Posted by Paul Bithorn on February 23, 2003 at 17:04:26:
Saturday, February 23, 2003, Kevin Sarsfield, Juan Villamil and I returned to Ft. DeSoto County Park in Pinellas County in search of the Heerman’s Gull. A lone Whimbrel was found along the causeway into the park and upon arriving at 9:00 a.m., we checked the picnic area on East Beach, where we would immediately find the breeding plumaged gull in a mixed flock of gulls and terns.
Thirty mile an hour gusts encouraged many of the local birds and birders to seek out an area to congregate in out of the wind. That area was the North Beach lagoon. A Western Kingbird was seen on the on the drive there on the power lines across from the parking lot. We joined Dave Goodwin, Wes Biggs and his grandson Devin and shared in the spectacle of 50 plus American Oystercatchers and Marbled Godwits, 2 Long-billed Curlews, breeding plumaged Reddish Egret, Caspian Tern and Snowy Plover and Northern Gannets hunting offshore. I don’t know what was better, the birds or Devin oohing and aahing every time his grandfather showed him a new species in the scope.
Short stops at the Celery Fields and Babcock-Webb and a Great-horned Owl on US 41 north of Ft. Myers, during civil twilight, rounded out a trip with a total of 110 species seen. Life is good............ when seeing a grandfather share his passion for birding with his grandson.