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)

End of year wrap up and species #228 for the year in the county

Indigo Bunting, Quabbin

Time for the end of year posting once again.  This year was yet another good year to be out and about checking my local areas as well as places far from home for birds. 

Blue gray Tanager, Los Cusingos, Costa Rica, Dec 2012

Caspian Tern, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 2012

Cooper's Hawk, Sweetwater Wetlands, AZ, Apr 2012

I took a few trips this year including a trip to Florida at the end of January-early February, Arizona in April and Costa Rica in December.   Other shorter trips included day trips to the Connecticut shore and down to the Plymouth area.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Hadley, Oct 2012

Rough-legged Hawk, Hadley Honeypot, MA, Feb 2012

Little Blue Heron, Arcadia, MA, Apr 2012
 

Brewster's Warbler, UMASS Amherst, May 2012

Golden-winged Warbler, Amherst rail trail, May 2012
 

Lawrence's Warbler, Belchertown, May 2012

The rest of the time I spent mainly in the local area trying to maximize my county list for the year.  My initial goal at the beginning of the year was to top the 200 mark for the county which I had oddly never done before.  I managed to go well past the 200 mark and finished with a total of 228.  Although I missed on some birds I would normally expect such as American Bittern, Acadian Flycatcher, and Black Vulture I still reached a higher number than I had expected to.  I added several county birds to my life list this year including Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Yellow headed Blackbird, Rufous Hummingbird and Hoary Redpoll bringing my overall county total to 272.  Overall some really great warblers including a couple hybrids including at least two Brewster's Warblers as well as a Lawrence's Warbler plus the unusual Golden winged and a singing spring Orange crowned Warbler. 

Pine Grosbeak, Quabbin , Dec 2012

Common Redpoll, Hadley, Dec 2012

There was also a big incursion of winter irruptive species this fall and winter that continues with most every possible species represented in numbers (except for Bohemian waxwings which were around at the beginning of the year). 

Black-legged Kittiwake, Quabbin, Nov 2012

Hurricane Sandy brought a large number of sea ducks down onto Quabbin over the course of several days and finally delivered a notable inland bird for me...a Black-legged Kittiwake almost a week after the passage of the storm.  Two years in a row with tropical systems impacting the area...amazing.

I tried one last run through the Hadley Honeypot midday today to try my luck at catching up with a Northern Shrike or perhaps (with lots of luck) a Gyrfalcon that was there a couple weeks.  Although there was no Gyrfalcon around I did finally catch up with a Northern Shrike (county species #228 for the year!)  I was very happy to add one final species for the year.  Other birds of note around the Honeypot and nearby Aqua Vitae Road included dozens of Horned Larks, a handful of Snow Buntings and a lone Lapland Longspur.  I also made a brief stop at Quabbin Park at Winsor Dam and at least seven Pine Grosbeaks continue in the crabapple trees.

I managed to add a total of 69 new species to my life list this year with two each coming from Arizona and Massachusetts and the remaining 65 species coming from my recent trip to Costa Rica.  The highlights are many and a look back through the last year of postings will revel most of them.  A total of 556 species for the year and a total life list that now stands at 766.  Many of the highlights were captured on film and can be found at my flickr site at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/

I continue to use eBird to record my sightings and I passed a few milestones this year including adding my 10,000^th list and submitting almost 2400 lists this year with over 2175 of those lists from Massachusetts.  Yet again I will mention what a great resource eBird is for recording sightings and researching information of various species.  With the many advances made in accessing information and providing easy ways to submit data, more and more people will hopefully embrace the use of eBird and make the information even more useful to both the public and researchers.  The website to start your journey on eBird is here:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird

 

 

 

Florida Day 4 (Jan 31)

Caspian Tern, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 31, 2012

Glossy Ibis, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 31, 2012

Ring-necked Ducks, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 31, 2012

Northern Shovelers, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 31, 2012

Wood Stork, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 31, 2012

My last full day in Florida I started with a dawn trip up to the Viera Wetlands.  I had visited this place in the past but I have never been here at dawn before so I was excited to be here before the large crowds arrived.  One of the first birds seen here was an adult Peregrine Falcon that buzzed through the area.  I spent most of the morning here before moving back south.  This man made wetland held many great birds with a wide variety of ducks, waders, raptors and others.  The number of American Coots was quite impressive with large rafts out on some of the larger water areas totaling in the thousands.  Following my morning long stop here I headed back toward Melbourne stopping briefly at Lake Washington as well as Nixon Park in Melbourne before making it back out to the beach.  At the beach the usual suspects were present and the number of Northern Gannets topped over 30.