Rainy Day, Sunny Day

This morning started out pretty bad, pouring rain and thunderstorms predominated this morning putting a damper on my plans. But in anticipation I filled the feeder to at least try to get a lifer that I knew had been visiting my parents feeder. After a few doves came in, I got what I was looking for a Painted Bunting, in fact a male and female came in! Unfortunately, the light levels were too low to get anything but a colorful blur of a picture. Here are the other places I stopped.

In the Walmart parking lot, is a small pond that has a resident group of Muscovy Ducks. Other visitors today included: Wood Stork, Great Egret, Rock Pigeon, Osprey, Double-crested Cormorant, Common Grackle, Ring-billed Gulls, and Boat-railed Grackle. Here is a good place to mention the other birds I saw on the side of the road, flying by, or without a designated location. European Starling, Loggerhead Shrike, White Ibis, Great Blue Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, and Coopers Hawk.


The sun did come out after awhile and I brought my parents for a quick lunch outside to Lake Park as a quick preview to see if it was worth spending more time at. This is a public park, the fee is only for parking at $1/ hour or $5 a day. I am planning on checking out the trails more tomorrow but it appears there are about 3 miles of trails, that can be biked or walked. Here is the quick list from lunchtime: Great Blue Heron, Bloat-tailed Grackle, Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Turkey Vulture, Tricolored Heron, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown Pelican, and Pied-billed Grebe.


At Lakes Park there was another life bird for me. The Mottled Duck, very similar to female Mallards, and American Black Duck, but the key feature is a black mark at the base of the bill. There was also an immature Mottled Duck with an almost black bill.


The final stop was a quick jaunt over the bridge to Fort Meyers beach and then to the north to Bodwich Beach. On the way there and around the point were the following species: Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Pelican, Ring-billed Gull, and Osprey.

Additionally, there were the birds that were running around the 'park' where my parents live from a quick drive around this morning: Mourning Dove, Common Ground Dove, Bluejay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Fish Crow, both Vultures, Glossy Ibis, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, a Warblers species, Anhinga, and Killdeer.

Todays total species: 39 (ish) and that was without really birding.