Greetings All:
Sheri Anderson and I walked below Lake Six this morning, intending to
make it all the way to East 50th Street but were stopped by flooding
from a water leak at Loop 289. The highlights: large numbers of
Western Kingbirds and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (seemed, as early as
it is, to be a migratory surge) and an absolutely stunning number of
Painted Buntings (given the numbers there must have been some migrants
in addition to the typical breeding surge at this site). Also rans: a
Willow Flycatcher, a Least Flycatcher, a mystery empid, yet another
somewhat ealy Yellow Warbler, a few Indigo Buntings, yada yada.
This is, by the by, the third major water rupture we have seen along
the lake system this year: one huge one at the dam at Lake Six (which
made portions of the road subside and apparently caused a major fish
kill), one large one on the north slope at lower Aztlan Park (which we
had to wade through to get to the hybrid Golden-winged x Blue-winged
Warbler), and today's event just downstream from East Loop 289.
Regards; Anthony Hewetson