The Autumnal Equinox

In the annual cycle of seasonal change at St. Marks NWR, sunrise on the autumnal equinox found me on the Double Dikes.  I had walked out in the moonless dark listening to King Rails and a distant Barred Owl. At first light I started walking back, glancing over my shoulder to check on the progress of the sunrise. The temperature was in the 60s and with a strong North wind it had felt frigid.

I watched as a flight of Great Egrets took off from East River Pool. A long straggling line of one hundred and forty-one birds headed East, a migratory flight probably of mid-Western birds heading for South Florida. Swallows began to come through flying low. They were mostly Barn Swallows, but included Tree and a few Cliff Swallows. Migration is picking up.

I got back to Lighthouse Road and ran into a birder friend. She was down to look for a pair of rare sparrows that have been reported. We moved down to the 104 gate on the South end of East River Pool. Observing social distance, we hunted together for fifteen minutes, finding only a half dozen Yellow Warblers. Then, two sparrows popped up and sat in the branches of a bare shrub. We had found both Lark and Clay-colored Sparrow.

Although rare at St. Marks, both of these sparrows are reported annually in the state and every few years at the refuge. Getting both of them in the same bush at the same time is very unusual. Clay-colored Sparrow is one of those little brown birds of interest mainly to bird nerds. The Lark Sparrow is, however, a large sparrow with a striking harlequin face pattern of contrasting black, white and chestnut stripes

My friend had to leave for work and I headed down to the Tower Trail. Tower Pond had eleven shorebird species, lots of Snowy Egrets, three Reddish Egrets and fifteen Roseate Spoonbills. The woods along the trail had small flocks of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, lots of White-eyed Vireos and two Scarlet Tanagers. As I got back to the parking lot, two Broad-winged Hawks were circling and a kettle of thirteen migrating Anhingas slowly moved through the morning sky. I ran in to even more local birders that I knew. It was a mini Retired Big Bend Birders Convention.

These are troubling times, but there is still a purity and joy in the simple pleasure of enjoying the first day of Fall at St. Marks NWR. By my count there are still ninety days to go in Fall. You still have time to get in on this.

Come down to the refuge and go birding.