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Posted by David S. on 19:35:10 01/11/09
Took the kayak up to Snake Bight & went up the channel. We reached the channel on a falling tide and had an excellent view of the exposed mud flats along with all their inhabitants. We reached Gibby Point about 11:30, which was slack tide at that area. The weather was excellent and suprisingly few power boats were in the channel (we experienced about 6 the entire day). We had the mud flats to ourselves. Large mixed flocks of peeps would fly from one area to another, sometimes surrounding us, getting within 10 ft. of our kayaks. Some flocks had to be 1500-2000 birds each. What an amazing experience! We also got about 75 ft. from a group of 8 Roseate Spoonbills mixed in with Snowy Egrets, a few White Ibises and 3 White Pelicans foraging in a tidal pool on one of the flats. Also observed were Osprey catching fish, Reddish Egrets dancing with fish, and being able to get within 10' of the edge of a flock of 2000 small mixed shorebirds on a large mudflat without spooking.
Some of the birds observed were:
Black Skimmer 100+
White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron (also white morphs)
Little Blue Heron
White Ibis
Reddish Egret
Tricolored Egret
Snowy Egret
Roseate Spoonbill 50+
Osprey
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
American Coot 50+ (huddled together on a mudflat)
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet 500+
Long-billed Curlew 2
Sanderling
Semi-palmated Sandpiper 5000+
Other shorebirds were probably overlooked due to the overwhelming numbers in the large flocks. We observed a flock of 200 White Ibis fly over us to the small island just outside the harbor at Flamingo. We probably saw no less than 20,000 birds today. Even saw a nice male Northern Pintail in Mazrak Pond. One of my best days of birding!!
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