Emeralda Marsh

We travelled out to Emeralda Marsh in Lisbon, Florida with the Halifax River Audubon Club. After yesterday's chilly and blustery conditions, today seems like mid-summer with temps near 70 and bright sunny skies.....a perfect day for shooting. We begin in the parking lot with the usual fare.....cardinal, blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker, etc. As we head into the reserve, however, we begin to pick up some new birds for the year. Our first Northern parula makes an appearance. While I don't have my camera in hand, it does give me a great look through the bins. I'll get the photo later. Walking the trail inside the marsh, we get nice looks at a Blue-gray gnatcatcher, several more singing parulas, Pine warbler, and Hermit thrush among others. At the impoundments, I get to capture an event I had never seen before. Two moorhens are squaring off apparently trying to win over the heart of a female who idly sits by and watches the entire affair. It's that time of year here in Florida and a young man's (bird's) fancy turns to love. After the official trip ends, Sharon and I can't pass up the opportunity to stop on the way home at two known haunts of the burrowing owl. These guys are the most reliable subjects we have and have never let us down. Both spots produce with nice looks giving us the perfect conclusion to a pretty perfect day of birding.

Blue Spring State Park

Here in Florida, one of the most beloved creatures we come across is the Manatee. These are truly gentle giants growing to weigh over a ton and eating several hundred pounds of vegetation each day. During the colder months and during cold stretches in Spring, the manatee will congregate in warm bodies of water, mainly springs. They require warmth to survive and thus large numbers show up in places like Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, FL. Over two hundred may show up on any given day and the number of people who come to the spring to see these magnificient beasts is much much higher than that! In addition to the manatee, the spring and its environs play host to many of Florida's most spectacular birds. While on an eco-tour boat today, Sharon and I spotted and photographed such beautiful species as the limpkin, the American bittern, the Purple gallinule, and the Bald eagle. If you plan to visit the spring, don't miss the boat trip after checking out the manatees.....it's a great place to spend the day!

Viera Wetlands

One of the premier spots in East Central Florida for birding is the site of the Viera waste treatment facility, AKA Viera Wetlands. The impoundments of the plant serve as a feeding ground and "home" for both migrants and resident birds. Adjacent to the impoundments, one finds extensive fields where Sandhill cranes forage and Northern harriers skim across the tops of the grasses in search of their next meal. Today's trip yielded 40 species, mostly waterfowl, waders, and "skulkers". As you approach the preserve, there is a large pond on the right which is always promising, and today we got great views of Ring-necked ducks, Blue-winged teal, and a kestril on the wires behind us. The best views of the day included a harrier which worked the field right in front of us as we sat on one of the benches inside the reserve and had our lunch. The harrier spooked a Common snipe which flew up in a panic. We also had a great time watching three Snowy egrets which were feeding by hitting the water with their long bills as they flew over shallow impoundments. I'd never seen that feeding behavior from Snowies before. What can I say.....just another day in paradise.

Back to Florida

We've returned to our second home in Florida for the winter and are excited about revisiting our favorite southern birding spots. Our first trip to Merritt Island NWR of the 2009 season proves to be more than we hoped for. In spite of temperatures that never reached 50 and strong north winds, we still managed to record 47 species. Among the "specialties" were Loggerhead shrike, Roseatte spoonbill, American bittern (that makes two in two days!), Florida scrub jay and Savannah sparrow. All that and we only covered Biolab Road....less than a third of the drivcs and trails afforded birders in this beautiful park. Any birder or anyone interested in nature for that matter simply must have Merritt on their todo list when visiting the "space coast". It is truly one of the birding gems of the US. We'll return next week to another section of the reserve, Black Point Drive, to continue adding to our "year list".

North Carolina 2009

As we head south for the winter like so many of our avian friends, we always make a layover in North Carolina to visit friends and search for new parks to bird. We spent a wonderful week adding to our "yearlist" with species like the Horned grebe, Barred owl, Yellow-rump and Palm warblers and plenty of Ospreys and Red-shouldered hawks. One of the more spectacular sights, however, was a field in Columbia, NC which was hosting not fewer than 1000 snow geese (conservative estimate!). We searched for Ross's amongst them, but since we were parked in the middle of the highway with no shoulder to pull off onto, we were a bit pre-occupied. Nonetheless, the sight was certainly something to behold. The other target bird we nailed down for the year on this trip was the Tundra swan. Last year we had founds hundreds of these magnificient birds in the watery fields of Alligator River NWR, but this year the refuge only yielded one specimen! Where did they go this year? Well, we finally found some, although fewer than previous sightings, at Mattamuskeet NWR. All in all, it was a great way to begin our three months in the south with many more great adventures ahead of us.