Had WONDERFUL birding in Florida last week: Myakka River State park, Manasota
Beach, Venice Jetty, Babcock-Webb WMA, Manasota Scrub Preserve. We saw
limpkins, black skimmers, sandhill cranes in parade with their babes (giving
foraging lessons), a magnificent frigatebird, ospreys catching fish and on
nests raising young, wood storks, least bitterns, red-cockaded woodpeckers,
Bachman’s sparrow, ibis and egrets, ruddy turnstones, wood ducks, palm warblers
and pine warblers ‘en masse,’ splotchy indigo buntings (changing into spring
plumage), one red-eyed vireo. Oh, and bald eagles and TONS of turkeys (at
Myakka).
What we missed: couldn’t find a scrub jay or a brown-headed nuthatch.
This was my first visit to the Babcock-Webb preserve. That’s where we saw the
lease bitterns (in the reedy area just to the right of the main entrance), the
Bachman’s sparrow, and the RCW (trees with nest holes are marked with wide
white stripes; from one location we could see 10 of these trees in a 360*
circle). We also saw a snipe, little blue heron, tri-colored heron, glossy
ibis, and a pied-billed grebe along the lake on the other side of the refuge
road. And a loggerhead shrike! Some people got a quick glimpse of the
brown-headed nuthatch, but not me. We did see bluebirds and meadowlarks there.
It was a trip sponsored by the Venice Area Audubon Society. The refuge (WMA?)
is just east of I-75 at exit 158 (maybe 159). I was riding in the back seat!!
From: ask-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ask-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ;
de_lang@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 5:30 PM
To: Freelists, ASK
Cc: Grogan, Robert & Judy; Lang, Howard & Mavis
Subject: [ask] Rpt: Spindletop
We had a great outing this morning out at Spindletop. The sun was out and it
warmed up nicely through the day. We had 8 participants today and totaled 34
species. It was a banner day for Savannah Sparrow with a count of 23. We also
had a Barn Swallow, which was FOS for most of us.
Hope to see you all out on our next outing.
David Lang
For those of you who do not know how to post to list server, simply send the
email to ask@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Location: Spindletop
Observation date: 4/4/09
Number of species: 34
Leader: David Lang
Participants: Marty Barr, Ron Cicerello, Phylis Deal, Jim Hodge, Marie Sutton,
Joe Swanson, John White
Canada Goose 15
Gadwall 2
Mallard 4
Blue-winged Teal 6
Northern Shoveler 6
Ring-necked Duck 5
Bufflehead 11
Turkey Vulture 4
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Kestrel 1
Killdeer 30
Wilson's Snipe 3
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 25
Great Horned Owl 1 (nest brooding)
Belted Kingfisher 1
American Crow 1
Horned Lark 2
Tree Swallow 30
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Eastern Bluebird 2
American Robin 80
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 160
Savannah Sparrow 23
Song Sparrow 15
Northern Cardinal 7
Red-winged Blackbird 75
Eastern Meadowlark 35
Common Grackle 25
Brown-headed Cowbird 50
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 30
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org ;
<http://ebird.org/> )
