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Posted by Juan Valadez on 23:04:30 05/15/09
We had a good count last Saturday; ran the skiff just over 51 miles in Florida Bay and rounded up 74 species and 7,812 individual birds. Rafael Galvez and I were joined by David Brooks and Brian Booth.
Highlights were 4 Northern Gannets near Sandy Key, and the following at Cape Sable; 34 Whimbrels, 1 Long-billed Curlew, 9 Wilson's Plovers and 2 Mangrove Cuckoos. Spoonbills were scarce and Greater Flamingos were absent.
Not many places in North America you can see 74 species and nearly 8,000 birds without one being an exotic.
A few days later I was fishing the Gulf side of the keys lying west of Key West and watched Nothern Gannets pour through. A lone Brown Booby was kind enough to pause and inspect a huge wad of tarpon off my bow. I can die now.
Anhinga 4
Double-crested Cormorant 414
Brown Pelican 121
Northern Gannet 4
Great Blue Heron 39
Wurdemann s Heron 4
Great White Heron 102
Great Egret 50
Snowy Egret 77
Reddish Egret 19
Tricolored Heron 149
Little Blue Heron 35
Cattle Egret 24
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 3
White Ibis 71
Wood Stork 7
Roseate Spoonbill 90
Turkey Vulture 18
Black Vulture 1
Swallow-tailed Kite 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 4
Osprey 20
Clapper Rail 1
Black-bellied Plover 152
Semipalmated Plover 20
Wilson s Plover 9
Greater Yellow Legs 2
Willet 199
Spotted Sandpiper 23
Whimbrel 34
Long-billed Curlew 1
Marbled Godwit 9
Ruddy Turnstone 59
Sanderling 84
Dunlin 1194
Western Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2080
Least Sandpiper 1041
Short-billed Dowitcher 1148
Laughing Gull 34
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull 2
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2
Caspian Tern 11
Royal Tern 99
Least Tern 9
Black Skimmer 5
Ground Dove 2
White-crowned Pigeon 20
Mangrove Cuckoo 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Barn Owl 1
Chuck-will s-widow 14
Whip-poor-will 1
Common Nighthawk 37
Red-bellied Woodpecker 13
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 16
Gray Kingbird 7
Black-whiskered Vireo 4
White-eyed Vireo 4
American Crow 11
Barn Swallow 1
Yellow Warbler 9
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 57
Common Yellowthroat 7
American Redstart 8
Northern Cardinal 7
Red-winged Blackbird 96
Common Grackle 6
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