I feel sort of guilty spending more blog time on West Cost birding. I spent the same amount of time on both coasts, and I saw a lot of birds on both coasts...but something was different between the two. It is clear to see which coast is visited more by tourists. Except for a few pockets of public beaches and national parks, the whole east coast is either developed beyond belief, or beach access is fee based, with very little public parking. Its so bad that if the first 100 yards of shore falls into the ocean, Florida would be plunged into a depression that would take years to recover from.

I purposely try to find places that are great birding spots, and free...or near free. West coast, except for the $6 toll to get on Sanibel Island, and another fee for the driving tour on that Island (full disclosure Vincent's Senior status paid for the tour...) I think I paid $2 for parking at Bunche Beach. East Cost birding around Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach was costly, or would have been if I had paid all the fees.

On my first east coast day, with very little public beach access, the areas where there are shorebirds to be seen are few and far between. The best location I went to was Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve and the Canaveral National Seashore. It reaches north to Apollo Beach which is near Smyrna Beach and goes all the way down to Port Canaveral. I did not go to NASA while I was there...been there, done that. However, NASA does rule the roost, so if there is a launch pending, part if not all of the reserve is shut down. When I went the cost was $6 for entry. That included both beaches and the wildlife drive. Though if you have the America the Beautiful Pass, you get in free. Seniors pay $10 (Plus $10 for documentation fees) and they get the pass for life...us mere youngsters have to pay $80 a year...but it is still cheaper if you go to a lot of US pay parks or if you take a car load of kids...wish I would have known this LAST year. :-D...Anyhew, more info on the passes here:

https://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html

I had very few shorebirds while I was there, but the east coast was also in the midst of cleanup from Hurricane Mathew, and the National Seashore still needed a lot of cleanup when I went, so they may have been pushed somewhere else while I was there. I had a lot of Brown Pelicans, Terns, Gulls, Sanderlings, and Red Knots, and that's about it. I had better birding opportunities at the wildlife drive. Nothing new, but still a bunch of good birds:

Before I continue, I have to ask...How far would you hike in +80 degree heat to see one bird? If it is an everyday/everywhere bird, I wouldn't go out of my way, however if it were a hard to find life bird...I'd hike a few miles. Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are listed as endangered and pretty much every nest is protected in one way or another. It is a bird that used to be common, but became endangered due to habitat loss.

From The US Fish and Wildlife Service:

“RCWs were once considered common throughout the longleaf pine ecosystem, which covered approximately 90 million acres before European settlement. Historical population estimates are 1-1.6 million "groups", the family unit of RCWs. The birds inhabited the open pine forests of the southeast from New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia to Florida, west to Texas and north to portions of Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky.

The longleaf pine ecosystem initially disappeared from much of its original range because of early (1700’s) European settlement, widespread commercial timber harvesting and the naval stores/turpentine industry (1800’s). Early to mid-1900 commercial tree farming, urbanization and agriculture contributed to further declines. Much of the current habitat is also very different in quality from historical pine forests in which RCWs evolved. Today, many southern pine forests are young and an absence of fire has created a dense pine/hardwood forest.”

There is a wealth of info on the Red-cockaded Woodpecker on the USFWS website:

https://www.fws.gov/rcwrecovery/

I was given a contact of someone involved in the program who was able to give me a lead to a park that has nesting woodpeckers...the only caveat...a six mile hike, possible knee deep water, and 90 degree highs. So off I go to Hal Scott Regional Preserve and Park in Orange County. Basically its a big park with unimproved trails. The preserve is managed by The Saint Johns River Wildlife Management District. Their description of the park is here:

http://www.sjrwmd.com/recreationguide/halscott/

The nesting sites are well marked, and there are active sites near the back of the park. Bur they have been seen all around the park. You just have to keep your eyes open. Click on any of the pictures below to be taken to the gallery.

Red-cockaded WoodpeckerRed-cockaded Woodpecker

After I got back from that, I met up with my dad and we went to the city/town of Viera and went through their drive park. There were a few normal birds there, and was a good drive. It is similar to Merritt Island Refuge, but it was one of those places that can be hot or cold....mostly what we saw close up were Alligators and a Loggerhead Shrike.

Final day birding was a little park that I saw on the way home from the funeral that I went to. I remember in the back of my mind that someone suggested that I visit this place...and that I needed to wear a hat...I couldn't remember why though. Having only a few more hours before time to pack up and get ready to leave, a visit to Helen & Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary in Rockledge was my last birding stop. The Sanctuary is managed by the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program of Brevard County. The website for the park is here:

http://www.brevardfl.gov/EELProgram/Sanctuaries/HelenAllanCruickshankSanctuary

When I got there, and saw the signs...I knew what it was I was supposed to see...and why I needed the hat. :-D the Florida Scrub Jay is a endemic species, meaning it lives in Florida only...and it is very...very sociable.

Florida Scrub JayFlorida Scrub Jay
Florida

A short video on why you have to wear a hat...maybe I can get a product placement check from Waffle House. :-D

Florida Scrub Jays in action.

The last bird in Florida,  was a bird that I got in Arizona, way of in a field. Loggerhead Shrikes are all over Florida. Usually you can see one on a telephone wire every mile or so. My problem all week had been getting one close on some sort of tree or snag. Finally one landed on a snag and posed for me as I was heading out of the sanctuary.:

Loggerhead ShrikeLoggerhead Shrike
Florida

Well, that's about it. For the week I had 110 species and 18 life birds. Two or three life birds I only had views of, so I will have to try again for pictures. If I were to go again JUST to go birding...I would take a month, and travel all along the west coast...and down to the Keys...but that is for when I am retired. :-D.

Sola Deo Gloria

After spending two days on the west coast of Florida, it was time for me to head east. While on the west coast, I had a lot of support from two birders, and I would be amiss if I didn't give a shout out to the two birders that really helped me out on the West coast.

Vincent McGrath, my guide for Monday, is a birder that is not looking for check marks on a list, he is more into the experience, and being outside. He showed me around Sanibel Island, as well as took me around to some of the inland sites to find things like Burrowing Owls and my first Florida Scrub Jay. Some of the places we went to were slow at the time we were there, but that's birding. :-D

The second birder that was able to help me a lot was David McQuade. While I never met him personally, he was able to tell me of a lot of places that I could go on both coasts to find birds that were on my life list as well as put me in contact with an east coast birder who knew where to get a hard to find Woodpecker. (More on that next week.) David REALLY helped me out on my third day as I headed east. Every place I went on that day was on his recommendation.

So with all of David's places to go, and when to go to them in hand, I was off...and I went a whole 20-30 miles to my first stop, Harns Marsh. I had visited Harns Marsh with Vincent earlier in the week...at the wrong time of the day. Thanks to David, I was able to get there at the right time of the day and go to the right area of the 4 mile marsh to pretty much pick up everything I was missing from my needs list. Harns Marsh is a stormwater control site and is maintained by Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District:

http://www.myecwcd.net/harns-marsh/

They published a brochure that you can print of if you are going for a visit...:

http://www.myecwcd.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/HARNS-MARSH-BROCHURE.pdf

HOWEVER, the few birds listed there are just some of the local full time resident birds. For a full list of all the birds, animals, reptiles, and insects that can be found there visit here:

http://www.birdpatrol.org/Harns_Marsh.html

I had 41 of the 197 birds listed there. Most of the list depends on the time of the year, and the level of the marsh. Here are a few of the life birds that I saw while there. Click on any of the pictures below to be taken to that species' gallery.

LimpkinLimpkin
Florida

Snail KiteSnail Kite
Fort Myers
Grey-headed SwamphenGrey-headed Swamphen
Florida

The above is a Grey-headed Swamphen, is from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent to southern China and northern Thailand. Asia, It was introduced to North America in the late 1990s due to avicultural escapes in the Pembroke Pines, Florida area. State wildlife biologists attempted to eradicate the birds, but they have multiplied and can now be found in many areas of southern Florida. As of 2013, it is ABA (American Birding Association) countable.  While it is doubtful that they will become the scourge that House Sparrows have become, it does give warning to those that wish to bring non-native species into this country...DON'T.

While I could have stayed at Harns Marsh all day...I still had a lot of miles to cover, so it was off toward the next stop on my list, a cattle farm out in the middle of nowhere...no, really a cow pasture in the middle of nowhere. It also happened to be on my way. A couple Crested Caracaras were known to local birders to roost in a particular tree in a particular field. This is one of those times where having a local birder letting you know where to look is really important. While the bird is recorded on eBird, the field is wide and there are multiple places where they could be roosting. But David was able to show me where the particular tree was that the Caracara roosted. So I able to see the bird and continue on.
Crested CaracaraCrested Caracara
Florida

The next stop was on the east coast at Fort Lauderdale...in a grave yard...yup, the places keep getting weirder and weirder. However the bird I was looking for was worth it. There are only a handful of warblers that I don't have, mainly because they are mostly west of the Mississippi. So when I heard that a Black-throated Grey Warbler was in the area, I knew I had to add it to my list of target species. These Warblers are a Western Species, and must have gotten blown over to Ft. Lauderdale. It had already been there for over a week, so I was worried that it might continue flying south before I could get to see it. Fortunately it liked where it was. David who was on the West coast was able to tell me the exact tree to look in to find this tiny warbler. I did have help from another couple of local birders spotting it.

Black-throated Gray WarblerBlack-throated Gray Warbler
Ft. Lauderdale While there I also got to see a Spot-breasted Oriole.

Spot-breasted OrioleSpot-breasted Oriole
Florida I did try a few other places, but by the time I got there the birds were pretty much done for the day, so I headed on to my hotel. I needed to rest up for the next day...which I will talk about next week. For the three days, I had 99 species, 16 of which were life birds.

Here is a slide show of most of the birds I was able to take pictures of:

Next stop Brevard County. :-D

Sola Deo Gloria

Bands On The Run

When I go birding, I always look for birds with bands on them. This was one of the first things I was interested in when I seriously started bird photography. A Hudsonian Godwit was at Big Island Wildlife Area in Marion Ohio, with a white flag that turned out to be a tracking device. Through reporting that band, I learned about efforts to discover the migration patterns of Godwits.

Most banded birds just have a silver government bands that you have to recapture the bird to read them.

Banded bird

(I didn't see this band till I got home, or I would have tried to take some sharper pictures of it to try and pull the numbers off of it.)

Other birds have bands that are more colorful, and can be identified from a distance...or from photographs later. Piping Plovers for instance have a series of colored bands that identify them as to where and when they were born, and even to which set of plovers were their parents...all from a series of bands.  Here is a picture of a piping plover that I saw here In Ohio.  From the band information given to me by the Great Lakes Piping Plover Project, it hatched in the summer of 2016 at Whitefish Point, MI. It was banded by the University of Minnesota crew, stationed for the summer at the University of Michigan Biological Station. 

Banded Plover

I usually only see one bird with a band...if I even see them at all. So when I was at Bunge Beach Florida, I was enjoying the spectacle of shorebirds feeding on the beach, I saw a familiar plover with the familiar leg bands. Click on any of the pictures below to be taken to the individual species gallery. :

Piping PloverPiping Plover
Florida

Then a few yards away I spotted another with different band colors:

Piping PloverPiping Plover
Florida Being a banded Piping Plover, I happened to already know the probable bander was the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort so I emailed them directly instead of using the traditional USGS bird band reporting site.

They fed back to me that the Orange flagged bird was one that they had banded :

“The plover with an orange flag has an interesting story. He's one of the chicks that was captive-reared in 2014 after one of the parents disappeared (probably caught by a Merlin) and the nest at Point aux Chene, MI was abandoned. When that happens the eggs are collected and given a second chance in our captive rearing facility at the University of Michigan Biological Station near Pellston, MI. After the eggs hatch, avian-specialist zoo-keepers raise the resulting chicks in captivity until they are flying well. They are then released near wild-reared chicks of similar age. He was released at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on North Manitou Island. I'll attach a photo I took of him shortly after he was released. He returned to breed at Port Inland, MI. Good to see that he's still doing well.”

So this bird, if it were not for people concerned about the recovery of the species...would have never lived.  Its nice when you can get in touch with the banding, sometimes the bird has a story all its own.

The second plover I received a report on a little later.  It's blue flag marked it as a bird that was from another banding project in Nebraska.

Here is the write up from Mary Brown of the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska:

“Hi Steve, thanks for passing along the information and photos. This is one of our birds from the lower Platte River in eastern, Nebraska. The bird was originally banded as a 2-day old chick on 16 June 2011 at a lakeshore housing development in Dodge County, Nebraska. If you see any other plovers wearing light blue flags, please let us know,..”

That is definitely my most western shorebird bird that I have photographed on the Eastern half of the US.

But my list of banded birds do not end there.

While photographing the plovers, a group of Red Knots in winter plumage flew in almost right beside me. Within that flock were two that had leg bands.

Red Knot 690Red Knot<br/>Florida

Red Knot JH9Red Knot<br/>Florida

Bird 690 was banded in South Carolina in 2015 as an adult and seen again on a beach near where it was banded in 2016.  Bird JH9 was captured and banded in 2008 in New Jersey and has been recaptured almost yearly till 2012 It has been sighted as far north as Iles de la Madeleine in Quebec, Canada. My sighting is as far south that it has been sighted, and is the first its been sighted since 2012. It was my oldest banded bird for this trip.

There are lots of websites discussing the banding of shorebirds, here are the ones that were involved with the birds I spotted on this trip:

The South Carolina Shorebird Resighting Project's site:

https://www.crbo.net/SC_Shorebird_resighting_project.html

As well as the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture project's blog post on Red Knot banding.:

http://acjv.org/red-knot-banding-season-is-here/

The Great Lakes Piping Plover Project has a blog:

https://glpipl.wordpress.com/

Along with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The pictures at the bottom look like the same plover I found again this year...probably on the same beach. :-D :
http://ternandplover.unl.edu/plover/winter-plover.asp

Next week I finish the West coast and head East.

Sola Deo Gloria