Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Great Horned Owls - Ft DeSoto Park

It's spring migration time and sometimes birding can be fun. It's just a matter of right place at the right time. One good spot is Ft DeSoto Park in Tampa Bay. Headed up there on Monday arriving about 8:30am.  Could only stay for a couple of hours.
The resent news was about the hundreds of Hooded Warblers that had descended on the island. Other visitors included Worm-eating warblers, Prothonotary Warblers and a Blue-winged Warbler among the reported sightings. A brown-crested flycatcher had been reported regularly for about the past two weeks. But with the nice weather, I had already figured the migration counts would have shrunk. And so it was. 
Still found several Hooded Warblers, plus a couple of Palm Warblers, a Prairie Warbler, a Black-and-White Warbler, a lone Northern Parula and had great looks at a Prothonotary Warbler. A nice male Summer Tanager was in the Ranger's yard.  Lots of Cedar Waxwings. Several White-eyed vireos and a single Blue-headed vireo were busy too. A flotilla of 28 American White Pelicans came in off the bay, probably heading north to Montana. Was able to look at the Great Horned Owl and her chick in there nest, and I also got a brief look at the Long-billed Curlew before it flew off. Not bad for a couple of hours. Missed on the brown-crested flycatcher though. I'll be back in a couple of weeks
Checking the Terra Vierde ponds showed that almost all of the ducks are gone.  Just a few Ruddy Ducks, Lesser Scaups and a few Coots. Had fly-overs of Black-hooded Parakeets at the ponds and twice within the park. Don't know if it was single flock following me around or several flocks.

My List - American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Reddish Egret, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Black Vulture, Osprey, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, American Oystercatcher, Willet, Long-billed Curlew, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Forster's Tern, Sandwich Tern, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Great Horned Owl, White-eyed Vireo, Fish Crow, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Parula, Prairie Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Summer Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Boat-tailed Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Black-hooded Parakeets, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot




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