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Posted by Vince Lucas on 21:43:23 01/19/09
Today, 01/19/2009, the [Fort Myer's] Caloosa Bird Club had a fieldtrip to Tigertail Beach and Mackle Park on Marco Island. Our leader, Roger Stanton, lead one group of birders north on the lagoon-side upon entering the beach itself from the parking area. I lead a group that included Jean Iron & Ron Pittaway from Ontario, Derick Driemeyer from Bonita Springs/St. Louis, MO & Jason Estep and his mother from Ohio. We waded across the lagoon to the beach side. We saw some great birds and Tigertail Beach is unrivaled for studying shorebirds "up close and personal". Although we never did meet up with the other group for the Mackle Park portion of the field trip due to the fact that we spent a lot of time at the beach photographing shorebirds, we did eventually go there. Mackle Park is nothing like it was in year's past for ducks, etc. There were only a lot of Muscovies to which one of the neighbors living adjacent to the park was feeding bread. OK, there was a Pekin Duck as well! A few American Coots, Common Moorhen, Ring-billed Gull and Great Blue Heron was all that was present at Mackle. Nonetheless, we had an outstanding day on Marco Island and saw several Burrowing Owls to boot. Here's the "official" field trip results from our group's efforts. I do not know what else the other group saw today. My taxonomic order may be a bit shaky so ignore that!
Pekin Duck (Mallard) (Mackle Park)
Muscovy Duck (Mackle Park)
Red-breasted Merganser x18
Common Loon x1
American White Pelican x1
Brown Pelican
Northern Gannet x5
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird x3
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret x5 (two were white morphs)
Cattle Egret (Marco Island)
White Ibis
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey (nesting)
Bald Eagle x1 (adult) (Marco Island)
Red-shouldered Hawk (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Northern Harrier x1 (Tigertail Beach!)
Peregrine Falcon x1
Common Moorhen (Mackle Park)
American Coot (Mackle Park)
Black-bellied Plover
Snowy Plover x12
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover x10 (one banded in Vermillion, SD -- I know because I reported this same bird several weeks ago and got a reply back with the banding info)
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot x3
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Royal Tern
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Mackle Park)
Mourning Dove
Burrowing Owl x4 (Marco Island)
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Flycatcher (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Great Crested Flycatcher (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Fish Crow (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Northern Mockingbird (Mackle Park)
Loggerhead Shrike (Marco Island)
Blue-headed Vireo (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Yellow-throated Warbler x2 (Parking lot at Tigertail Beach)
Palm Warbler (Tigertail Beach)
European Starling (Marco Island)
Boat-tailed Grackle (Marco Island)
House Sparrow (Marco Island)
After leaving Marco Island, we made a brief stop at the Greenway/Fritchey Rd. "Wetlands" (no water). Only sighting of note there was an adult Bald Eagle in flight. Afterward, we headed toward the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Fackahatchee State Park Preserve. Before we got there, at the corner of 6L Rd. & US Rte. 41 (aka Tamiami Trail), I spied a light morph Short-tailed Hawk riding a thermal with some vultures. Everyone had good looks at this bird. That's about my fifth STHA in Collier County in less than three weeks! That's unprecedented in my book. We also stopped at Port Of The Islands Marina to look at manatees. We found several, including one prop-scarred female with a young calf. On one of the docks, we found a Spotted Sandpiper. At the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk we added these species (not in taxonomic order):
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Tufted Titmouse
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Black-and-white Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker (heard only)
Eastern Phoebe
Carolina Wren (heard only)
Great Horned Owl
Gray Catbird
Common Yellowthroat (heard only)
Common Grackle
Our last stop of the day was at an undisclosed site in Naples where we added Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker (heard only).
It was a great day to be out birding with visiting friends from near and far.
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