After returning from northern Michigan, Cyndi and I made our first visit to the refuge in about eight weeks. We started at 0915 and birded until about noon, spending most of that time in the lighthouse area.
The Am Flamingo continues in the far southeast portion of Stony Bayou 1; SB 1 and East River Pool were otherwise nearly empty.
Lighthouse Pool is putting on quite a show, unlike anything I have seen there in my six or seven years birding the refuge regularly. I counted 33 Roseate Spoonbills, my all time high count for this species in this unit of the refuge; large numbers of the expected herons and egrets (Great Blue, Little Blue, and Tricolored heron, Great and Snowy Egrets), a single very pale imm. Reddish Egret, a single imm. Yellow-crowned Night Heron (east of Lighthouse Rd), a single very young Least Bittern surrounded, and being harassed, by Great, Snowy, and the Reddish Egret. The Great was very aggressive, poking at it and the Least did its best to strike back. Eventually the Least flew off a short distance, but it remained in freeze posture in belly deep water for as long as I was there.
Four imm Black Terns, one of my favorite species, were present: two feeding over Lighthouse Pool and giving close fly-bys, one resting on an oyster bar in the St Marks River, and one resting on lighthouse flats. Also on the flats were ~130 Black Skimmers, two Sandwich Terns, four Black-bellied Plovers, three of which still had extensive black on their bellies.
Blue-winged Teal, Pied-billed Grebe, Bald Eagles, and a smattering of a few other species that will be more common in the coming weeks were also present.
Matt Johnstone