August bird count and tiny toads

Sometimes you need to look down when you are on a bird count. Lots of tiny toads were crossing the trail between two ponds on this overcast day following an evening rain.

Highlights from today's bird count at Baytown Nature Center.
* A one-legged Willet hopping among about 10 Black-necked Stilts in a pond.
* Dozens of tiny Gulf Coast Toads hopping across the trail between Duck Pond and Wooster Pond.
* Correctly identifying a Neotropic Cormorant hanging out with four Brown Pelicans along the shoreline.

However I learned that I shouldn't get too cocky about the Neotropic Cormorant ID until I can distinguish the Neotropics from the Double-crested Cormorants. I guess I will have a 50/50 chance if I continue to guess: Neotropic!

The guys I walked with saw 48 species. -- Lana b.

Bird Count Results
Baytown Nature Center (UTC 039), Harris, US-TX
Aug 15, 2013 7:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Protocol: Traveling
4.5 mile(s)
48 species (+3 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  11
Mottled Duck  3
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Neotropic Cormorant  14
Brown Pelican  46
Great Blue Heron  6
Great Egret  2
Snowy Egret  11
Little Blue Heron  6
Tricolored Heron  6
Green Heron  4
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  19
White Ibis  31
Roseate Spoonbill  2
Northern Harrier  1
Accipiter sp.  3
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Clapper Rail  1
Killdeer  13
Black-necked Stilt  18
Spotted Sandpiper  6
Willet  2
Lesser Yellowlegs  2
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher  1
Laughing Gull  82
Gull-billed Tern  2
Forster's Tern  9
Royal Tern  2
Rock Pigeon  2
White-winged Dove  65
Mourning Dove  11
hummingbird sp.  1     We saw this bird perched in a tree at a considerable (ca. 75 to 100 yards) distance. It appeared too large to be a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
Red-bellied Woodpecker  5
Downy Woodpecker  1
Least Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Loggerhead Shrike  4
Blue Jay  21
Purple Martin  6
Barn Swallow  14
Carolina Chickadee  2
Carolina Wren  10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  6
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  16
European Starling  11
Northern Cardinal  5
Great-tailed Grackle  14
Orchard Oriole  2