SMNWR Monday Morning

I had been hearing the squeals of Wood Ducks as I made my way out to the North levee of Stony Bayou II at St. Marks NWR in the dark. A fat crescent moon was riding high and a low cloud bank on the eastern horizon was just beginning to show a red edge as dawn approached. I stopped my SUV and stepped out into a cold late Fall morning. It was not quite fifty degrees and a strong West wind was blowing.

I walked along the levee to keep warm as the Eastern horizon shifted from red to creamsicle orange. The stars were fading and the sky in the East was turning a pale blue. Soras called and a few day birds, catbirds and marsh wrens, sounded off. The Wood Ducks were getting louder and more insistent.

At first light the Wood Ducks started flying, rising out of the marshes where they had spent the night, heading out to find flooded forests where they could feast on acorns. I began to count them and when I got to seventy-seven ducks, I began to hope that I would get to one hundred. Ten minutes later the morning flight was over. I had a total of three hundred and thirteen Wood Ducks, the most that I have ever recorded at the refuge.

At sunrise, I started running my route and counting shorebirds. I ended up with 2,740 shorebirds of 16 different species. Most of them were on Tower Pond at high tide, but a good number were on the South end of Mounds Pool III. About two thirds were Dunlin, which is typical in winter. Most of the rest were dowitcher, Willet and Western Sandpipers.

We’re entering the birding high season at St. Marks with wintering ducks and shorebirds, sparrows and songbird feeding flocks. All viewable on crisp, cool days under clear blue skies.

There’s a flock of ten Snow Geese on the back end of Stony Bayou II, where you can also find Wood Stork and Roseate Spoonbills. A Western Kingbird showed up today along the Lighthouse Levee Trail. A female Vermilion Flycatcher is hunting in the Southwest corner of Stony Bayou along Lighthouse Road and the Flamingo is splitting it’s time between Mounds Pool I and the oyster bars at the mouth of the St. Marks River.

Down by the lighthouse I saw two remaining Monarchs feeding on the last of the goldenrod and shepherd’s needle. Fall is ending. Time to bundle up and head down to the refuge for some winter birding.