Monday, December 21, 2009

Common Goldeneye

Florida rare bird alerts noted the location for a female Common Goldeneye up in Sarasota. After watching the follow-up posting, I elected to twitch after the bird, which would be a lifer for me. The goldeneye was noted to be a companion of a Bufflehead and was to be found at a pond on Fruitville Road two miles east of I-75 in Sarasota. Parking was not permitted on the shoulder of the road, but it would be best to park in the church parking lot across the street. The site is also posted against trespassing, so bird from the sidewalk.
Arrived about 9:00 am and had a little trouble locating the ducks while sorting through the Lesser Scaups and Ring-Necked Ducks present. But when a small number of Hooded Mergansers flew-in the Goldeneye and Bufflehead were found swimming with them.
Afterwards I checked out the nearby Celery Fields hoping to locate Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. No whistling ducks were present but had lots of American Coots, Moorhens, Blue-Winged Teal and Mottled Ducks. My list for the Celery fields inclded -

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