs; a juniper-oak thicket; a mid-aged cypress riparian woodland; immense piles of flood debris; and a minor marsh below the dam.</div> <bR> <div> Pied-billed Grebe 2</div> <div> Neotropic Cormorant 3</div> <div> Double-crested Cormorant 4</div> <div> Great Blue Heron 8</div> <div> Great Egret 3</div> <div> Snowy Egret 1</div> <div> Cattle Egret 3</div> <div> Black Vulture 63</div> <div> Turkey Vulture  447</div> <div> goose sp. 60</div> <div> Wood Duck 4</div> <div> Northern Pintail 58</div> <div> Blue-winged Teal 35</div> <div> Green-winged Teal 8</div> <div> duck sp. 51</div> <div> Osprey 4</div> <div> Bald Eagle 1 (~4yo)</div> <div> Northern Harrier 10</div> <div> Sharp-shinned Hawk 10</div> <div> Cooper's Hawk 11</div> <div> accipiter sp. 2</div> <div> Swainson's Hawk 582</div> <div> Zone-tailed Hawk 3 (2ad, 1 imm)</div> <div> Red-tailed Hawk 8</div> <div> American Kestrel 17</div> <div> Merlin 4</div> <div> Peregrine Falcon 4</div> <div> Prairie Falcon 1</div> <div> large falcon sp. 3 </div> <div> American Coot 1</div> <div> Sandhill Crane 2</div> <div> Killdeer 6 (reduced to 5 at midday by a falcon)</div> <div> American Avocet 3</div> <div> Spotted Sandpiper 2</div> <div> Least Sandpiper 1</div> <div> large shorebird sp. 12</div> <div> Ring-billed Gull 12</div> <div> Rock Dove 10</div> <div> White-winged Dove 647</div> <div> Mourning Dove 15</div> <div> Great Horned Owl 2</div> <div> Belted Kingfisher 3</div> <div> Golden-fronted Woodpecker 1</div> <div> Downy Woodpecker 1</div> <div> Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 105</div> <div> Blue Jay 2</div> <div> Western Scrub-Jay 1</div> <div> Common Raven 5</div> <div> Barn Swallow 18</div> <div> Carolina Chickadee 3</div> <div> Black-crested Titmouse 3</div> <div> Canyon Wren 1</div> <div> Carolina Wren 2</div> <div> Bewick's Wren 3</div> <div> Northern Mockingbird 2</div> <div> European Starling 270</div> <div> Cedar Waxwing 17</div> <div> Wilson's Warbler 2</div> <div> warbler sp. 3</div> <div> Lincoln's Sparrow 3</div> <div> Northern Cardinal 6</div> <div> Red-winged Blackbird 2</div> <div> Great-tailed Grackle 248</div> <div> Brown-headed Cowbird</div> <div> blackbird sp. 112</div> <div> American Goldfinch 4</div> <div> passerine sp. 247</div> <bR> <div> Junglefowl 1 (rooster crowed all day)</div> <bR> <div> bat sp. 1</div> <div> Fox Squirrel 2</div> <div> Feral Cat 1</div> <div> White-tailed Deer 1</div> <bR> <div> Texas Slider 2</div> <bR> <div> Common Carp 1 (in talons of Osprey)</div> <bR> <div> Monarch 1669</div> <div>      </div> <div> Notes: </div> <div> 1) while i chose the location with maximum species in mind, lots of visibility, and some of the better water in our water-scarce county, i also focused on having a place where i could append good herptile, lepidoptera and odonata lists. the cold front put the kabosh on that. of our three endemic turtle species (all of which i had stakeout sunning logs for) only the Texas Slider was seen and that from surfacing. not a single odonate was seen, and the only butterflies were Monarchs, though there must have been thousands going over. i counted them when i wasn't occupied by the abundant birds, but my total must have been only a fraction of what was there. a retroactive sky-clearing estimate of Monarchs in passage was made for Oct. 13 by surveying Monarchs still in passage on Oct. 14. the final estimate for Sunday, Oct. 13 was 63,375 with a two-day total of 102, 375.</div> <bR> <div> 2) the weather also probably kept down the numbers of passerines identified, though plenty were going over. i had predicted 30 species for my Big Sit location, but doubled that, all because of the serendipitous front passage that loaded us up with raptors and seldom-seen aquatic species. five additional species were seen at the  location on 14 October 2002.</div> <bR> <div> 3) the two most interesting misses were a) House Finch, which is not only a common year-round resident here, but has also been a featured migrant the past week; and b) our most common nesting raptor, of all things, was not seen -- Red-shouldered Hawk.</div> <bR> <div> 4) perhaps the most interesting observations were the numbers of Northern Harrier and Ring-billed Gull. I don't have a single other record for more than one harrier in a day; nor do i have records for more than one Ring-bill in a day since the demise of the Kerrville sewage ponds 15 years ago.</div> <bR> <div> 5) chosen charity - The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia for work on sustainable agriculture in third-world countries (thereby saving beaucoups acres of rainforest and other endangered habitats).</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dd661090.jpg" border=0 width="353" height="265" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><B><IMG SRC="dd361090.jpg" border=0 width="353" height="265" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>(Left) The view to  the north across the outflow, the Dam Store center and west Ingram subdivisions; </B></div> <div> <B>my chair on the "boulder", and a good idea of the all-day overcast. </B></div> <div> <B>(Right) The view east down the Guadalupe River and riparian woodlands.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dd7640b0.jpg" border=0 width="356" height="267" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><B><IMG SRC="dd0640b0.jpg" border=0 width="356" height="267" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>(Left) The view north up a scrub oak-juniper slope. (Right) The view west across Ingram Dam Lake.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dd8ffbf0.jpg" border=0 width="255" height="191" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dcffebf0.jpg" border=0 width="254" height="191" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dd5ffbf0.jpg" border=0 width="255" height="191" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>(Left to right), The talus slope below the site, the Cypress woodland below, and the dam below.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dd244390.jpg" border=0 width="324" height="313" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>The surprise Snowy Egret and two Cattle Egrets (and a Spotted Sandpiper behind) that spent the day on the dam. </B></div> <div> <B>The egrets left near dusk and did not return on the 14th.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dce0be30.jpg" border=0 width="267" height="227" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>One of the thousands of Monarchs that came by during the day, this one stopping to nectar at a Maximilian Sunflower.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dcdb1b10.jpg" border=0 width="177" height="177" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dccceb10.jpg" border=0 width="206" height="177" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dcbffb10.jpg" border=0 width="255" height="177" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>The local resident Osprey carrying a carp. This was right after it was harassed by a pair of Common Ravens. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch all of that.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dca10070.jpg" border=0 width="272" height="263" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dc9e3070.jpg" border=0 width="227" height="263" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>The Osprey on a perch in a Cypress tree with the carp.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dc8301f0.jpg" border=0 width="304" height="287" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>One of the day's Common Ravens.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dc7e0b10.jpg" border=0 width="224" height="177" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Another of the day's surprises, a Ring-billed Gull, one of 12 that came through.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="dc6e6d20.jpg" border=0 width="230" height="210" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dc5edd20.jpg" border=0 width="237" height="210" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="dc4f2d20.jpg" border=0 width="242" height="210" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>A presumably local immature Zone-tailed Hawk that made passes through all day long.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>