Mid-December Duck Survey

I got down to St.  Marks NWR at the halfway point between moonset and sunrise. A low fog layer was blocking the starshine and it was cold, damp and very dark. I heard no owls – they seem to be more vocal with moonlight – but Sora, King and Virginia Rail were calling from the marshes. 

I was down to do the mid-December duck survey. I waited on the Stony Bayou levee in the cold grayness for first light and the morning Wood Duck flight. The ducks came, but it was a paltry flight, just nine birds. I stayed until full light before continuing my count, but no more Wood Ducks came.

It started out as a cool gray winter morning and the fog didn’t burn off for a few hours. I quickly got back into the rhythm of duck surveying. Drive along slowly, scanning with binoculars for ducks then, stop and pull out the scope to count them. There’s no schedule to keep and you can get in some recreational birding as you go. I don’t get paid for this, but it’s a great volunteer gig.

Although every year is different, the December survey generally has the peak numbers of the duck season. My survey had 1,237 waterfowl of 18 species. Species diversity is up and duck numbers have doubled since the mid-November survey, but duck numbers should have tripled. These are the lowest December numbers that I have ever recorded. 

I had 1,500 ducks at the refuge on a late November eBird report that I kept while surveying for shorebirds. Those numbers were boosted by 300 Wood Ducks on that day’s morning flight. Comparing that report to this survey, teal numbers are up, especially Green-winged Teal which comprised three quarters of the ducks that I saw, but other species, like Wood Duck, Pintail and Mallard, seem to have either moved through the refuge or scattered. Some ducks come down to the refuge and stay for the season, but there is often a bit of shifting going on. 

While I’m birding, I stop to trade sighting information with other birders. During the survey, I ran into local birders and birders from Alabama, Richmond and Seattle. There’s a reason that so many people are birding the refuge right now. There are almost two hundred bird species at St. Marks in December. This includes the highest annual diversity of ducks and shorebirds, all of our wintering species and a few rare or unusual birds.

The flamingo was out Mounds Pool III. The female Vermilion Flycatcher continues along Lighthouse Road where it passes Stony Bayou and I had three Western Kingbirds along the channel leading to the Lighthouse boat ramp.

Take a break from Christmas shopping and come down to the refuge.