Florida Suncoast Birding: October 2021

Friday, October 22, 2021

Where Are the Birds?

Friday, October 22nd

For whatever reason, the Fall Migration has been relatively weak in our corner of Florida this. There have been a few rarities spotted, like warbling vireo, Philadelphia vireo and Nashville warbler, but the number of birds has actually been low. Certainly no fallouts for us.

Not a bird, but there is lots of nature to observe while birding
Green Iguana at Sanibel Lighthouse

So what's going on? I haven't seen anything yet for an explanation. Seems the winds were more in favor of the birds to fly past and not make a pit stop. Another thought going around is a lack of food. There are plenty of berries and seeds, but we may have a decrease in insects. Some believe that the ecosystem hasn't yet recovered from Hurricane Irma, 2017. Another thought is that cold weather has yet to push many of the neotropical birds to migrate, aka climate change.

Did get a few photos recently

Snail Kites at Harns Marsh.
Harns used to be very reliable for finding snail kites,
but they had become scarce here lately

Yellow-crowned Night-heron
Ding Darling NWR - Sanibel Island

Wood Duck at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Pileated Woodpecker at Rotary Park

Eastern Wood-Pewee at Rotary Park

Black-and-White Warbler at Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve

Northern Parula

The Gray Catbirds have arrived

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Sabine's Gull

Sunday October 9th

Yesterday, I had been invited to do a pelagic boat trip out onto the Gulf of Mexico. Dave McQuaid asked me if I was interested in going out to look for pelagic birds off the Florida coast at Fort Myers. It was an offer I couldn't decline. Glad I went too.

Common Terns attracted to a bait fish boil

Just the three of us today, Edwin Willke, an excellent birder and photographer, Dave and myself. Dave will frequently venture out on the Gulf, on his boat, McLagic, to seek out pelagic species off our coast. There is not very much data, so Dave is attempting to catalogue where and when to find these birds just as the fisherman document were to find fish.

We headed out about 7 am, traveled about 150 miles over eight hours in one to two foot swells. Got good looks at Blue-winged Teal, Cory's Shearwater, Greater Shearwater, Red-necked Phalaropes, Magnificent Frigatebirds and several migrating flocks warblers, including Palm, Tennessee, Northern Parulas, American Redstarts, Black-and-Whites and other species. Another migrating flock included Little Blue Herons with Cattle Egrets. No dolphins today, but there were some flying fish.

About noon we came upon a huge concentration of terns feeding on bait fish boils, with predator fish, probable bonito, pushing the bait balls to the surface. They were mostly Common Terns, Edwin counted 160, plus a few Black and Forster's Terns. But we spotted a Sabine's Gull, Lifer, among the feeding terns. Awesome. Probably the first recorded sighting for Lee County. Tried to pull an arctic tern out the crowd, but couldn't do it.

Good, Good trip. Thanks Dave and Tammy so much!!

Dave and Edwin got some great photographs. I did not. So follow the links to our eBird lists to see their great photo evidence. The trip was divided into several hourly segments.