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Posted by Elsa Alvear on 15:05:42 09/20/08
Hi everybirdy:
This morning at dawn, we had a large number (about 900) of white ibises flying from the bay (presumably, roosts at the islands named Arsenickers, but cannot say for sure) headed west towards, presumably, Cutler Wetlands and Dump Marsh. So Raul wondered, and I agree it might be a problem, if the folks doing those areas for NAMC might not have counted birds we already counted. Not sure how this can be handled! Should we count them? Brian, please weigh in.
The NAMC went very well. NPS employees Shelby Moneysmith, Raul Urgelles, and I birded together as a single team. 45 species, 1448 individual birds (fudge factor for First we birded Convoy Point headquarters, then over to Boca Chita, then Elliott Key (including a short bit along the central hiking trail aka Spite Highway), then by boat around Arsenicker Key. We started birding at 6:45 am and ended at 12:30 pm. Winds were light. Mosquitos at Elliott were heavy :-) I wish we had started at Elliott, next year. Highlights: the dolphin that swam by near Boca Chita, the merlins at Boca Chita (one by Arsenicker too), and a pair of immature Reddish Egrets, one white form and one regular, at Arsenicker. Beautiful! You never know what you will find at the Arsenickers! (One year at CBC we found a great horned owl). Disappointments: We were hoping for more warblers, no hawks at Elliott, and I did not see the usual pair of loggerhead shrikes at our visitor center. ??? Anyways here is our list.
Brown Pelican 5
Double-crested Cormorant 275
Anhinga 3
Magnificent Frigatebird 1
Great Egret 2
Little Blue Heron 2
Reddish Egret 2 (of which one was white form)
Yellow-crowned Night Heron 2
White Ibis 945 (see note above)
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 3
Merlin 4
Peregrine Falcon 2
Semipalmated Plover 21
Spotted Sandpiper 21
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ruddy Turnstone 10
Sanderling 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 2
Laughing Gull 35
Ring-billed Gull 2
Royal Tern 42
Rock Pigeon 1
White-crowned Pigeon 7
Eurasian Collared-Dove 10
Mourning Dove 16
Belted Kingfisher 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 1
Barn Swallow 10 (plus some unid'd swallows)
Blue Jay 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 6
Northern Mockingbird 4
Loggerhead Shrike 2
European Starling 3
White-eyed Vireo 1
Prairie Warbler 3
Black-and-White Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Ovenbird 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
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