Who lives in a city with the name "Bay" that isn't actually near water?

September 26th, 2010

I drove all the way from LANWR to Bay City, currently the longest drive I'd had, at around 5-6 hours. My mission? To find the lost Doug Devos. And I found him, right where I left him 9 months ago. The highlights of this drive both being bird related.

The first was the emergence of a large Kettle of Hawks flying south. A 'kettle' is a term for a flock of hawks traveling together. Hawks migrate mainly by 'thermaling' which means to ride the thermal updrafts, spiraling up high in the sky, then using the height to glide as far as possible before riding the next updraft. This is much more effective than you may think, as this particular kettle of over 100 hawks disappeared within minutes. I believe they were Broad-winged Hawks with a 10 or 20 Mississippi Kites mixed in with them. Now for anyone that's paying attention, you'll notice a week ago on Facebook I called them Zone-tailed Hawks. But after hitting the books again, I think it makes much more sense for them to be Broad-winged. Unfortunately, hawks are not my area of expertise, so I can't be right all the time.


A second highlight was a field full of thousands of Cattle Egrets. As I am traveling on the tail end of fall migration, these egrets might have just landed in Texas. They call Texas home in the winter. Maybe, maybe not. Fun fact, Cattle Egrets did not call the Americas home till recently. They weren't introduced, they just found their way here in the late 19th century.

I arrived at Doug's late in the day, and the night consisted of mainly grilling and talking. Unfortunately, this was a short visit and I had to leave early the next morning.


I leave you with one last picture. Doug's cat, Tabitha, Queen of the Sea Cows.