Short trip to Florida

Black bellied Whistling Ducks, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Melbourne Beach, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Just back from a short trip down to Florida arriving down there late on Saturday and coming home in the evening on Tuesday.  Even though it was a short trip it was nice to escape the cold once again and get some tropical heat.  After our night near the airport in Orlando we headed out with our destination being the coast at Melbourne Beach.

Black necked Stilt, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Glossy Ibis, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Gull billed Tern, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Black Skimmer, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Northern Parula, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 24, 2019

Our first stop on our way to the coast was over to Orlando Wetlands Park about a half hour away from the airport.  It is a large area with many water impoundments of various sizes and a spot that I usually never get to visit during previous visits due to hunting there.  The city of Orlando recently purchased the hunting rights so the park will now be open year around to the public.  There were recent reports of a Gull billed Tern at the location and I hoped to catch up with it but with no reports in a few days I wondered if I could still find it.  After walking numerous trails there I finally found the Gull billed Tern working a distant impoundment...life bird #1429.  After so many trips to Florida it is tough to turn up a new species so I was quite happy to see the tern.  The wetlands also produced a couple of Black necked Stilts (unusual at the location).  After our time at the park we headed south to Melbourne Beach with a quick stop on our way to our lodging at Coconut Point Sanctuary  As it was mid afternoon and very hot when we arrived the walk was not surprisingly quite quiet.

Yellow throated Warbler, Pelican Island NWR, FL, Feb 25, 2019

Yellow rumped Warbler, Pelican Island NWR, FL, Feb 25, 2019

Melbourne Beach, FL, Feb 25, 2019

On Monday I got up before dawn to head out and immediately noticed it was very windy but thankfully not too cold. The wind stayed strong throughout the morning which made finding birds a bit difficult. I tried a short loop at Sebastian Inlet SP (stop #1, stop #2) a couple times but the wind was just too strong. The area around Pelican Island NWR proved to almost as windy but at least it was a bit more sheltered. I tried the Jungle Trail (an historic dirt track that passes through the refuge but found it to be too quiet so I decided to give the refuge itself a try. The most active area was actually around the parking lot of the Bird's Impoundment Trail with large numbers of Yellow rumped Warblers around but no more unusual warblers. By the time I finished up on my stops for the morning it was nearly lunch time so I headed back to the lodging for a quick lunch before heading back out. After lunch I headed a bit north to try my luck at Maritime Hammock Preserve but the parking lot was already full so I headed a bit further north for a return trip to Coconut Point Sanctuary and walked the same trails we hit yesterday. Once again the wind made viewing difficult but I did manage to find an Ovenbird working through the dense scrub. I then figured I would make a return trip to the parking lot at Pelican Island NWR as that spot seemed to be the most active and held the best chance of turning up stuff I had not yet seen on the trip. After quite a bit of effort I found a number of new species for the trip in among the hordes of Yellow rumped Warblers including my first Prairie Warbler, Yellow throated Warbler and Blue headed Vireo of the trip.

White eyed Vireo, Pelican Island NWR, FL, Feb 26, 2019

Barn Swallow, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 26, 2019

Black bellied Whistling Ducks, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 26, 2019

Caspian Tern, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 26, 2019

Glossy Ibis and White Ibis, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 26, 2019

Black necked Stilts, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, FL, Feb 26, 2019

On Tuesday I was up early again to enjoy another warm day before heading back to the arctic like north.  I started out along the Jungle Trail before heading a bit further north for a brief return visit to Pelican Island NWR.  Nothing too unusual but it was great to have less wind compared to the previous day.  After packing up our stuff we headed back toward Orlando for a late afternoon flight home.  We stopped back at Orlando Wetlands Park for a couple hours to end our quick trip down to the Sunshine State and it once again was a productive place with the Black Stilts continuing as well as at least a couple early Barn Swallows.  Overall the trip produced a total of 104 species with one lifer.  I also found a total of nine warblers (more about the warblers at the following link)