Walked Carlos Point

 Monday November 15th

Appears to be a problem for someone

Walked Carlos Point beach, At the south point of Estero Island. Large numbers of shorebirds were present, mostly nestling in the sand on this cool morning. 

A lone Marbled Godwit on the beach

Came across a resting flock of American Oystercatchers.  Counted 35 birds and looked for any wearing leg bands. Noted two - CA2 and HM - were birds I had photographed back on December 28, 2019, on the same beach.

Other birds included a large number of Semipalmated Plovers, Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderlings, Willets, Snowy Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones, Wilson's Plovers, Dunlins and a few Laughing Gulls, Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns, a couple of Forster's Terns and my FOS Ring-billed Gulls.

Several flotillas of American White Pelicans passed  overhead.  Well over a hundred pelicans were seen.

Snowy Plover

Snowy Plover

Snowy Plover

Dunlin

Least Sandpiper

Sanderling

Chasing Birds - North Florida Day One

 Sunday January 24th

Recently made my annual trip to North Florida and the Panhandle. Spent four days checking out birding Hot Spots including The Celery Fields, Fort De Soto Park, Sweetwater Wetlands, Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail, St Marks NWR, Lake Jackson Mounds State Par, Crowder Landing, Torreya State Park and Paynes Prairie State Park. Usually like to include Florida Caverns State Park, but most of the property remains off limits from damage from Hurricane Michael over two years ago

Emu -
lives at the Big Cat Habitat & Gulf Coast Sanctuary adjacent to the Celery Fields

Day 1 - Saturday

Purple Martins taking up residence at the martin house at The Celery Fields

First stop was a short visit at The Celery Fields in Sarasota County. Some of the birds observed included the recently arrived Purple Martins, plus Blue-winged Teal, Long-billed Dowitchers, Least Sandpipers, Nanday Parakeets, Least Sandpipers, Northern Harriers, Bald eagles, Lesser Yellowlegs, Roseate Spoonbills and Brown-headed Cowbirds. Dipped on any rails, bitterns, purple gallinules etc.

Red-breasted Merganser seen at the fishing pier at Fort De Soto Park

From Sarasota traveled to Tampa Bay. At the rest stop stop at he north end of the Skyline bridge was able to add a couple of hundred Black Skimmers, plus my FOY sighting of a Common Loon.  Several Red-breasted Mergansers and Great Egrets were present.

Forster's Tern at Fort De Soto Park

Next was a stop at Fort De Soto Park, which sits in Tampa Bay. Was here to observe sea ducks, shore birds and such. Just before reaching the park, checked the Terra Verdi Ponds which were loaded with hundreds of Lesser Scaup and Redhead ducks. Began birding at the North Beach at Fort De Soto. Some of the birds here included Wilson's Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins, Ruddy Turnstones, Ring-billed Gulls and various wading birds.

Whimbrel seen at the Fishing Pier

Left this spot to check the two fishing piers for any scoters, loons or horned grebes. ended up with four Common Loons, but no scoters or grebes. Did have well over a hundred Laughing Gulls, plus Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gull, Royal, Sandwich and Forster's Terns. Had nice looks at a pair of Whimbrels. Also had more Red-breasted Mergansers, American White & Brown Pelicans, Cormorants, Osprey and Palm Warblers.

Black-bellied Plover at the Fishing Pier

Wrapped up the in Gainesville. First checked out any activity along the Gainesville-Hawthorn Trail. This now paved, but former railroad line was wayyy to popular on this Saturday afternoon, for any serious birding. The traffic on the path was terrible, with skate boarders, cyclists, runners and people using transport I hadn't seen before. In the past I had seen chipping sparrows, cedar waxwings, ruby-crowned kinglets, Carolina chickadees and more. But not today.

Armadillo rooting for dinner
 at Sweetwater Wetland

Last stop was the Sweetwater Wetlands. Arrived here close to closing and that was fine.  Cause the Rusty Blackbirds come into roost just at sunset. Before getting to the rusty blackbird stack-out spot, spent time looking for any other interesting birds. Some of these included Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Buffleheads, Sora, and a Merlin bomb a flock of roosting cowbirds.

The Park Ranger set me up on the spot to wait for the rustys to arrive and as I was waiting I noticed a group of birds  scanning and scoping the marsh nearby and suspected that they were also waiting on the rustys to arrive. Turns out they were friends of mine from home. Dave and Tammy McQuade had met up with Eary and Jennifer Warren and their two kids in Gainesville to look for the Rusty Blackbirds and a Calliope Hummingbird.  The Warrens had driven up from Cape Coral and the McQuades' were wrapping up a very successful cross-country birding trip. 

Bufflehead at Sweetwater Wetlands

Got to see the Rusty Blackbirds, about 60 of them. So I was now done for the day, with another long day tomorrow.

Pied-billed Grebe at Sweetwater Wetlands

Silhouette of a Rusty Blackbird.  Best I could get in the fading light

Bunche Beach

Saturday, January 14th

Live Atlantic Giant Cockles were exposed today during an 
exceptionally low tide at Bunche Beach

A report of the sighting of a long-billed curlew, yesterday, led me to return to Bunche Beach today. Arriving just before dawn, I wasn't alone. Peter Hawrylyshyn and Meg Rousher have also arrived, as well as a couple of ladies here, taking advantage of an extremely low tide, to do some shelling.

Brants

As the day brightened, the low, low tide was exposing a lot of live 'shells'.  Primarily giant cockles and lightening welks. One lightening welk that the ladies found was at least a foot long and was involved in consuming a clam. These live 'shells' can not be collected. It is unlawful to collect live shells silver dollars or starfish in most south Florida waters

A pair of Brantley, rare to Florida, have taken 
up residency at Bunche Beach

The pair of rare-to-Florida Brants continue to be found at Bunche and can often be very tolerant of of observers and photographers. Hopefully they'll be hanging around for awhile.

Reddish Egret, note the antennae attached to this birds back 
and its leg band 

Common Tern

Ring-billed Gull

Wintering shorebirds, gulls, terns, American White Pelicans have been quite numerous.  A few Common and Caspian Terns have been reported, along with many Piping Plovers, Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers. Occasional a lone Bonaparte's Gull has show-up.  The same with Lesser and Greater Black-backed Gulls.

 Least Sandpipers and Red Knots can be seen on the exposed sea grasses and the exposed mud flats attract Black Skimmers, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls, Royal, Sandwich and Forster's Terns, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins, spotted Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers. In the shallow waters we see Marbled Godwits, Willets, Reddish, Snowy and Little Blue Egrets, Tricolor Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, White Ibis and Brown Pelicans. In deeper water  a couple of Common Loons, a Horned Grebe and a half a dozen Black Scouters can sometimes be seen.  In the skies watch for Ospreys and Magnificent Frigatebirds as well as large flotillas of American White Pelicans. 

In the mangroves look for Yellow-crowned Night-herons and Belted Kingfishers. Palm Warblers Gnatcatchers are also present in the mangroves. Plus an Orange-crowned Warbler has been seen on a regular basis. I've made six attempts on sighting this small bird. 

Sandwich Terns

Red Knots

Piping Plover

Willet

Brown Pelican

Common Loon

Foster's Tern

Sea Watch

Sunday June 24th
Tropical Storm Debbie

 Herring Gull in transition to Second-cycle molt in comparison to a Laughing Gull
Photo is courtesy of Bob Pelkey

Reports have been coming in

from the Atlantic side of Florida off pelagic species being observed on-shore due to prevailing winds. Well, even though we see far fewer pelagic species, the potential for finding pelagic species on-shore on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida are increased due the presence of Tropical Storm Debbie sitting off-shore. We have experienced lots of rain, heavy winds, flooding and beach erosion due to T. S. Debbie and a few scattered reports of pelagic have been coming in. Primarily north of us. Reported were jaegers, a brown noddy and several sooty terns.

So on Sunday I headed out in the rain for Bunche Beach. Arriving about 9:30 the rains had subsided for now, but the winds and waves were still quite high. Not much beach was visible and only a few shore birds were present including a Willet, a Black-bellied Plover, a couple of Ruddy Turnstones, a pair of Least Terns, a very wet Red-shouldered Hawk and a Laughing Gull. Then waves of Magnificent Frigatebirds appeared from the north and very slowly floating on the winds along the shore, heading southerly. Had several soaring, almost hovering on the winds just three feet above my head. Alas my camera is broken so I missed on some great photo opportunities. I had counted thirty-three plus Frigatebirds and after an hour and a half I left to met up with Bob Pelkey on Sanible Island.

Before Going to Sanible I stopped at Bowditch Point Park on Ft Myers Beach, were I found a trio of Red Knots, Black Skimmers, Wilson's Plovers, Semipalmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Willets, Pelicans, Least Terns, Laughing Gulls, Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns, Sanderlings and a Gray Kingbird laying low from the winds.

We made stops at Sanible Lighthouse and Bowman's Beach were all we could really see were heavy surfs and few birds. At Blind Pass the best birds were a Sandwich Tern, a trio of Chimney Swifts and a family of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. We dipped on any real pelagics. One interesting observation were some para-sailing adventurers at Blind Pass, who, I my mind, were risking serious harm in such powerful surf and winds, Several times we noticed the para-sailors totally lifted off the surf by five to ten feet, very close to a rock jetty.

On the Sanibel Causeway we encountered more Frigatebirds, more laughing Gulls and an out-of-place Herring Gull.

Tuesday June 26th

Sea Watch Part 2

I had not planned on doing any birding today, but late on this Tuesday afternoon I had dropped my daughter off in Bonita Springs, but did bird nearby Ft Myers Beach. Radio news reports had described severe damage on Ft Myers Beach due to T. S. Debbie including Little Estero Island were the Least Tern colony was nesting. So as an after thought I did drive over and found that much of the nesting colony site at the south end of the beach was flooded. No doubt the storm conditions would have been detrimental to any eggs or young of the least terns, snowy plovers or wilson's plovers still nesting here. Did see many more Magnificent Frigatebirds including a female who was harassing the gulls and terns laying-low on the sands. Other birds seen included Least Terns, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, Black Skimmers, an American Oystercatcher, Wilson's Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones.

Next I rechecked Bowditch Point Park at the other end of the Ft Myers Beach. Even with the winds still blowing hard there was a seaside wedding taking place on the beach. Other sightings here were a lone Snowy Plover, several Wilson's Plovers, several Laughing Gulls, Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Least Terns, Sandwich Terns, a lone Common Tern, a lone Forster's Tern, and a very out-of-place Ring-billed Gull.

On these two days I didn't find any pelagic species, but did have some good birds just the same.