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Posted by Vince Lucas on 12:57:08 01/01/08
All:
Without selling our collective souls to OPEC by chasing Grail Birds from Key West to Pensacola, Alan Murray & I decided to stay close to home here in Collier County today to start the new year by doing what several of us have been doing for the last five or so years i.e. trying to break a "century" or 100 birds all seen in this county in one day. The record stands at 121 for Collier set by me, along with a few other folks, on 03/21/2004. Being that this wasn't migration and that a horrible cold front was commencing from the North, bringing rain and high winds, Alan and I made a gallant stab at the record but fell short with 111 birds seen or heard. Our rules are simple: both birders must see or hear the bird for it to be counted. Thus, we did not count the Black-and-white Warbler seen only by Alan & Great Horned Owl -- heard only by Alan at his house before our official 7:00AM start time, nor the Brown Thrasher I saw but Alan didn't near the Immokalee Airport. We had a blast finding some hard-to-find birds for Collier County like Florida Scrub-Jay, Red-headed Woodpecker, Sora, American Bittern, Painted & Indigo Bunting, White-winged Dove, Snail Kite, Magnificent Frigatebird, Burrowing Owl, Long-billed Dowitcher, American Oystercatcher, Crested Caracara, Wild Turkey, Eastern Screech-Owl, Piping Plover, Western Kingbird, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, and Eastern Towhee. We dipped on several "easy" passerines including ANY vireos; shorebirds including Wilson's & Snowy Plovers; ducks including Hooded Merganser & Northern Shoveler, and Reddish Egret to name a few. Oh well, there's always next year! Here's our day list to start out 2008:
Mottled Duck
Muscovy Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Snail Kite
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Wild Turkey
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Eastern Screech-Owl
Burrowing Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay
Florida Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Eastern Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow
Good birding.
Vince
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