I stood in the dark out on one of the back levees at St. Marks NWR. It was still and quiet with only the occasional random grunting of a pig frog from somewhere out in the marsh. Above me, the sky was clear and full of stars. There was a thick crescent moon and Venus gleamed brightly in the east. The Northern horizon flickered with silent lightning as a massive storm moved in from Georgia, but it was forty miles away and I heard no thunder.
I checked my phone while I waited for first light and the morning Wood Duck flight. The storm’s path was predicted to pass east of the refuge. Least Bitterns and a few King Rails were now calling. Black-crowned Night Herons were squawking as they flew in to roost after a night’s hunting and a Common Nighthawk flew by me at head level. From the tree line across the marsh, I heard the long wooooah of a Barred Owl.
Clouds from the storm were beginning to spread across the eastern sky and I felt a breeze developing from the storm winds outflow. Lightning within the storm created a constant ripple of light that marked its location. I heard low rumbles of thunder as the first Wood Ducks flew and checked my phone again to make sure that the storm would not affect me. It was passing through Madison and headed South.
With sunrise coming on strong, I started to run my survey route. Yellow Warblers were flitting through the brush along the levee. Barn Swallows were flying East and a high flock of seventy Blue-winged Teal passed over. I drove slowly down the Outer Levee and turned on to the cross levee between the two Stony Bayou Pools. I began to count shorebirds. By now, the storm’s clouds had spread out even further and there was a steady cool wind.
The water levels were up from the recent rains and had covered most of the mud flats. I struggled to count and identify birds moving in the low grasses along the water’s edge. There were mostly peeps – Western and Least Sandpipers. However, I was also getting Ruddy Turnstones and plovers; Semipalmated, Black-bellied and seven Wilson’s. A Wilson’s Phalarope was dancing in the shallow water.
A few drops of rain hit my windshield, but I kept stopping to pull out my scope and scan for birds. I added Reddish Egrets, Short-billed Dowitchers and Willets to my list. Flocks of Blue-winged Teal were moving around the pond. It began to rain – only a light drizzle at first – and I continued scanning with my ten power binoculars through the open window of my Honda, counting and recording as I slowly rolled down the levee.
At this point, it started to rain heavily and I rolled the window up and stopped the car to wait it out. After about ten minutes the rain let up and I continued surveying from the slowly moving car. I passed the refuge’s resident flamingo, about twenty Roseate Spoonbills and a flock of resting Black Skimmers. There were more peeps and a few Greater Yellowlegs.
The rain stopped as I swung around to do the West side of the pool. Almost all of the mud flats on this side were under water. I scared up Spotted Sandpipers, but didn’t see much else. I turned on to the Outer Levee and continued my survey route. Out on one of the salt flats near the lighthouse, I found a mixed flock of several hundred birds; Willets, Western Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, three Red Knots and ten Marbled Godwits. Mixed in with them were White Ibis, Forster’s and Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls, a sizable flock of Blue-winged Teal and a single Caspian Tern.
I drove over to Lighthouse Pool where there was another adult American Flamingo, an Idalia refugee that has been there for a week now, and then finished up my survey by checking on some of the smaller ponds. As I drove out of the refuge, the sky was mostly clear and it was a sunny pleasant September day. I ended up with sixty-one species including two hundred and ninety-three Blue-winged Teal, a good number this early in the season. I had just over eight hundred shorebirds of fifteen species. They were mostly peeps, plovers and Willets.
Fall migration is well underway. Bird diversity and numbers are increasing at St. Marks. You should plan a trip down here. Check the weather before you come.