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Posted by Toe on 00:49:20 12/27/10
Our team of Joe Barros, Paul "Life is Good" Bithorn and myself started off this morning with a bang at Dump Marsh. We dipped on the owls, but even before dawn we had 6 Bonaparte's Gulls feeding in the SW pond at Dump Marsh. We also had Forster's Tern, Redhead, Pintail, Peregring Falcon, Merlin, Indigo Bunting and a juvie/female type Yellow-headed Blackbird at Dump Marsh among other good stuff, but our most exciting find was a 14 ft. Crocodile that Joe spotted as Paul and I tried to ID a sparrow on the opposite bank of the canal. Joe called out "crocodile", and I asked "Where, behind that huge log?" He replied "It is the log". The link shows a photo of the massive beast as it passed just a few yards in front of us.
We then headed to Black Pt., where we added a few more birds, including two female Bufflehead feeding south of the jetty. As always, I had a full plate of family activities today, but in the afternoon I joined tray for a scan from the canoe launch where we found 4 Horned Grebes just south of the marker with the sign. At sunset, I went to Dump Marsh again and added a single Lesser Nighthawk to the day's list. Although it wasn't as much time as I would have wanted to spend birding, we had a great time. A big thanks to the Dump Marsh/Black Pt. team for their efforts.
Here's the list for today (Paul, Joe, Trey please correct if I missed anything):
Mottled Duck 11
Blue-winged Teal 10
Northern Pintail 4
Green-winged Teal 5
Redhead 2
Ring-necked Duck 1
Lesser Scaup 4
Bufflehead 2
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Pied-billed Grebe 78
Horned Grebe 4
Brown Pelican 13
Double-crested Cormorant 125
Anhinga 1
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 4
Great Egret 8
Snowy Egret 9
Little Blue Heron 6
Tricolored Heron 7
Cattle Egret 4
Green Heron 2
Yellow-crowned Hight Heron 3
White Ibis 260
Glossy Ibis 13
Wood Stork 1
Black Vulture 4
Turkey Vulture 32
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 4
Short-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 2
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Common Moorhen 7
American Coot 250
Black-bellied Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 40
Killdeer 30
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Long-billed Dowitcher 36
Wilson's Snipe 8
Laughing Gull 1400
Bonaparte's Gull 6
Ring-billed Gull 600
Lesser Black-backed Gull 5
Royal Tern 6
Forster's Tern 2
White-winged Dove 1
Mourning Dove 48
Common Ground Dove 1
Lesser Nighthawk 1
Belted Kingfisher 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Loggerhead Shrike 2
Fish Crow 48
Cave Swallow 7
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Gray Catbird 15
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 1000
Orange-crowned Warbler 2
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 8
Common Yellowthroat 19
Savannah Sparrow 1
Grasshopper Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Painted Bunting 1
Yellow-headed Blackbird 1
Red-winged Blackbird 44
Common Grackle 20
Boat-tailed Grackle 16
Brown-headed Cowbird 250
85 species, 4,539 individuals
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