Saturday, December 4, 2010

American White Pelicans - A Visit to Bunche Beach

Wednesday, December 1st

Kite-surfing on Estero bay
Spent a couple of hours at Bunche Beach this mourning.  The weather was overcast, breezy and cooler. Only a few walkers and surf fisherman  present. A couple of kite-surfers are sailing across the bay,.

Willet
Still looking for American White Pelicans here. Had found five yesterday up in Hillsborough County. Present today were hundreds of gulls, terns, and shore birds. Had to be a couple of hundred Black Skimmers, about sixty Laughing Gulls, about six Ring-billed Gulls, a dozen Royal Terns, the same with Sandwich Terns and a few Forster's Terns.  Scanned through these flocks several times over two hours looking for any Herring Gulls, but not seen today. Also scanned the flats looking for the Long-billed Curlew that is occasionally seen here.  Did see all of the expected shore birds like Black-belled Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, three Piping Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Marbled Godwits, Willits, Least Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, and the most commonly seen bird were Dunlins. No curlew though.

A very interesting sighting was a pair of Bald Eagles trying to both sit on the same pyling. Eventually one flew off. As for looking for the American White Pelicans, I was finally successful in with seeing a soaring flock just as I was leaving at noon.
American White Pelicans in Flight over Bunche Beach

America White Pelicans over Bunche Beach



My List (35) -
Muscovy Duck, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Piping Plover, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Black Skimmer, Belted Kingfisher, Great Crested Flycatcher, House Wren, Northern Cardinal, Boat-tailed Grackle

1 comment:

  1. Glad you finally observed the White Pelican at Bunche Beach, Tom. The species was flying in a few at a time every ten minutes or so at Ding Darling over a several hour period on 7 December with a favorably low tide.

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