The June/July Break

It was cold and dark this morning at St. Marks NWR as I waited for sunrise on the levee at Stony Bayou II. Everything was black and gray under the shroud of a low-hanging fog layer mixed with Saharan dust and a bit of smoke from a controlled burn. A low background of Pig Frog grunts was occasionally broken by the tinhorn tooting of Green Tree Frogs. Night birds were quiet with the exception of a few squawking Black Crowned Night Herons flying somewhere in the dark.

The dawn didn’t break. The blacks turned gray and the grays morphed into a dirty white in the East. Eventually color broke through. Sawgrass marsh turned green with a floating ocher cap of developing seed heads. Duckweed covered canals gleamed a brilliant lime green in the predawn light.

All calendars are arbitrary. For me June is the end of the birding year at St. Marks. The June/July break is as close as you can get to a point where Spring migration is over and Fall migration hasn’t started. I’m out for a year end shorebird survey trying to follow my usual route around the interior ponds.

By mid-June North-bound shorebirds have passed through. In late June you have a handful of local breeders like Willets and Wilson’s Plovers, plus oversummering nonbreeders like Semipalmated Plovers and Short-billed Dowitchers. It’s a time to look for the first returning shorebirds. They will be adults in breeding plumage, failed and early nesters on their way South.

It’s a dreary morning. The sun doesn’t show up until 7:30 am, a pale white circle high in the Eastern grayness. The ponds are flooded from the recent rains, concentrating the shorebirds and making it easy to survey them. Most of the shorebirds are on Stony Bayou I and on the salt flats. I eventually tally 179 birds of eleven species. Pretty typical for this time of year. There are a few surprises. Fourteen yearling Marbled Godwits that usually summer in South Florida. A breeding plumage Dunlin that was probably too ill to migrate. Semipalmated Sandpiper numbers have ticked up, possibly indicating returning migrants. A breeding plumage Short-billed Dowitcher may be a Fall migrant returning from James Bay in Canada.

There are cool things too. A pair of Blue-winged Teal and a calling Black Rail. June is the month when dispersing Roseate Spoonbills and Reddish Egrets show up from South Florida and they are out on Stony Bayou I.. There are lots of Orchard Orioles about and Seaside Sparrows are still displaying in the salt marshes.

It’s the end of the birding year, but if you look closely you can see the promise of things to come. Green berries of Fox Grape, Green Brier, Peppervine and Swamp Dogwood are ripening. Elderberry and Cabbage Palm are in flower. They will all provide food for Fall migrants as they begin to move through in July

It’s hot and it’s going to get hotter. There are bugs out, but there always have been bugs in Summer along the Gulf coast. Come down to your refuge and watch Summer unfold.

You can always take a shower when you get home.