Having limited time to play in the refuge today, beginning at 0920, my birding was confined to areas close to Lighthouse Rd. I found a very modest 47 species with only about 300 individuals, but that included a few birds that were a bit unexpected.
East River Pool - American Flamingo, 30-40 White Pelicans, 12 Roseate Spoonbills, two Black-necked Stilts, two Least Bitterns
Stony Bayou 1 - two imm. Reddish Egrets (one a white phase), a Gull-billed Tern, Wilson's Plovers, many dozens of Least Terns, and good numbers of distant shorebirds in the SE corner too far to ID with a scope
Enroute to the lighthouse, an Am. Robin kept perching and flying ahead of me until I lost it near the road to the SW boat ramp. In the lighthouse parking lot, a Gray Kingbird flew into the big pine; this species is easy to find west of here (e.g., SGI), but it is only my second or third in the refuge.
From the observation deck, a group of distant terns included Forster's, first year Common, Royal, and Caspian. A few Sandwich Terns offshore provided my seventh tern species for the day. Luck would not produce a Black Tern for what I would call a sweep of reasonably expected terns. Also offshore, and closer to land than I usually see them at St Marks, were two N. Gannets in third year plumage; no sense flying 1000+ miles to the breeding cliffs if you are not yet ready to breed.
Matt Johnstone