After completing various tasks around our home and with the ending of the persistent rains, Lynn and I decided to visit the refuge during late afternoon yesterday. We birded by "car" to the lighthouse and back between 3:25pm and 7pm. Except when using the scope on distant birds, we kept to the car thanks to the pesky (and hungry) no-see-ums (a.k.a. biting midges / sand fleas). The weather was pleasant with a dense overcast and the air temperature hovering around the low 60s F. A very light breeze at times eased the annoying midges.
Three noisy Barred Owls greeted us at the twin bridges, first with their "who-cooks-for-you-all" songs and their hilarious hoots, cackles and yelps and then with one perching 30 feet above our heads (photo). That bird continued with its song while the other two cackled nearby.
Overall, we had a nice mix of water and inland birds representing 51 species.
Seven Bald Eagles were observed, one male and what appeared to be a 1st year bird inland and four youngsters (1st year?) and an adult in the pines adjacent to the destroyed nest on the west side of Lighthouse Road north of the lighthouse. Three of the young birds were perched together while the fourth juvenile was perched near the adult. First time we have seen so many young eagles perched together.
One Purple Gallinue and one Savannah Sparrow presented nice photo-ops near the road (photos).
Species observed / heard:
*Blue-winged Teal: 20 +/-
*Redhead: 3 (male-1, female-2)
*Bufflehead: 3 (male-2, female-1)
*Red-breasted Merganser: 1 (female)
*Common Loon: 2
*Pied-billed Grebe: 13
*Double-crested Cormorant: 73
*Anhinga: 3 (male-1, female-2)
*Brown Pelican: 7
*Great Blue Heron: 2
*Great Egret: 16
*Snowy Egret: 8
*Little Blue Heron: 9
*Tricolored Heron: 6
*Cattle Egret: 5
*Osprey: 2
*Bald Eagle: 7 (adult-2, first year-5)
*Northern Harrier: 1 (female)
*Red-shouldered Hawk: 1 (heard)
*Clapper Rail: 8 (heard)
*(Purple Gallinule: 1
*Common Gallinule: 15
*American Coot: a 64
*Black-bellied Plover: 2
*Willet: 3
*Ruddy Turnstone: 4
*Laughing Gull: 28
*Herring Gull: 1 (juv.)
*Forster's Tern: 5
*Royal Tern: 2
*Mourning Dove: 2
*Barred Owl: 3
*Belted Kingfisher: 2
*Red-bellied Woodpecker: 2 (heard)
*Pileated Woodpecker: 1 (heard)
*White-eyed Vireo: 1
*Red-eyed Vireo: 2 (heard)
*Fish Crow: 2
*Purple Martin: 5
*Marsh Wren: 2 (heard)
*Carolina Wren: 1
*Blue Gray Gnatcatcher: 4
*Gray Catbird: 1
*Northern Mockingbird: 3
*Pine Warbler: 1 (heard)
*Yellow-rumped Warbler: 6
*Eastern Towhee: 4 (seen / heard)
*Savannah Sparrow: 1
*Northern Cardinal: 3 (male-2, female-1)
*Red-winged Blackbird: 25
*Boat-tailed Grackle: 20 +
Harry Hooper
Tallahassee