SUN!!!

Today was sunny finally, although the breeze still kept temperatures rather tepid for Florida. I headed out to Corkscrew Swap Sanctuary, known for it's unique opportunity to get close to wildlife found along the boardwalk. Once again there is plenty of information available online for this park located in Naples. Here is what I came across while at the park


Gray Catbird on the trail at Corkscrew

Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Little Blue Heron, Gray Catbird, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Black and White Warbler, Palm Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tufted Titmouse, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, and Eastern Phoebe.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher catching Gnats?

Once again I saw many of the same birds along the way as I have already stated for the past few days. One species of interest I saw again were the Swallow-tailed Kites, flying above the road. I also, spied 2 Kestrels sitting on power lines, one male and one female about half a mile apart. I may have neglected to mention before but I've seen many Loggerhead Shrike on the side of the road as well. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to pull off and take a picture of these species.


What I ID'ed at a Blackpoll Warbler


Black and White Warbler

One lesson I have taken from today is that Warblers are difficult to take photographs of. No set plans for tomorrow but there are a couple of places I still want to hit.

White Ibis gnawing on a crayfish of some kind

Cool and Breezy

As much as I plan, nothing can really prepare you for what nature will throw your way. I was up and at Lakes Park in Fort Myers this morning only 20 minutes later than I had meant to be. I pulled into the lot and went to pay to park, then decided to toss on my sweatshirt before hitting the trail. The sweatshirt was definitely a necessity. Within a few moments the cool air circled around me playing second fiddle only to the 1000 Tree Swallows that were doing the same.

I admit that my motivation is slightly waning (or is it waxing?) today and all I will do is make a list of the species I came across and a few details. I described Lakes Park in yesterdays blog so I'll add my list: Tree Swallow (at least 1000), Common Moorhen, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Osprey, Brown Pelican, White Ibis, Boat-tailed Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Fish Crow, Cedar Waxwings, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Mottled Duck, Spotted Sandpiper, Palm Warbler, and Yellow-rumped Warbler (about 50 at least). There was a hybrid duck that I assume was a Mallard x Mottled hybrid (male) since it was with the Mottled Ducks. I tried to digibin the bird but with poor results.


Little Blue Heron (at Ding Darling)

The next spot was Bunche Beach, no pictures from here, parking is at the end of the road and is free. Read the signs on the history of the place as it's of interest. This spot is pretty much just a beach about a mile long. Take off up or down the beach to view a decent number of shorebirds. Today was: Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, Dunlin, Willet, Black-bellied Plover, Laughing Gull, and Black Skimmer. I may try to stop by this spot again to get some pictures.


Laughing Gull (Sannibel Causeway)

The last birding spot of the day was a quick trip over to J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. I wont talk about this too much as a plethora of information is available online about this park. Suffice it that this is a definite must stop spot for birders. Some days are better than others, today was interesting but with hightide, not as bountiful as I would expect. The one big bonus for the day was the abundance of shorebirds, that I can only assume were seeking refuge from the strong winds on the beaches. From today: Turkey Vultures, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Reddish Egret, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, White Ibis, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Roseate Spoonbill, Dunlin (hundreds), Short-billed Dowitcher (hundreds), Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, Pied-billed Grebe, and Red-breasted Merganser.

White Ibis seen somewhere along the way

Strangest bird story of the day: in front of the house a Turkey Vulture landed in the road, a few second later a Red-shouldered Hawk came swooping down on the back of the Vulture and both took off. The hawk landed on the awning and the vulture to somewhere else. A few minutes later the vulture returns to investigate and taste a couple mouthfulls of bird seed scattered on the road. Apparently it was not to his tastes because the bird flew away shortly there after.


Royal Terns hanging out on the causeway to Sannibel Island

Total new species today: I'll have to get back to you. LOL But about 3 life birds.

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.

Fading light on the way from the airport

The plane touched down a little before 6pm and I had my eyes out the windows as soon as I felt the ground. Taxiing from the runway the only thing easily ID'ed were the Common Grackles. The quick drive from the airport to where I am staying pulled up more. Once again without binoculars but there were an abundance of swallows everywhere getting a last meal before settling in for the night. Great Egrets flying overhead. White Ibis and Black Vultures seen flying along the road. 2 Red-shouldered Hawk hanging out by the road in the airport. Boat-tailed Grackle, Woodstork, Mallard Ducks, and domestic Muscovy Ducks were also seen around small ponds along the way. A number of other Egrets/ Herons flew by but not enough light to ID. Can't wait for tomorrow and more than 15 minutes to bird. Of course I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Painted Buntings will be at the feeder tomorrow.

Florida Plan

Florida and warm weather have been calling my name for a couple of months and tomorrow I will answer that call. I will be heading down to the Fort Myers area to spend some time with my parents and for the first time to spend a substantial amount of time bird watching. Over the past 8 years I usually make a pilgrimmage south for a few days to enjoy the sunshine. Mostly, I spend a couple of days at nature preserves but often with no other plan than to be outside.

This trip will be a different endevour for me. Not only will I have my binoculars in hand the entire time, but I will spend many days with no other objective than to search out those birds that have made Florida their home, especially for the winter months. With the promise of Indigo Buntings at the feeder in the front yard and Wood Storks feeding along the side of the road, I have high hopes of coming home with a full list of birds, hopefully with a few lifers.

My goal is to record the events and sightings from this trip here, so that others can share in my experiences. Also, I hope this will help others who are travelling or planning a birding trip to the Fort Myers area by describing some the best places to spend their time.

If anyone is interested in the resources I've been using for planning here is a brief list: experience (I've already spent time at some of the more well known nature areas), newspapers- there is a regular section in the local paper that lists nature hotspots and usually includes maps, I've had my parents cut out interesting sections and paste them into a notebook, Petersons south east guide lists areas of interest, and finally the Caloosa Bird Club also has a list of hotspots available here: http://www.caloosabirdclub.org/HotSpots.html

Wish me luck. Now I need to go pack!

Trying to UN-Seagull Myself

I know, I know they aren't seagulls. Yet when you have a group of birds that are superficially similar, it's difficult to get out of that mentality. Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull are easy enough to separate when those are the three options and they are all in "adult" plummage. When you add in first cycles and second cycles, take out size as a reference, and throw in a couple of other species that can show up during this time of year and the lines get a little muddled. So, Here's a couple pictures to help clear a few things up. This is definitely not complete but rather one mornings find.

Over the wire came the mention of a first cycle Iceland Gull at the Oyster River... (that means at the beach where to Oyster River meets the sound on the Milford- West Haven line to most people). I made an early morning trip down to the beach, book in hand, with no real hope of being able to spot the gull. I quickly glanced at the book and got the general impression the overall color was lighter. Glancing through the individuals present, one seemed 'different' and a bit lighter.. back to the book to look a the color of the primaries. Sure enough, Iceland Gulls had white primaries. Amazingly the gull was on the little patch of beach only about 20 feet away from me. AND I was able to identify it.



Other features to look at are bill color and leg color


A Ring-billed Gull in it's first winter: features to observe are the gray on the wings, pink bill, and pinkish legs.


This Herring Gull is a second winter, the slight gray coloring in the wings, the majority of the bill is pink (not mostly black) and it also has pinkish legs.


Practice is the best way to begin to see the little differences. I'm on a quest to additional pictures of a Herring Gull in it's first winter and a Great Black-backed immature. Who knows maybe I'll stumble across another species or two along the way.

Playing

While I would like to buy a nice big expensive telephoto lens for my new camera... it's just not gonna happen. So, I went and bought about the least expensive new one I could find at Best Buy on a Thursday evening. Today, I had some time off in the afternoon and decided to see what I could do.

Ok I may have taken the easy route and started at Long Wharf with some more willing models.

Ring-billed Gulls lining up for their shot at fame.

Some cormorants where posing as well.

I headed inland and tried to get some snapshots of some little guys. Or maybe something a little bigger.

Turkey Vultures are not so pretty but still have a certain grace.

A Tufted Titmouse was a little shyer.

The Golden-crowned Kinglet was out in full fashion. To bad I ran out of light and patience I guess. Definitely found a place to try for some more photos though.