Day 40: February 9 - What you don't expect.....

Mostly cloudy, 70 degrees, winds out of the north

      We are up at 5:30 AM and out the door by 6:00 to  be ready for our departure from the local grocery market at 6:15.  We hope to be on site in Merritt Island at an impoundment know as Pump House Road.  This is one location where you its either feast or famine.  When we arrive, we have a decent sunrise to greet us, but the bird assemblage is not the greatest.

        Hundreds of gulls are in the area, but certainly not the shorebirds, terns, and specialties we were hoping for.  We do manage to record a "year-list" Ground dove, but after a half hour of scanning the area, we are convinced that there is not an awful lot more awaiting us.  And so, we venture on across the road to an area known as Gator Creek Road.  The heavily potholed dirt road winds it s way through the wetlands which this morning are heavily laden with a nice variety of shorebirds.  Plenty of Dunlin, Least sandpipers, and Dowitchers cover the water's surface while an occasional Black-bellied plover, Shoveler and American wigeon complement the assemblage.

      By far, however, the most prolific birds in the refuge today are the Coots.  A conservative estimate would be 10,000 of these chunky little black birds covering virtually every impoundment.  If there was open water, there were coots.

One of many large rafts of American Coots

       We ended the day with an impressive 56 species, including new birds to the year-list such as Eurasian wigeon and Least and Western sandpipers.  But the most unexpected sightings came towards the end of the day when we found our first white morph of the Reddish egret in several years.  We had just seen one of several reddish egrets and were talking about how enjoyable it is to watch their antics as they hunt in the shallows.  They prance and bounce about with such energy that you would swear they had consumed one too many cups of coffee before showing up at the refuge. 

Reddish egret

       When we saw a number of vehicles pulled over to the side of the road and several photographers all lined up along the road’s edge, we knew it must be some special photo-op.  A beautiful white morph of the reddish was standing on a small island preening as we pulled up to join the other photographers.  The bird remained in place in fine lighting for quite some time and afforded us some fine shots. 

      Later in the day, as we prepared to exit the refuge, we noticed some large mammalian forms up ahead.  We passed two adult and 6 young Wild hogs!  Quickly, I did a U-turn and managed to snap a couple of shots of one of the adults before they walked back into the woods.  We have seen these hogs on occasion here at Merritt Island, but never at such close proximity.  So a successful day of birding ends with a sight we rarely see.  There are an estimated 50,000  wild hogs in Florida, but they are generally secretive. So to get a chance to photograph one at such close range is a real treat (if you enjoy photographing pigs!)