2011 Florida birding begins

Marbled godwits

     We're back in sunny warm Florida and have begun our southern birding adventures in earnest.  We could not have a better way to begin as we are joined by 6 superb birders from the Cape May Birding Observatory back in New Jersey.  They are here for the Space Coast Birding Festival, but came down a little early to get in some extra time in the field on their own.  I have the honor of showing them some of Sharon and my favorite haunts.
     Today, we spent most of the morning and afternoon birding Merritt Island.  The reserve is pretty dry in spots as we are experiencing a major drought in the south.  Still, we and the birds manage to find some of the wetter areas and wind up with almost 100 species for the day.  As we wind up today's trip, we throw in one more often productive locale as the daylight wanes.  Riverbreeze Park in Oak Hill, FL can be very interesting, especially if the tide is out.  An exposed sand bar close to the fishermen's pier generally yields a nice number of skimmers and today, well, the tide couldn't be better.  As if on cue, over 200 black skimmers have crowded onto the fairly small exposure of sand and are joined by a bird much harder to find on most occasions, the Marbled godwit.  Well, not only are they joined by this more elusive bird, but it turns out that by our count, there are 59 of them!  None of our birding team has ever seen anywhere near this number at one time.  What a wonderful way to wrap up a great day of Florida birding.

Black skimmers at Riverbreeze Park