Flamingo

 Sunday September 17th

Hurricane Idalia had a significant impact on the northern Florida. One very interesting affect was the dispersal of American Flamingos across Florida and other southeastern states. Having spotted as far north as Ohio. Locally we had a large gathering of birds at Estero Bay Preserve State Park, but to reach their location required a rather difficult hike through flooded salt flats and biting insects. So for me, I elected to visit Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County to see another flamingo, nicknamed Peaches. 

Lots of shorebirds at DeSoto today

Wilson's Plover

Piping Plover

Red Knot

American Oystercatcher

Pectoral Sandpiper

Sanderling

Reddish Heron

Semipalmated Plover

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Everglades Ag Area

 Monday, August 9th

South of Lake Okeechobee, are farms in an area referred to as the Everglades Agricultural Area. Here is were sugar cane, rice and turf is grown and this is the time of the year to come out here for some birding. 

Upland Sandpipers are probably the most coveted species to find here as they make pit stops to refresh on the sod farms as they migrate south toward Argentina. Other species we chase here include migrating shorebirds, wading birds, gulls and terns, white pelicans, nighthawks and migrating swallows. 

Came out on Saturday to take advantage of the, potential, lighter traffic on these roads and lanes. Besides checking the sod farms for plovers and sandpipers, locating the flooded ag fields is important to find many of the species we'd be chasing. 

Common Nighthawk

Did see the Cave Swallow colony along County Road 880 just north of Brown's Farm Road. The flooded fields just across the road from the swallows have actually almost dried up. So moved on to Brown's farm Road to another location few miles south. This list for this flooded field included Black-bellied whistling Ducks, Mottled Ducks, Common Nighthawks, Lots and Lots of Black-necked Stilts, Killdeers, Stilt Sandpiper, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Gull-billed Terns, Barn swallows, and the expected wading birds.

American Avocet

Close by is another road, Gladeview Road, lined with sugar cane, sod farms, rice and barren fields. Spotted Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Fulvous Whistling Ducks ( they really like the rice fields), lots more Black-necked Stilts, Pectoral Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, Wood Storks, Cattle Egrets, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Roseate Spoonbill, Yellow-crowned Night-herons, Common Yellowthroat  and Barn Swallows. Dipped on the spotting any Uplands Sandpipers that are being seen along this road.  Seems I missed on a seeing a newly reported American Golden Plover as well. 

The best spot for the day was a flooded field at the end of Gladeview Road. Species listed included more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, lots of Doves, Blackbirds and Grackles. But also seeing almost a dozen American Avocets, Lots more Black-necked Stilts, a Wilson's Phalarope, several Stilt Sandpipers, Killdeers, Common Nighthawk, Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Yellowlegs, Black Terns, Gull-billed Terns, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis and more.  Awesome seeing the phalarope, the avocets and some many stilt sandpipers.

Wilson's Phalarope, not a very common bird here

Probably will come here one more time soon to see if can catch-up on the Uppies.

Stilt Sandpiper

Gull-billed Tern

Pectoral Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Wood Stork

American Avocet

Lesser Yellowlegs

Black Tern

Lots of Pectorals

Sunday August 13th

Pectoral Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Don't have to to travel very far to look for migrating shorebirds.  Still need to head over to the Ag Fields again and soon, for Upland Sandpipers or even the mega rare Ruff currently being seen. But in a nearby wet field, located along Treeline Avenue and adjacent to the Terminal Access Drive, we've had a large number of foraging Pectoral Sandpipers. Stilt Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plovers, Western and Least Sandpipers have also been present.

A scope can be very useful here.

Parking at this location can be a problem, as there are few spots to safely pull over. Avoid using the median as the property is adjacent to the Ft Myers International Airport it is closely monitored by the Port Authority Police. You will be ticketed.

A Lesser Yellowlegs

Semipalmated Plover

Western Sandpiper

Solitary Sandpiper

Stilt Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

The Ag Fields

Monday July 31st

Gull-billed Tern

Today, Tropical Storm Emily has formed in the Gulf and is dumping rain on us. But yesterday I drove out to the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Belle Glade in Palm Beach County. The Ag Fields is an area south of Lake Okeechobee known for growing sugar cane, rice and sod farms. In late Fall the Ag Fields hosts migrating shore birds, terns, swallows and grass peeps.

The purposeful flooding of finished cane fields to kill off the nematodes that damage the sugar cane,  can be a mecca for these migrating birds. It is early yet to make these trips to the area, but there were birds to be seen.  Not a lot of birds yet though. Give it a couple of weeks.

Pectoral Sandpiper

What was found, at the only flooded fields encountered, at the junction of Rt 880 and Browns Farm Road, were several family groups of Black-necked Stilts, several Gull-billed Terns, Least Terns, Lesser Yellowlegs, Dowitchers (not sure if they were short-billed or long-billed), Pectoral, Spotted and Least Sandpipers, Killdeer and a few Laughing Gulls. It shouldn't be long till numbers  and variety increase. Will be looking for Black Terns, White Pelicans, Wilson's Phalaropes, Stilt Sandpipers and Avocets and tons of waders.

Gull-billed Tern

The sod fields were devoid of activity.  The Upland Sandpipers have been here this early in the past, but they'll probably show by mid-August.

Other interesting sightings on the day included numbers of Barn Swallows with a few Cliff and Bank Swallows, Purple Martins, a lone Tree Swallow, Bobwhites, Meadowlarks, Common Nighthawks and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Best sighting of the day was a Barn Owl flying along Boles Canal, and the most interesting sighting was spotting a pair of Common Mynas at the parking lot at the BK restaurant in Belle Glade.

Hopeful, Ill be able to return in two or three weeks.

Barn Swallow

Spotted Sandpiper

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt Chick

Northern Bobwhite

A very young Red-tailed Hawk

A young Red-shouldered Hawk

Least Tern

Some Birding in Mid-July

Tuesday, July 18th

The summertime doldrums will be  ending in the coming weeks as when we will start seeing birds migrating back to our local venues. But we still can find interesting birds here in mid-July.

Sometimes I'll check-out Lee and Domestic Streets in the Alico Industrial Area in San Carlos Park in early morning. I'm always looking for any Burrowing Owls and the other day I spotted several atop a privacy wall at the Alginol research property on Lee Road.  The lighting was terrible for photography, but I managed to get a very interesting pic just the same. Other notable birds here included a very large number of Mourning Doves, a few Eastern Meadowlarks and a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks.

Yesterday, I was finally able to get out to Bunche Beach during a favorable low tide. It was interesting to find seven Yellow-crowned Night-herons, six of them juveniles, taking advantage to the large numbers of fiddler crabs on the beach. Spotted a pair of Spotted Sandpipers, the first seen in weeks, and a very early Pectoral Sandpiper. Other sightings included a Magnificent Frigatebird, several Willets, Marbled Godwits, Black-bellied Plovers, Wilson's Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Sanderlings, Western and Least Sandpipers, a pair of Reddish Egrets and a lone American Oystercatcher.  Also spotted Laughing Gulls, Least, Sandwich and Royal Terns, Black Skimmers and a few Brown Pelicans. Was keen on finding any returning Piping Plovers, but none seen. They should be back soon.

Fiddler Crab on Bunche Beach

Marbled Godwit

Pectoral Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Wilson's Plover

Purple Gallinule

Gray-headed Swamphen

Tricolored Heron

Today Bob Pelkey and I made an early run out to Harns Marsh in Lehigh Acres. This venue has been the go-to spot in our area for Snail Kites and Limpkins. But today in the two hours we spent here, no Snail Kites were seen. They are continuing to become more difficult to see at Harns. Its believed to be a food issue. The managers of the property, it appears, are keeping water level high which doesn't help the Apple Snails in there reproductive cycles. So the kites have been going elsewhere for food.

We did see several Sandhill Cranes, Tricolored Herons, Great Egrets, Limpkins, Mottled Ducks, Vultures, Least Bitterns, Gray-headed Swamphens and Purple Gallinules. One interesting observation was a distant call of what sounded like an Eastern Phoebe. Never found the source of the call, but Phoebes are not expected for a couple of months yet. 

After Harns we checked out the Red-headed Woodpecker colony on Wellington Road in Lehigh Acres, were we spotted at least five, probably more of the woodpeckers, plus sighting of several Northern Bobwhites. This woodpecker colony should continue to be productive until the snags are eventually removed for development or just rot away. This particular location of snags was created by a brush fire that occasionally erupt in the area.

So there are always interesting birds

Red-headed Woodpecker

A Juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker