Saturday, December 31, 2016

2016 in Review

December 31, 2016


This past year I had set a goal to observe at least 300 birds as in travels around Florida.  Bob Pelkey and I had traveled to the Panhandle region of the state and all the way south to the Florida Keys. We had some outstanding days like the Hummingbird House in Tallahassee, the Mississippi and Swallow-tailed Kites massing near Belleview in Marion County or chasing Wilson's Phalaropes on Browns Farm Road

Purple Sandpiper at Ponce Inlet


We also had a few Lifers seen in our own backyard. There was the American Flamingo at Bunche Beach and the Great White Pelican that sent a couple of days at Ding Darling on Sanibel. Down in Naples at Freedom Park was a, rare to Florida, Broad-winged Hummingbird. The Yellow-breasted Chat had been a nemesis bird for me till I was able to finally, see the one that visited Sugden Park in Naples.An extremely rare visitor to this state was a Pacific Golden-Plover seen on a sod farm in Palm Beach County. Then there was those hummingbirds in Tallahassee were I had lifers in a Calliope Hummers and a Black-chinned Hummingbird. This past winter a small flock of Vaux's Swifts could be seen on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. Out on the Gulf of Mexico, as a guest of Dave and Tammy McQuade, in  a search for  pelagic species I add a lifer in a Band-tailed Storm-Petrel. On Long Key State Park was my first ever pair of Connecticut Warblers and a pair of Orange-winged Amazons in Coral Gables.

Vermilion Flycatcher at St Marks NWR

That goal of 300 birds did come up  two birds short. It wasn't for a lack of trying. Some of the species I chased and dipped on included Gadwall, Canvasback, White-tailed Kite, Franklin's Gull, Zenaida Dove (stacked this bird out twice), Smooth-billed Ani, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Cuban Pewee, Brown Creeper and Lapland Longspur. Maybe 2017 could be better.





Year List - 2016 (298)







1   Muscovy Duck - Florida


2   Wood Duck


3   Mottled duck

4   Wood stork


5   Double-crested Cormorant

6   Anhinga

7   Great Blue Heron


8   Great Egret


9   Little Blue Heron

10  Cattle Egret

11  Black-crowned Night-heron

12  White Ibis

13  Black Vulture

14  Red-shouldered Hawk


15  Common Gallinule

16  Ring-billed Gull


17  Mourning Dove

18  Roseate Spoonbill

19  Barred Owl


20  Belted Kingfisher

21  Red-bellied Woodpecker

22  Yellow-bellied Sapsucker


23  Downy Woodpecker

24  American Kestrel


25  White-eyed Vireo

26  Blue-headed Vireo

27  Blue Jay

28  Fish Crow

29  Tufted Titmouse

30  House Wren

31  Carolina wren

32  Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


33  Eastern Bluebird


34  American Robin


35  Gray Catbird

36  Northern Mockingbird

37  Black-and-White Warbler

38  Common Yellowthroat

39  Palm Warbler


40  Yellow-rumped Warbler


41  Northern Cardinal

42  Common Grackle

43  Pied-billed Grebe

44  Turkey Vulture 


45  Killdeer



46  Snowy Egret

47  Horned Grebe

48  American White Pelican

49  Brown Pelican

50  Tricolored Heron

51  Reddish Egret

52  Yellow-crowned Night-heron

53  Osprey


54  Bald Eagle

55  Black-bellied Plover

56  Wilson's Plover

57  Semipalmated Plover  

58  Piping Plover

59  Spotted Sandpiper

60  Willet

61  Marbled Godwit

62  Sanderling

63  Dunlin

64  Least Sandpiper

65  Short-billed Dowitcher


66  Laughing Gull

67  Black Skimmer


68  Blue-winged Teal

69  Ring-necked Duck

70  Snail Kite


71  Northern Harrier

72  American Coot



73  Limpkin

74  Sandhill Cranes

75  Crested Caracara

76  Eastern Phoebe

77  Marsh Wren

78  Swamp Sparrow

79  Red-winged Blackbird

80  Boat-tailed Grackle


81  Indigo Bunting

82  Painted Bunting

83  America Goldfinch

84  House Sparrow

85  Red-headed Woodpecker

86  Green Heron


87  Glossy Ibis

88  European Starling


89  Red-tailed Hawk

90  Eastern Whip-poor-will


91  Tree Swallow

92  Western Sandpiper

93  Ruddy Turnstone

94  Eurasian Collared-Dove

95  Rock Pigeon

96  Burrowing Owl

97  Loggerhead Shrike

98  Florida Scrub Jay

99  Eastern Meadowlark


100 Monk Parakeet

101 American Wigeon


102 Lesser Scaup

103 Bufflehead

104 Red-breasted Merganser

105 Ruddy Duck

106 Short-tailed Hawk

107 American Avocet

108 Greater Yellowlegs



109 Lesser Yellowlegs


110 Royal Tern

111 Merlin

112 Nelson's Sparrow

113 Salt Marsh Sparrow

114 American Bittern


115 Sora

116 Common Ground-Dove

117 Red-Cockaded Woodpecker


118 Northern Flicker

119 Brown-Headed Nuthatch

120 Pine Warbler

121 Eastern Towhee


122 Scissor-tailed Flycatcher


123 American Crow

124 Wild Turkey


125 Lesser Black-backed Gull

126 Herring Gull


127 Cedar Waxwing

128 Great Black-backed Gull

129 Snowy Plover

130 American Oystercatcher

131 Black Scoter

132 Barn Owl

133 Wilson's Snipe

134 Pileated Woodpecker

135 Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

136 Northern Waterthrush

137 Sharp-Shinned Hawk

138 Savannah Sparrow

139 Brown-headed Cowbird

140 Gray-headed Swamphen

141 American Flamingo



142 Red Knot



143 Sandwich Tern

144 Northern Parula

145 Magnolia Warbler

146 Cooper's Hawk

147 Nanday Parakeet

148 Purple Martin

149 Hooded Merganser

150 Northern Shoveler

151 Long-billed Dowitcher


152 King Rail

153 Common Loon

154 Forster's Tern

155 Hermit Thrush

156 Black-bellied Whistling Duck

157 Vaux's Swift

158 Carolina Chickadee

159 American Pipit

160 Chipping Sparrow


161 Song Sparrow

162 Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

163 Rufous Hummingbird

164 Black-Chinned Hummingbird

165 Calliope Hummingbird

166 White-breasted Nuthatch

167 Orange-Crowned Warbler

168 Baltimore Oriole

169 House Finch


170 Pine Siskin

171 Redhead

172 Clapper Rail

173 Purple Gallinule

174 Great Horned Owl


175 Vermilion Flycatcher

176 Sedge Wren

177 Northern Gannet

178 Purple Sandpiper

179 Caspian Tern

180 Yellow-breasted Chat

181 Surf Scoter

182 Bonaparte's Gull

183 Long-billed Curlew

184 Western Kingbird

185 Yellow-throated Warbler

186 Hairy Woodpecker

187 Black-throated Green Warbler

188 Prairie Warbler


189 Broad-billed Hummingbird

190 Bell's Vireo

191 Egyptian Goose


192 Bachman's Sparrow

193 Great Crested Flycatcher

194 White-winged Dove

195 Neotropic Cormorant

196 Northern Rough-winged Swallow

197 Great White Pelican

198 White-Crowned Pigeon

199 Common Myna

200 Brown-crested Flycatcher

201 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

202 Common Hill Myna

203 Ovenbird

204 Swallow-tailed Kite

205 Black-throated Blue Warbler

206 Broad-winged Hawk

207 Cape May Warbler

208 Yellow-throated Vireo

209 Chuck-Wills-Widow

210 Brown Thrasher

211 Northern Bobwhite

212 Red-breasted Grosbeak

213 Magnificent Frigatebird

214 Red-eyed Vireo

215 Worm-eating Warbler


216 Prothonotary Warbler

217 Scarlet Tanager


218 Least Tern

219 Gray Kingbird

220 Eastern Screech Owl

221 Black-Whiskered Vireo

222 Wood Thrush

223 Tennessee Warbler

224 Hooded Warbler

225 American Redstart

226 Blackpoll Warbler

227 Summer Tanager

228 Orchard Oriole

229 White-winged Scoter

230 Parasitic Jaeger

231 Common Tern

232 Blue Grosbeak

233 Barn Swallow

234 Pomarine Jaeger

235 Pacific Golden Plover

236 Common Nighthawk

237 Peregrine Falcon

238 Yellow-headed Blackbird

239 Black-necked Stilt

240 Bobolink

241 Solitary Sandpiper

242 Blackburnian Warbler

243 Gull-billed Tern

244 Chimney Swift

245 Yellow-billed Cuckoo

246 Least Bittern

247 Gray-Cheeked Thrush

248 White-rumped Sandpiper

249 Connecticut Warbler

250 Roseate Tern

251 Antillean Nighthawk

252 Cave Swallow

253 Semipalmated Sandpiper

254 Bronzed Cowbird

255 Mitred Parakeet

256 Orange-winged Parrot

257 Common Hill Myna

258 Tropical Kingbird

259 Mississippi Kite

260 Pectoral Sandpiper

261 Fulvous Whistling-Duck

262 Cliff Swallow


263 Stilt Sandpiper


264 Wilson's Phalarope


265 Black Tern

266 Shiny Cowbird 

267 Whimbrel

268 Kentucky Warbler

269 Yellow Warbler

270 Louisiana Warbler

271 Eastern Wood-Pewee

272 Bridled Tern

273 Sooty Tern



274 Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

275 Upland Sandpiper

276 Eastern Kingbird

277 Cerulean Warbler

278 Chestnut-sided Warbler

279 Canada Warbler 

280 Blue-winged Warbler

281 Veery

282 Bay-breasted Warbler

283 Acadian Flycatcher

284 Swainson's Thrush

285 Bank Swallow

286 Northern Pintail

287 Green-winged Teal


288 Red-breasted Nuthatch

289 Winter Wren

290 Brown Booby

291 Lark Sparrow 

292 Mallard

293 Groove-billed Ani 


294 White-crowned Sparrow 
295 Whooping Crane

296 Canada Goose 

297 Brewer's Blackbird 

298 Brant