Tuesday April 12th
Ft DeSoto Park, in April, is very popular with birders, because it is an important migrant magnet for neotropical birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico to reach the Florida peninsula.
 |
| A view of Tampa Bay |
Today Bob Pelkey and I traveled up to Tampa Bay to visit Ft DeSoto. Not a tremendous number of birds but a very nice variety. At the mulberry trees we found lots of Cedar Waxwings, plus Gray Catbirds, a Wood Thrush, Summer Tanagers, a Scarlet Tanager, Orchard Orioles, Indigo Buntings and even Fish Crows dining on the berries.
In the woods we had mostly single counts of Prairie, Blackpoll, Prothonotary, Tennessee and Hooded Warblers. We also had multiple counts on Palm, Black-and-White and American Redstart Warblers. Ospreys are nesting throughout the park and we were able to see a lone Great Horned Owl.
 |
| A Wood Thrush seen beneath a Mulberry Tree |
 |
| Summer Tanager |
 |
| Mulberries were popular with the tanagers |
 |
| White-eyed Vireo |
 |
| Great Horned Owl |
Throughout the park the sounds of shrieking
Nanday Parakeets could be heard.
 |
| Romance is in the Air |
 |
| Common Loon |
On the beaches we saw several Common Loons, a Reddish Egret and a lone Red-breasted Merganser. There were also large numbers of shorebirds including Willets, Black-bellied Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins, Least Sandpipers, a Killdeer, a Piping Plover, Black Skimmers, Ruddy Turnstones and a Marbled Godwit.
 |
| Reddish Egret |
 |
| Dunlin |
 |
| Least Sandpiper |
 |
| Laughing Gull |
 |
| Piping Plover |
 |
| A Scrum of Short-billed Dowitchers |
Throughout the park the sounds of shrieking Nanday Parakeets could be heard.
This was a very rewarding trip, Tom. Nice documentation.
ReplyDelete