Bunche Beach

Monday, March 28th

Bunche Beach Preserve is a stretch shoreline, mangroves and salt flats managed by the Lee County Parks Department.  It is also an important stop-over spot for migratory shorebirds including plovers, sandpipers, dowitchers, red knots and others.

A Dunlin and a Snowy Plover at Bunche Beach

 Recently a long-billed curlew has reappeared, and a few whimbrels were spotted last Saturday and there was the American Flamingo that showed-up a few weeks back. 

Today I missed these birds but did enjoy watching several others including a pair of Red Knots, a trio of Snowy Plovers and a dozen or so Marbled Godwits. 

Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Sadly the remains of a small loggerhead turtle was also seen at the beach today. Florida Fish and Wildlife should be collecting the remains.


From the web site of Turtle Time, Inc -

To report dead or injured sea turtles, or, if you have accidentally hooked a sea turtle that is small enough to rescue, contact: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-888-404-FWCC, or call Turtle Time, Inc. 239-481-5566 immediately.

Snowy Plover

Snowy Plover

Dunlin

Red Knots

Sanderling

Ponce Inlet Pelagic Trip

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.

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.

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

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.

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,

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

---

Masked Duck

Masked DuckMerritt Island and Viera Wetlands
January 23rd - Day #5 and final stops


Merritt Island
Spent the night in Titusville, which is on the doorstep to Merritt Island national Wildlife Refuge as well as cape Canaveral. So was able to enter the refuge at 8:00am. My first good hit for the day was on the causeway with a couple of second winter Lesser Black-Backed Gulls. What had originally caught my eye with this group of gulls was a pair of adult black-backed gulls. Could be sure if they were greater or lesser black-backed gulls as they immediately flew off.
Took the Black Point Wildlife Drive were many good hits were made including American Avocets, Roseate Spoonbills (only sighting all month of spoonbills), more American White Pelicans, Caspian Terns, Northern Pintails, American Widgeons, Blue-Winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, Bald Eagle and a Sora. Missed on the Eurasian Widgeon, but I did not hear about its presence till later and besides there were hundreds of ducks with many in bad light.
At stop #8 was able to call up a sora.. On last years visit to the refuge a sora was called up by another birder’s recording at this spot. This is also an excellent habitat for other rails species, as well, which would have been nice to locate. As for calling up the sora, I remembered someone telling me once that a rail could be called up by a clap of your hands. So with nothing to lose I tried it and the sora began to chatter and made its appearance. Not sure if the clapping really worked, but I was finally able to get a picture of a sora.
After completing Black Point I drove over to the Bio Lab Road, which parallels Mosquito Lagoon. Last year I was able to locate Florida Scrub Jays near to the Bio Lab Road, on cr406, but not today. They can often be found along the roadways in the scrub areas.
The Bio Lab Road had Blue-Winged, American Coots, Mottled Ducks, most of the waders and several shore birds like Dunlins and Sanderlings. Found Forster’s Terns and another lifer in a Bonaparte’s Gull.
Sadly a dead loggerhead turtle was seen close to the shore. I later reported the turtle at the visitors center. I was informed that the turtle probably died from cold stress from the resent two weeks of freezing weather we just experienced. Something like 2,500 cold-stressed sea turtles had been collected by wildlife management from around the state in an effort to try to save as many as possible, yet hundreds still did not make.
The visit to the refuge was a success with fifty-three species.http://www.nbbd.com/godo/minwr/BlackPoint/index.html

My list - American Wigeon, Mottled Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Pied-billed Grebe, American White Pelican, Anhinga, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, Sora, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, American Avocet, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin, Laughing Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caspian Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Rock Pigeon, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Loggerhead Shrike, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Savannah Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Boat-tailed Grackle

Great Blue Heron - Bio Lab Road on Merritt Island

Bonaparte's Gull - a poor photo but a lifer. Was preening on shore along Bio Lab Road, Merritt Island.

Sora on Merritt Island

Savannah Sparrow on Merritt Island

Next and the last stop of the vacation was Viera Wetlands near Melbourne. The wetlands are a discharge ponds for a Brevard County wastewater plant and has become quit well known as a good birding location. Most utility plants are off-limits to the general public these days, especially since 9/11. But the Viera facility continues to welcome public access to the wetlands on a controlled basis.

The big draw these days at Viera Wetlands is a wintering male Masked Duck. Very rare to Florida. This is a tropical species usually found in the Caribbean or Mexico on south. I was able to get a tick last year on a female that wintered on Alligator Lake near Lake City.

Spent about an hour and a half here and was able to locate the duck by watching were the serious birders were gathering. Other good hits here were a Crested Caracara, a pair of Limpkins and two pair of Sandhill Cranes. Also present was Caspian Tern and several species of ducks including Hooded Mergansers.

This stop concluded the birding vacation and was now time to head for home. Originally my plans included the panhandle to seek more rare and regional birds like a green-tailed towhee, lark sparrow and pacific loon at Ft Pickens, Florida Caverns State park for more northern birds like brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglets and winter wrens and St Marks NF for all the waterfowl and diving birds. Maybe next winter.

My list - Muscovy Duck, Mottled Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Masked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, Green Heron, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Wood Stork, Crested Caracara, Common Moorhen, American Coot, Limpkin, Sandhill Crane, Caspian Tern, Palm Warbler, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle

Viera Wetlands