Hi All, I spent about 2 1/2 hours at Pinchey Bottoms this morning, arriving just after 11 AM and staying until about 130 PM. It was very cloudy, drizzling, but tolerable winds when I first arrived. Some highlights from early on.... 1 American Wigeon ~730 Northern Shovelers ~630 Green-winged Teal 7 Northern Pintails ~2400 American White Pelicans 10 shorebirds sp. including, 26 Black-bellied Plovers 121 American Golden-Plovers ~1900 Tree Swallows 4 American Pipits 2 Harris's Sparrows (FOS) The cold front moved through between 1230-1245 PM, the clouds cleared out and winds picked up. The flight behind it was insane... 2 (!) ANHINGAS - first picked out of a group of Pelicans in a thermal; appeared to be a male/female pair (one bird had an entirely dark upper chest and neck, the second was significantly lighter/tanner on the upper chest and neck). Very broad, long (almost plank-like) wings in soar, extended straight/long necks, tails were extremely long, relatively wider, and fanned in the thermal! 56 Double-crested Cormorants 7,344 American White Pelicans - numerous small and large groups, some exceeding 500-800 birds. 10 species of raptors were noteworthy too! 67 Turkey Vultures 1 MISSISSIPPI KITE 1 Rough-legged Hawk (FOS) 3 Peregrine Falcons ~14 Accipiter sp, ~9 Buteo Sp. and ~ 10 unid. raptors...... it was difficult to keep on birds moving around within the thermals with Pelicans. The Rough-leg was the last bird I observed before the winds began gusting over 40 MPH in the bottoms; that bird was tucked and moving! Shorebirds were still flittering about, all of the Peregrines made passes at shorebirds in front of me before moving on. Swallows were in constant stream as well, albeit much much lower in altitude, but likely still exceeding 3,000-4,000 individual swallows! Very few birds were still present when I left, (i.e. 4 American White Pelicans, a couple hundred waterfowl, ~200 shorebirds). Danny Akers Ankeny [email protected]
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