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Posted by Elsa on 18:26:08 12/18/09
Scroll down for list. Fun times were had by all at the 2009 Dry Tortugas National Park Christmas Bird Count. A tremendous thank you and kudos to the wonderful staff at Dry Tortugas especially Tree, Captain Blue, and Janie; their efforts at assistance and schedule-accommodation are to be commended. Most especially a big thank you to NPS biologist Sonny Bass, because organizing this CBC is very challenging. Sonny Bass, Michelle Davis, Rafael Galvez, Debbie Hess, Debbie White, Mark Parry and I birded Garden Key (with Fort Jefferson), Loggerhead Key, Bush Key (where the Sooty Terns nest in the spring), and Long Key (where the Magnificent Frigatebirds nest) by foot and Hospital Key (where the Masked Boobies are), East Key, and Long Key, as well as the boundary markers and other buoys, by small motorboat. We all had great looks at the frigatebird displays and other behaviors... they are the coolest. Michelle and I had terrific looks at a Brown Booby on a piling on the north coaling docks of Garden Key. One of the Peregrine Falcons was quite dark, maybe it was a Peale's. The Burrowing Owl has made a burrow; while two individuals have been reported, we only saw one during the count but who knows, next year there may be more. Not a lot of warblers but this certainly was the Year of the Brown Booby. There are no trees left on Bush Key and just a few on Long Key; I worry for the frigatebirds but they were still displaying and nesting so I cross my fingers. It has become very very difficult to walk through the vegetation at Loggerhead; the NPS efforts to keep the exotic plants out have really paid off in terms of native plant growth (including the thorny plants, ouch). Here's the list.
34 species, 1098 individuals plus one more species for count week:
305 Masked Booby
121 Brown Booby
50 Northern Gannet
48 Brown Pelican
6 Double-crested Cormorant
200 Magnificent Frigatebird
2 Great Blue Heron
2 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
1 Red-bellied Merganser
2 Northern Harrier
3 Cooper's Hawk
1 Red-shouldered Hawk
4 Peregrine Falcon (2 dark, one of which was very dark)
14 Black-bellied Plover
2 Semipalmated Plover
2 Killdeer
1 Willet
2 Whimbrel
39 Ruddy Turnstone
16 Sanderling
1 Pomarine Jaeger
63 Laughing Gull
1 Ring-billed Gull
42 Royal Tern
4 Sandwich Tern
~100 Sooty Tern (estimated; heard, not seen)
1 Black Skimmer
1 Burrowing Owl
1 Belted Kingfisher
5 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Prairie Warbler
40 Palm Warbler
1 American Redstart
16 Savannah Sparrow
Seen count week: Baltimore Oriole
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