Lee County Birding Blitz

Wednesday, December 28th

Pair of Snowy Plovers at Bunche Beach

Today I had a day off of work and I had weighed my options on what to do.  I could clean house or go birding. So birding it is!!   Next set of options is were to bird.  I very much want to chase after some interesting birds like the green-tailed towhee at Safety Harbor, the ash-throated flycatcher at Lucky Hammock, there is a lasagre flycatcher in Miami or maybe the western tanager in Coral Gables.

 But logistics required I stay close to home.  Therefore I elected to run a Lee County wide birding blitz. Quick stops at a number of venues with the goal of identifying one hundred birds. Lots of experienced birds can do this on a regular basis, but I have never managed more than an eight-six count in a day to this point. Locally the best sites to visit for such challenge would be Six-mile Cypress Preserve, Harn's Marsh, Bunche Beach, Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge,  and various other spots for specific birds.

I started shorted after dawn, on a chilly, windy day, with my patch on Domestic Street, then onto Six-mile Cypress Preserve.   Six-mile provided six warblers, three woodpeckers and a couple of vireos.

Had hoped for wood duck here, but dipped on that. By now I already had fifty-four species as of 9:30 am. From here to I had to run an errand which ate up about an hour and then I made a quick visit to Broadway entrance to Estero Bay State Park with the idea of finding eastern towhee, house wren, eastern bluebird, bobwhites and maybe a scrub jay. But the trails were very quite. No birds here today.

Piping Plover

On to Bunche Beach were the tide was low and slowly rising.  The effects of red tide were evident by all of the dead fish on the beach.  Mostly mullet. Lots of birds present and very few people due to the chilly weather and red tide scare. Had almost all of the expected species and thought I had a flock of about fifteen red knots fly-in. But as I approached their location I could not spot any of them.  Did get fifteen Piping Plover and three Snowy Plover. Plus a Common Loon and a pair of Horned Grebes, but no red-breasted mergansers. Missed also on American white pelicans, the long-billed curlew, frigatebirds or oystercatchers. Got to see a pair of Bald Eagles flying over head, which got the hundreds of terns, gulls, skimmers, willets, pelicans etc to rise up into the air at once.  From here I was now at an eighty count.

Next onto Harn's Marsh were I re-found the pair of American Wigeons along with Limpkins, Snail Kites, Ring-billed Ducks, Pied-billed Grebes, Mottled Ducks, Sandhill Cranes and Blue-winged Teal.

Starting to get a bit late and still need to push on. Headed to Alva to the White's feeders. Got a beautiful male Painted Bunting, and Indigo Bunting and a pair of White-winged Doves. Then traveling west along North River Road towards Cape Coral. Watched this area for any caracara or wild turkey.

In northern  Cape Coral a family of Florida Scrub Jays can be found near the new Kismit R.O. water plant. At the scrub jay site, I easily relocated the Great Horn Owl still using a nest atop a lone pine tree and as I was checking another tree where I last saw the jays, I was startled by the second owl, who was roosting here. The jays I found sitting on a wire next to my car.  Checked on the burrowing owl nest sites here as well, but none were visible. One surprise here was finding a Savannah Sparrow on a wire with the Mourning Doves. Now it is getting close to dark and I only need two more birds to reach my goal.

The ballfields on Pelican Blvd was home to more burrowing owls and a colony of monk parakeets. Unfortunately the sun was about to set and the parakeets were quite.  None seen or heard as they were probably already snuggled into their nests to try and stay warm. Did manage to find on Burrowing Owl sticking its head up out of the ground.

With darkness I was done. And missed my goal by one. Some of the birds I dipped on today should have been easy, such as a northern cardinal or a common ground dove.  Maybe on another day.

1.      Muscovy Duck

2.      American Wigeon

3.      Mottled Duck

4.      Blue-winged Teal

5.      Ring-necked Duck

6.      Lesser Scaup

7.      Common Loon

8.      Pied-billed Grebe

9.      Horned Grebe

10.  Wood Stork

11.  Double-crested Cormorant

12.  Anhinga

13.  Brown Pelican

14.  Great Blue Heron

15.  Great Egret

16.  Snowy Egret

17.  Little Blue Heron

18.  Tricolored Heron

19.  Reddish Egret

20.  Cattle Egret

21.  Black-crowned Night-Heron

22.  White Ibis

23.  Glossy Ibis

24.  Black Vulture

25.  Turkey Vulture

26.  Osprey

27.  Snail Kite

28.  Bald Eagle

29.  Northern Harrier

30.  Red-shouldered Hawk

31.  Red-tailed Hawk

32.  American Kestrel

33.  Common Gallinule

34.  American Coot

35.  Limpkin

36.  Sandhill Crane

37.  Black-bellied Plover

38.  Snowy Plover

39.  Wilson's Plover

40.  Semipalmated Plover

41.  Piping Plover

42.  Killdeer

43.  Spotted Sandpiper

44.  Willet

45.  Marbled Godwit

46.  Ruddy Turnstone

47.  Sanderling

48.  Western Sandpiper

49.  Least Sandpiper

50.  Dunlin

51.  Short-billed Dowitcher

52.  Wilson's Snipe

53.  Laughing Gull

54.  Ring-billed Gull

55.  Herring Gull

      56.  Forster's Tern

57.  Royal Tern

58.  Sandwich Tern

59.  Black Skimmer

60.  Rock Pigeon

61.  Eurasian Collared-Dove

62.  White-winged Dove

63.  Mourning Dove

64.  Great Horned Owl

65.  Burrowing Owl

66.  Belted Kingfisher

67.  Red-bellied Woodpecker

68.  Downy Woodpecker

69.  Pileated Woodpecker

70.  Eastern Phoebe

71.  Great Crested Flycatcher

72.  Loggerhead Shrike

73.  White-eyed Vireo

74.  Blue-headed Vireo

75.  Blue Jay

76.  Florida Scrub-Jay

77.  American Crow

78.  Fish Crow

79.  Tree Swallow

80.  Tufted Titmouse

81.  Carolina Wren

82.  Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

83.  Eastern Bluebird

84.  Gray Catbird

85.  Northern Mockingbird

86.  European Starling

87.  Black-and-white Warbler

88.  Common Yellowthroat

89.  Palm Warbler

90.  Pine Warbler

91.  Yellow-rumped Warbler

92.  Yellow-throated Warbler

93.  Savannah Sparrow

94.  Indigo Bunting

95.  Painted Bunting

96.  Eastern Meadowlark

97.  Common Grackle

98.  Boat-tailed Grackle

99.  House Sparrow