Day 24: January 24th - Indian River Lagoon Preserve

Sunny and warm

      On each Tuesday while we are here in New Smyrna Beach, I help a Florida birding buddy Don conduct a bird walk through a local park, Indian River Lagoon Preserve.  The park is run under the auspices of the Marine Discovery Center.  Don has been running this program for several years now and has a loyal following of half a dozen or so "snow-birders" as well as many folks who join us for a week or two while vacationing here in the sunshine state. 

Indian River Lagoon Preserve

      John Bart is with me this morning as I make my first showing of the season.  It's great to see many of the "old gang" once again and to get back out onto the trail with them as we try to garner Don's mandatory "25 before anyone is allowed to leave".  It should be a perfect morning for birding as the skies are calm and the temps are warm.  But in this game, you quickly learn that you never say "never" and you never can confidently predict that the place will be "dripping" with birds.  In spite of what we would consider ideal conditions, it is quiet.....dead quiet.  The preserve is comprised of a short trail through woodlands and then a second short trail out to the lagoon's edge.  It is usually no major feat to have sightings of 30+ birds in the first 1 1/2 hours of so.  Today, we really have to work for the birds and we eventually end up the day with 29 after 2 1/2 hours of 10 birders searching the trees, the grasses, the water's edge, the surface of the lagoon near and far and the skies overhead.

Common loon

     Our best sighting was probably the common loon which although remaining somewhat distant, still afforded us lengthy looks through the scopes.  The ever-present Yellow-rumped warblers provided us with constant action, but it still only counts as 1 species.

Yellow-rumped warblers

  Mourning doves are the second most abundant and the Carolina wrens provided the sound track while remaining reclusive regarding visual contact.  We'll be at it for the next three months and it is always of interest to see what the next Tuesday brings.  So....don't go away!