We had quite a turnout at our field trip to Ft. Island beach on Sunday, February 24th. It wasn't exactly the best conditions for birding though. Too many people on the beach with kids that were intent on chasing the gulls. We saw 23 species for the day.
The weather turned chilly with an overcast sky and the wind was coming in from the north-west. The tide was extremely high and other than over 100 Laughing Gulls, one lone Ring-billed Gull and two Black Skimmers, we had few shorebirds on the beach. There were Boat-tailed Grackles on the wires and some saw a lone Bald Eagle fly by.
The orange buoys had Cormorants, Royal Terns, Forster's Terns and two Herring Gulls. The rock jetty's had Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, and a lone Sanderling along with more Royal Terns.
A walk out to the boat ramp yielded a Clapper Rail that answered a call and a few Lesser Scaup, 4 Red-breasted Mergansers (two flew by, giving the group a look at their wing pattern in flight) and 3 Common Loons.
Other species seen were Brown Pelicans, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-rumped warblers, and Dunlin (seen by a few).
Afterwards, 15 of us had dinner at the Hardwood Smokehouse BBQ.
And a good time was had by all....... Ken S.
The weather turned chilly with an overcast sky and the wind was coming in from the north-west. The tide was extremely high and other than over 100 Laughing Gulls, one lone Ring-billed Gull and two Black Skimmers, we had few shorebirds on the beach. There were Boat-tailed Grackles on the wires and some saw a lone Bald Eagle fly by.
The orange buoys had Cormorants, Royal Terns, Forster's Terns and two Herring Gulls. The rock jetty's had Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, and a lone Sanderling along with more Royal Terns.
A walk out to the boat ramp yielded a Clapper Rail that answered a call and a few Lesser Scaup, 4 Red-breasted Mergansers (two flew by, giving the group a look at their wing pattern in flight) and 3 Common Loons.
Other species seen were Brown Pelicans, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-rumped warblers, and Dunlin (seen by a few).
Afterwards, 15 of us had dinner at the Hardwood Smokehouse BBQ.
And a good time was had by all....... Ken S.
RSS Feed
