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Posted by Vince Lucas on 20:42:44 01/01/09
All:
As has been a tradition of mine for the last 6-7 years, I always start out the new year by doing a "century run" in Collier County. A century run is a made-up phrase by which I try to get 100 species all within Collier County in the approximately 11 hours of available daylight at this time of year. In recent years, I've been accompanied by Alan Murray. Today was no exception. Last year's total was 113 species. Today we had 110 species, so, if anything, we're pretty consistent. BTW, our first bird of the new year was a Killdeer. We could have easily topped last year's total had we not missed some "gimmes" like Fish Crow, Tufted Titmouse, Common Ground-Dove and several species of ducks that I know are here in Collier County but missed because we ran out of daylight. On the other hand, we had some very nice "unexpected" and/or uncommon birds for the county. They are listed below in ALL CAPS. We canvassed as much of Collier County as we could without spending too much time in one location but because Collier is so big (2nd largest county in the state), we still missed several key sites like Eagle Lakes Park & Sugden Park, North Naples Waste Water Treatment Facility, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, etc. The locations we did bird today were a few locations in Immokalee, including a friend's feeders; extreme Eastern Collier County along CR858; the town/campus of Ave Maria; Everglades City & Chokoloskee; Wagonwheel Rd. & Turner River Rd. in the Big Cypress National Preserve; Kirby Storter Boardwalk; Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk; Mackle Park on Marco Island including several side streets for Burrowing Owls and finally Tigertail Beach where we ended the day as the sun set (sans green flash) over the Gulf of Mexico. It was a great day of birding with my buddy Alan. Here's our day list to start the first day of 2009:
Note: this list is not in taxonomic order. . . .
Anhinga
American Bittern x1 (town of Ave Maria)
Redwinged Blackbird
Indigo Bunting (Immokalee)
Painted Bunting (Immokalee)
Crested Caracara x2 (along CR846 in eastern Collier County)
Northern Cardinal
Gray Catbird
Double-crested Cormorant
American Coot
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Crow
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
WHITE-WINGED DOVE
Short-billed Dowitcher
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Mottled Duck
Muscovy Duck
Red-breasted Merganser x2 (Tigertail Beach)
Dunlin
Bald Eagle (adult on nest at Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk)
Cattle Egret
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
PEREGRINE FALCON x1 (Tigertail Beach)
Great Crested Flycatcher
Magnificent Frigatebird x2 (Tigertail Beach)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Pied-billed Grebe
Herring Gull (2nd cycle bird at Tigertail Beach)
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Harrier
SHORT-TAILED HAWK (DARK MORPH) x1 (along Wagonwheel Rd. in the Big Cypress National Preserve)
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Glossy Ibis
White Ibis
Blue Jay
FLORIDA SCRUB-JAY x1 (Immokalee)
American Kestrel
Killdeer
WESTERN KINGBIRD x8 (along CR858 in extreme eastern Collier County)
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Meadowlark
Northern Mockingbird
Common Moorhen
Osprey
Burrowing Owl x1 (Marco Island)
American White Pelican x40 (Chokoloskee)
Brown Pelican
Eastern Phoebe
Black-bellied Plover
PIPING PLOVER x5 including one banded bird (Tigertail Beach)
Semipalmated Plover
SNOWY PLOVER x6 (Tigertail Beach)
Wilson's Plover (Tigertail Beach)
Sanderling
Sandhill Crane x2 (Immokalee)
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Loggerhead Shrike
Wilson's Snipe
CHIPPING SPARROW x4 (Immokalee)
GRASSHOPPER SPARROW x1 (along Oil Well Rd. Sunniland)
Swamp Sparrow x3
Savannah Sparrow
House Sparrow
Roseate Spoonbill x1 (Immokalee)
European Starling
Wood Stork
Tree Swallow
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW x30 (along CR846 in eastern Collier County)
Caspian Tern x4 (2 at Chokoloskee and 2 at Tigertail Beach)
Royal Tern
Brown Thrasher x2 (Immokalee)
Eastern Towhee (heard only in Immokalee)
Wild Turkey x2 (Immokalee)
Ruddy Turnstone
Blue-headed Vireo
White-eyed Vireo
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH x1 (Kirby Storter Boardwalk. -- Bird has been there since at least December 6, 2008)
Willet
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER x1 (Immokalee)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Carolina Wren
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
_________
Total 110 species
Cheers and happy birding in 2009!
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