Monday June 27th
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| Royal Tern bathing at Lido Beach |
Today, Bob Pelkey had planned a return visit to the beach at
Siesta Key, near Sarasota, in
search of Common Terns. Last week he had been successful in locating a
White-tailed Sandpiper at this location and maybe it'll still be around today.
So I joined Bob on this trip, but we didn't see either species at this location.
But we did see several Snowy Plovers
that nest in this location. One surprise was a lone Greater Yellowlegs busy search the tidal pool for breakfast in the
company of a pair of Rosette Spoonbills,
Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, White Ibis, Mottled Duck, Tricolored Heron, Semipalmated
Plovers and a Western Sandpiper. We
also had four Red Knots flyby as
well as flyby Gull-billed Tern.
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| Mottled Duck at Siesta Key |
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| Yellow-legs seen at Siesta Key Beach |
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| Western Sandpiper at Siesta Key Beach |
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| Rosette Spoonbill at Siesta Key Beach |
We left here to search for another uncommon bird. A female
Tropical Kingbird. This individual bird has been returning to a favored
location at St Armonds Circle
in Sarasota for several years now.
This species belongs in Texas,
especially in the summer. We do see occasional Tropical Kingbirds wintering in Florida,
but this bird runs backward. It reportedly has been nesting with a Gray
Kingbird. We first located a Nanday
Parakeet and then found several Gary
Kingbirds. The Tropical Kingbird
did show, but took off before we could get any photos.
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| Tropical Kingbird |
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| Tropical Kingbird |
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| First Summer Common Term at Lido Beach |
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| First Summer Common Term at Lido Beach |
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| Black Skimmer Chick |
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| Black Skimmer with chick at Lido Beach |
So we elected to take to move on to nearby Lido
Beach for another try at the Common Terns. Here we located six young
birds in the company of numerous Sandwich
Terns, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls
and hundreds of nesting Black Skimmers.
Other species seen included Fish Crows, Sanderlings,
Ruddy Turnstones. a Reddish Egret and a Magnificent Frigatebird.
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| Fish Crow at Lido Beach |
Now we returned to St Armands
Circle. As we waited for Tropical Kingbird returned for a photo session,
we encountered the Gray Kingbirds again, a couple of House Finches, a Chimney
Swift and several House Sparrows. The Tropical Kingbird did show and gave us
the photo opportunities we were waiting for.
It was a good trip
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| Gray Kingbird |
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| House Finch |
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| House Finch |
Enjoyed your company, Tom. It was interesting the give and take of the species seen this past week. If you were not with me, I would have skipped Siesta Key. I thought the WRSA would be a good observation for you. A good stop it was to pick up the yellowlegs and juvi tricolored. Too bad the White-rumped Sandpiper was not present. I certainly would not have found the Tropical Kingbird without your guidance. It was great of the fireman to give his commentary.
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