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Posted by Vincent Lucas on 13:27:55 03/14/11
Last night around 6:30PM, I got a call from Roberta Marten making me aware of a Common Loon she and her husband Bill had just seen on Lake Avalon at Sugden Regional Park here in Naples, Collier County. By the time I received the message, it was too dark to go search for the bird. Common Loon has eluded me at every turn this winter and very few have been reported anywhere in Collier County. I have checked every beach and inlet from Caxambas Pass on Marco Island to Barefoot Beach in North Naples on the Collier County/Lee County line to no avail. My Collier County Big Year (CCBY) list was loonless until this morning 03/14/2011, when Bob Mellor and I arrived at Lake Avalon at 6:30AM. We waited for first light around 7:10 or so and immediately located the Common Loon out in Lake Avalon about half-way from the grandstands (for the waterski show) and the beach. This was Collier County bird #173 for my Collier County Big Year. Common Loon has previously been found on Lake Avalon by my buddy Alan Murray several years ago. That bird stuck around for well over a week. Perhaps this Common Loon currently being seen will do the same. Next, Bob and I drove up to CREW Marsh (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed) in extreme northeast Collier County to try for another one of the birds I have missed for my CCBY, namely, Hairy Woodpecker. I'm glad to say that we found a Hairy Woodpecker at CREW Marsh and I was even able to photograph it. Go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107900&id=1452300618&l=9920587a32
I'd appreciate feedback from non-Facebook users as to whether or not the above link works for them or if they receive a message of denial for whatever reason. Thanks!
Hairy Woodpecker is #174 for my CCBY. Glad to get it and the Common Loon out of the way! Other birds seen today by Bob Mellor and I were mostly "expected" birds but we did visit my friends, the Midney's, feeders in Immokalee and saw the Painted & Indigo Buntings, the latter are very "blue" as well as American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin (x1), Chipping Sparrow, White-winged Dove, etc. 50+ Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were still present around the farm pond on the north side of CR846 aka Immokalee Road, .9 miles east of the intersection of Oil Well Grade Rd. & CR846.
A good day of birding in Collier County!
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