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Posted by Toe on 22:06:21 12/20/08
Today Tray and I participated in the Cocoa CBC, for a change of latitude. We each began the day with a life bird, and ended the day with a life bird. We started at a lake near I-95 and Tucker LN(?) where we had a flyover calling Pine Siskin (life bird: chaching!) The count included several other stops, including the Cocoa Landfill, where some 10,000 gulls kept getting harrassed by about 5,000 Bald Eagles. Counting the gulls wasn't easy, but Trey had one interesting gull that I only saw in flight. Good candidate for Iceland Gull, but only "possible" pending re-location.
After the count, Trey and I took I-95 for the drive home. We hadn't gone very far when I got a call from Gallus Quigley saying he'd found a female Oldsquaw in the Banana River near the Canaveral cruise terminals. OK, turn around and make a beeline before the sun goes down! Taking Rd 528 and exiting at SR401 (first cruse ship exit), you follow the road until it begins to curve right at Terminal 5 and park on the west side of the road. Gallus said the "Oldsquaw", as he called it, was near the north end of a raft of 1,000,000 Lesser Scaup, but kept some distance from the others. Well, I think Gallus left out a zero, maybe two. I've never seen so many ducks at one time. Truly spectacular. The ducks were way out there, and light was fading fast. We knew we had a short time before the sun would set, so we quckly got to scanning the flock. We had a couple of false alarms, including a pair of Horned Grebes, but just as we were about to lose hope we spotted the Long-tailed Duck about 100 yards closer in from the northernmost group of Scaup. Fantastic bird! Thanks for the call Gallus!
We had a few other interesting sightings during the count, including an unexpected Yellow Warbler and a calling Song Sparrow, but the two life birds were the highlight. The chance to do a count in a new area, and be rewarded with life birds, is truly special, but I must admit I felt a bit homesick. I'm thankful for the opportunity to participate in another area's CBC, but I also can't wait to do the CBCs in our own piece of dirt down here. An Allagash Curieux Abbey Tripel (Belgian Ale Aged In Oak Bourbon Barrels) celebrates the two life birds from today, and all the good birds we will find down here in our coming CBC's. It feels good to be back home.
Cheers!
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