This turned out to be a great morning of birding with 54 species detected by several experienced bird folks. It started auspiciously with a King Rail calling from a small marsh just left of the entrance drive. Carol Yarnell and her friend got that. It was warm, still, and humid (ugh) when the eight of us arrived at the parking area. Sand fleas were there in great numbers. After deeting up, we spent a bit of non-productive time behind the building and then headed for the tower.
The tower was awesome. It was breezy up on top. The bugs vanished, leaving us very comfortable to scan the thousands of acres of water, marsh, and hammocks that lay before us. A number of species were seen including Northern Harrier, Spotted Sandpiper, and Clapper Rail. Here is a shot of a Snowy Egret and a Tri-colored Heron that hunted their way up a channel below us.
Rey After enjoying an hour on the tower, we decided to skip the warm, woodsy, buggy, too-late-for-warblers loop hike and head for the coast instead. We stopped at the salt water bridge on the way out and bagged some additional species. They included many white pelicans and this Common Loon, which sports some breeding season plumage. This would have been a much better photo had the bird been north of the bridge instead of south.
We parked at the beach and scanned the Gulf. We watched a Forster’s Tern dive many times. An oystercatcher was foraging on a tiny oyster bar that was about to be submerged by the rising tide. While most of us enjoyed the breeze in the shade of a small pavilion, Paul Smyth went into the woods and emerged with a Palm Warbler that we didn’t have. Carol and her friend walked out to the boat ramp. They added three eagles and a skimmer to the list. It seemed that a fine time was had by all.
Rey Wells
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