Partners in Flight Bird Blitz

The DoD Partners in Flight Steering Committee conducted a two-hour bird blitz across NAS Corpus Christ April 25, attempting to see as many species as possible. The NASCC meeting occurred during the peak of spring migration, allowing for the detection of a wide variety of birds.

Two teams covered the Corpus Christi bay front, observing many shorebirds, gulls and terns, including numerous flocks of northbound Franklins Gulls, as well as a many flocks of blackbirds, orioles, and Dickcissel flying overhead.

The two teams that worked the golf course and the areas around the Catalina Club and Weapons Compound encountered more diverse songbirds, including such migrants as Philadelphia Vireo, Blackpoll and Blackburnian Warblers, and Lincoln’s Sparrow, and a rare Western Wood-Pewee. A total of 106 species were observed during the two-hour blitz, and a few more species were seen on base later in the day for a total of 114 species.

The Steering Committee meets annually, usually at a DoD facility, where in recent years the committee has offered to conduct bird blitzes to provide Natural Resources managers a snapshot of the installation’s avifauna.