Early June Tour

Contrary to my usual habits, I started this morning at the East River Pool fishing pier a few minutes before sunrise, hoping to find the Mottled Duck reported and photographed yesterday. No luck with the duck or with Gull-billed Terns, but two white phase, non-breeding adult Reddish Egrets were present and hyperactive. Also on East River Pool was the Am Flamingo (distant, but a little closer than usual), 17 Roseate Spoonbills, about 50 White Pelicans (all young birds; maybe dispersed from the south Texas population?), a few Wood Storks, several Black-necked Stilts, Greater Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers, Least Sandpiper, Willets, Killdeer, an Am Coot and probably a couple of other species I’m forgetting.

Across the road in Stony Bayou #1, Wilson’s, Semi-palmated, and Black Bellied Plovers, Least Tern, and a single Blue-winged Teal.

Enroute to the lighthouse two Least Bitterns gave good looks (lots of herons and egrets today; had a sweep of the diurnal species, including some dandy looking “calico” Little Blues) and a first year Bald Eagle was perched near the remnants of the eagle nest north of the salt water boat ramp.

The flats behind the lighthouse were nearly empty, but clapper rails were calling and one was out in the open bathing and preening for several minutes. A Eurasian Collared Dove made a few passes around the area (I know, a trash bird, but I rarely see them in the refuge).

The most interesting bird of the morning was a distant sulid offshore. Northern Gannets are never common at St Marks, although easy to find in winter a few miles west. That species, like many large seabirds, takes several years to reach sexual maturity and the immatures stay at sea for the first few years of their lives. Immature Gannets do occur in small numbers in the Gulf during the warm months. I may have seen an immature Gannet today, but the bird I saw was flying fairly low and directly and then made a very shallow angled plunge dive. That behavior suggested the possibility of a Brown Booby, but who knows; sulid sp. it shall remain.

A very pleasant few hours at the refuge.