This combination field trip while being superb, was brutal with the temps and the strong, blasting out of the north winds! Did I say cold? It was downright bone chilling. It was not the time for the faint of heart, but you just can't keep a birder down!! We began at Orlando Wetlands with a group field trip consisting of 14 from CCAS and 5 from Hernando Audubon. We tallied 56 species for this outing. The eBird list can be seen here at this link
The even colder Wednesday morning found us at our meeting place on the causeway on Merritt. The temps didn't get any better and we still had bone chilling winds. We birded a new area (pump house) and got to see Roseate Spoonbills and White Pelicans in the coves. Then on to Black Point. We drove the 7-mile Black Point Drive seeing Spoonbills, one lone American Avocet,, Wigeon, Mottled, Blue-winged Teal, Shoveler, Pintail, Ring-necked, and Greater & Lesser Scaup. We got good views of Hooded & Red-breasted Mergansers & Horned Grebes. Out of the drive and time for a nice lunch. We got good views of the Common Loon and the Greater-black-backed Gull looking out from our seating area at CrackerJack's Tiki Bar & Grill. After lunch off to the shore and not for a swim but for Northern Gannets. We were not disappointed. We then drove back to BioLab Road. And for me, this was a highlight of the trip. Two beautiful Black-necked Stilts! They fed in the shallows and gave us some very close-up photo ops. I love their long, fragile looking, stilt, pink legs. They most assuredly were dubbed with their name from their outward appearance. The list of 93 species can be seen at this eBird link.
Thursday morning out to Pine Island with a wee bit of improvement, but the winds still were whistling down from the north. Pine Island is a Environmentally Endangered Land (EEL)project which afforded us a look at 44 species. The entire list can be seen at this eBird link. The combination report of 111 species for the 3 day trip can be seen here. Then it was time to click our heels and say twice it was fun, "but there's no place like home."
The even colder Wednesday morning found us at our meeting place on the causeway on Merritt. The temps didn't get any better and we still had bone chilling winds. We birded a new area (pump house) and got to see Roseate Spoonbills and White Pelicans in the coves. Then on to Black Point. We drove the 7-mile Black Point Drive seeing Spoonbills, one lone American Avocet,, Wigeon, Mottled, Blue-winged Teal, Shoveler, Pintail, Ring-necked, and Greater & Lesser Scaup. We got good views of Hooded & Red-breasted Mergansers & Horned Grebes. Out of the drive and time for a nice lunch. We got good views of the Common Loon and the Greater-black-backed Gull looking out from our seating area at CrackerJack's Tiki Bar & Grill. After lunch off to the shore and not for a swim but for Northern Gannets. We were not disappointed. We then drove back to BioLab Road. And for me, this was a highlight of the trip. Two beautiful Black-necked Stilts! They fed in the shallows and gave us some very close-up photo ops. I love their long, fragile looking, stilt, pink legs. They most assuredly were dubbed with their name from their outward appearance. The list of 93 species can be seen at this eBird link.
Thursday morning out to Pine Island with a wee bit of improvement, but the winds still were whistling down from the north. Pine Island is a Environmentally Endangered Land (EEL)project which afforded us a look at 44 species. The entire list can be seen at this eBird link. The combination report of 111 species for the 3 day trip can be seen here. Then it was time to click our heels and say twice it was fun, "but there's no place like home."
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