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Posted by Dan Irizarry on 21:29:54 09/10/09
Hey everyone,
Spent the day from 7am to 1pm birding around Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, FL. Although light on passerines (Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, and Prarie Warbler), the shorebirds and terns were awesome.
3 Whimbrel
60+ Red Knots
30+ Marbled Godwits
~400 Sandwich Terns
~70 Forster's Terns
2 Common Terns
30 Caspian Terns
30 Royal Terns
all three Peeps
100 Willets
30 Short-billed Dowitchers
20-30 Ruddy Turnstones
20 Black-bellied Plovers
50 Wilson's Plovers
15 Semipalmated Plovers
Many Sanderling
1 Banded Piping Plover
1 Magnificent Frigatebird
3 American Oystercatchers
We also had several Swallow species
Bank, Tree, Barn, and Purple Martins at the park. Cliff Swallows in Pasco county.
The osprey trail was full of Osprey (duh), Gray Kingbirds, Cardinals, Eastern Towhees, and 11 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Several White-eyed Vireos were heard. 1 roosting Great Horned Owl. 2 Bald Eagles were past where we turned off the main path (was informed by another birder we bumped into)
Our bird of the day was a FOS Peregrine Falcon that caused a huge flock of Sandwich Terns to fly off in a panic. Also had one Cooper's Hawk.
Out on the mudflats at low tide behind the Nature Center was a flock of ~40 Blue-winged Teal. Odd to see them out on the flats and not in one of the ponds.
Yay for migration!
Good Birding,
Dan Irizarry
Bradenton, FL
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