Saturday May 17th
Tomorrow I am going to
participated in Michael Brother's sponsored pelagic birding trip out of Ponce
Inlet. Michael is director of the Marine
Science Center
in Ponce Inlet and sponsors three or four of these trips a year as fund raisers
for the Center. This trip was scheduled
to travel, aboard the 'Pastime Princess', a hundred miles out into the Atlantic
to the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream. Lots of pelagic
bird species were expected including white-tailed tropicbirds. I got to see one
on last years trip.
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| Bahama Mockingbird at Leffis Key. Photo by Dr Jose Padilla |
Today I am driving over to the East Coast, but
first is a required stop near Longboat Key in Manatee
County to locate a reported Bahama
mockingbird. I arrived at Leffis Key around 2 pm
and joined with three other groups of birders seeking both the vagrant mocker
as well as a reported black-billed cuckoo. For an hour we searched without
success for either bird. We did get a yellow-billed cuckoo and noted at least
60 Magnificent Frighatebirds soaring above. The mockingbird appears to have been
an easy sighing for many observers including my friend Dr Padilla who photographed
the bird early this morning.
Sunday May 18th.
Arrived dock-side at 2:30 am after a short rest in my hotel room. We
have forty-three participants plus the trip leaders heading out today. But
there is some bad news. The weather conditions, though were expected it to be
nice, are actually a bit windy. The sky will be clear and the temperature
somewhat comfortable. But the seas will be too rough to venture out past the Gulf
Stream. This will effect the quality of the day's birding.
Heading out on time we slowly
pass through the inlet, were the first bird of the day for me was Black-crowned
Night-heron staking out a spot at the draw bridge. We soon enter the Atlantic
and travel east for forty or fifty miles. Come dawn the search for pelagics
starts. But it is a slow start. A few
unidentifiable phalaropes are spotted cruising low above the waves. And
eventually the chum-line attracts a few birds. First to appear are a couple of
Black-capped Petrels. Then we see a
steady show of Wilson's
Storm-petrels. A band-tailed storm-petrel and an audubon's shearwater are seen,
but not on our side of the boat. We get to
see a single Cory's Shearwater and a Lifer for me in a Sooty Shearwater. An
Artic Tern and a Pomarine Jaeger put on a show circling the boat.
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| Pomarine Jaeger |
We stayed out on the water till
late afternoon before heading back to the dock. Our counts aren't very high. Dipped
on tropicbirds and few other targets, but we did get a few very good birds. As
we travel west toward shore a few Common Terns pass by. We originally called them sooty terns, but
photographs determined that they were actually common terns. Its kinda nice to
have instant replay while birding. Later a pair of juvenile Northern Gannets
pass behind the boat. Only other marine life we encountered was a loggerhead
turtle or two and a few dolphins. As for fish, there was a claim of a sailfish
following the chum-line, but I only really saw were the flying fish bouncing
atop the waves.
As the sun was setting we reached
the jetty at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, were our attention was on drawn to an
Arctic Tern working the waters along the jetty. But a bigger surprise was that
a Purple Sandpiper was spotted and seen by all of us. This bird is very late in
returning north as was a common loon seen floating below one the bridges we
passed as we neared the dock. We landed about eight-thirty and we all headed
home. I returned to my hotel room for a good nights sleep
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| The tiny spec is a Wilson's Storm-petrel |
Monday May 19th
Today was a travel day with
options on were stop to done some more birding. I elected to head straight back
to Leffis Key for the bahama mockingbird. Got there about one pm and again dipped on the bird. I do believe early
morning is a much better time to arrive. I did get a Lifer in a pair of
Blue-crowned Parakeets at nearby Ann Marie
Island.
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| A Loggerhead Turtle |
Next tried for the tropical kingbird
at St Armand's Circle in Sarasota.
I'll have to go back for that one too,
Next stop was at the Celery Fields. Best
birds there would be the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and a Limpkin. Then home
for some rest.
Trip List - (73)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Muscovy Duck,
Mottled Duck, Mottled-Mallard hybrid,
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| Blue-crowned Parakeet on Anna Marie Island |
Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe,
Black-capped Petrel, Cory's Shearwater,
Sooty Shearwater, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Magnificent Frigatebird, Northern
Gannet, Anhinga, Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret,
Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron,
White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture,
Osprey, Swallow-tailed Kite, Snail Kite,
Bald eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Coot, Common
Gallinule, Sandhill Crane, Limpkin, Killdeer, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling,
Purple Sandpiper, Great Horned Owl, Pomarine Jaeger, Laughing Gull, Least Tern,
Common Tern, Arctic Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian
Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-dove, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-billed
Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Nanday
Parakeet, Blue-crowned Parakeet, Loggerhead Shrike, Blue Jay, American Crow,
Fish Crow, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Northern Cardinal,
Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle,
Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, House Sparrow
Recently Charlie Ewell posted that the Cape Coral Eurasian
Wigeon was still to be found on its pond on Del Prado. Had expected that the duck would have been
drawn northward to seek a mate. I suppose it is possible that it has bonded
with a resident Mottled Duck, which are not migratory. I did check the pond last Monday and found it
in the company of several mottled ducks, mallard-mottled duck hybrids and
several pekin ducks. A Pied-billed Grebe was also on-site. Maybe the wigeon
will stay the summer. 
