A wee bit chilly start to the morning at 38 degrees, but with a lot of hearty people (unlike us Floridian wimps) from the north, it was decidedly balmy. Turned out about 68 degrees  There were thirteen participants for the stroll through the most beautiful park in Florida.  There were American Robins all over along with Cedar Waxwings at the entrance.  We could have stayed just there and been enthralled by the activity of busy birds feeding.  We had Downy, Red-bellied, & Pileated Woodpeckers,  There were White-eyed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Tree Swallows,, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Black & White Warbler and others.  We strolled up through the Butterfly Garden and out to the back fields and added Wood Stork along with the House Wren.  A good walk and pleasant morning with a total of 32 species.  The eBird link can be found here for the entire list  We saw a female Belted Kingfusher , just not this one.  I took this in December of a female in Yankeetown.

The fact of moving the field trip to Circle B to yesterday was fortuitous.  "And The Rains Came" this morning.  The skies opened up and poured down the wrath of the gods that be. Yesterday on the other had was beautiful.  Eight of us began the trek at 9 AM.  Stopping along the marsh.  Two Purple Gallinules were spotted along with a calling Sora. We spotted a Limpkin, then another, then another,-- and another--- and----- and -----so on. There were so  many Limpkins about that it seemed there wasn't room in the vast expanse for anything else.  The presence of Limpkins means that the health of the habitat and availability of snails ranks up in the A-1 category. There were disappointingly very few ducks.  Only 3 species.  Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers were abundant as were the Common Yellowthroats. Wood Storks, White & Glossy Ibis,3 species of Egrets,and 4 Heron species. were seen with many numbers of each.  The Great Blue Herons were busy building nests and provided some good photo ops.  We had a total of 60 species for the day.  The complete list can be seen at this eBird link.

What a beautiful day!!!!   The  sunrise was truly gorgeous !  Seven of us started at Lust Road and had a difficult time getting beyond the entrance!  There were Indigo Buntings, Painted Buntings,  Vesper Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Wilson's Snipe and several Hawks in this one spot.  There was 21 species just in this one location.  An exciting number just to start with.  Herons, Egrets with very few ducks.  Blue-winged Teal & Mottled made the picture..Great photo op from an American Bittern. This Anhinga is showing us how he can get his fish down.
​We had 55 species for the day. The eBird list is here.

We had a breezy  start to our trek into St Marks National Park on Sunday around 11:30.  We went in with great expectations and were not at all disappointed.  This beginning ended with our finding 94 species for the day!  13 species of ducks, 7 species of Herons, Egrets with the Immature Reddish Egret being a rarity. Gallinules, Soras with the Purple Gallinule being the rarity. 14 Shorebird species with a Wilson's Snipe included.  Vireos, Brown-headed Nuthatches.  Wrens, 6 species of Warbler including the Orange-crowned. and 4 sparrows with the Henslow's being the rarity. The Vermilion Flycatcher juvenile gave us many photo ops.  The list for this day is here on this eBird link
Monday and the breezy start we had experienced yesterday became downright cold..  No wind, but the temperature was 28 degrees!  The sunrise was spectacular, though. Nothing special except we did add the Clapper Rail species to the total thus far.  This list of 31 can be seen at this eBird link.

We went to Savannah's for a breakfast/lunch, then back to St Marks.We had 75 species for this day and the eBird link can be seen here. The new species for this day gave us a whopping 108 for the two days!

On January 2nd, 2016, a cool and breezy ~60 degree Saturday, Citrus County Audubon Society sponsored the Crystal River Christmas Bird Count, as part of the Audubon Society's 116th annual Christmas Bird Count. Fifty-four birders participated logging a combined total of  92 hours and 350 miles.  149 species of birds were seen, 145 of which were seen on count day, and a total of 13,645 individual birds. Several rare birds are included in this count: 7 Rusty Blackbirds seen by Team 1, a Broad-winged Hawk seen by Team 4, a White-crowned Sparrow seen by Team 5, and a Summer Tanager seen by Team 6. See the attached spreadsheet for additional data, including team specific sightings. Thanks for making this years count a success!