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Posted by Alex Harper on 17:21:52 12/27/09
Roxanne, Carlos and I ventured up to Brevard County early this a.m. We arrived at Vierra Wetlands at 9:00, where several birders already had the male duck in scopes. We watched the bird ferociously defend it's territory from coots and moorhens. It is being seen at the northern area of Cell 4.
Also in the area were Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, American Bittern, Crested Caracara, and Sandhill Cranes.
We then headed up to Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in search of the Eurasian Wigeon seen recently. Common Loon and Bald Eagle were seen between Titusville and the refuge. We spent about two hours in the refuge, sorting through over a thousand distant American Wigeons and Northern Pintails. Though the light treated us well, the birds were distant and commuting between ponds. At one point we saw several hundred wigeons and pintails cover a section of the sky. Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, Mottled Duck, and Hooded Mergansers were also in the ponds. Further along were groups of shorebirds and larids, such as Dunlin, Caspian and Forster's Tern, and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Keep looking up, the weather in the northeast will be pushing ducks, gulls, and some passerines into south Florida. American Robins were seen heading south from around Vero Beach.
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