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Posted by Carlos Sanchez on 09:22:28 12/13/11
John Murphy and Andy Wraithmell invited me over for a day of birding in North Florida, with Sprague s Pipit being the main target species for our day s effort. With all the great birds being seen in the northern part of the state, I took up the gracious invitation.
On my drive up the state on December 10th, I stopped in Gainesville briefly to try for the returning red morph Fox Sparrow originally found by Andy Kratter. I had fantastic views of the bird within about 20 minutes of waiting by the platform feeder about 200 yards south of SE 22nd Ave on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail. A small flock of Chipping Sparrows was also busily attending the feeders.
On December 11th, Andy Wraithmell got off to an early state at Bottoms Road to look for Black Rail. We failed to get a response out of the Black Rail but we did have a young bobcat run along the road on our way in and observed both Clapper and Virginia Rails in the marsh itself. We then met up with John Murphy at his house and headed off towards the Mud Cove portion of Alligator Point to look for sea ducks and loons. There was plenty of activity here, including two Mexican race Cave Swallows, three Bald Eagles, Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Bufflehead, and American Oystercatcher. A stop at Cheryl Ann s home to see Black-chinned Hummingbird didn t quite work out for the hummingbird, but we did observe large numbers of common North Florida birds visiting her feeders, including House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, and American Goldfinch.
At a very windy Apalachicola Regional Airport, we flushed a Sprague s Pipit almost immediately for anyone looking for this bird, the extensive white outer tail feathers and distinctive (and loud) flight call will help immensely. After some effort, we finally managed to zero in on a bird that landed on the ground and got stellar looks (and Andy got great photos!). We also observed and photographed a Le Conte s Sparrow in this field, which was a first for John Murphy at this site. After this spot, we slowed the pace down and poked around Saint George Island (no sign of Sage Thrasher or Inca Dove) before heading home.
Before the big drive home on December 12th, Andy Wraithmell allowed me to borrow his scope so that I could look for American Black Duck (counted 7 birds) and Cinnamon Teal at St Marks NWR. Both species were in the exact spots as advertised. The Cinnamon Teal was a beautifully marked and bright male in the SE corner of Stony Bayou II. The entire refuge was rich in both numbers and diversity of waterfowl, including Mallard, American Black Duck, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, and Red-breasted Merganser. I had 18 total species of waterfowl on this quick fire trip. For anyone in South Florida debating about making the trip up north, do not hesitate about going as it is an excellent birding experience with a different set of birds, different scenery, different culture, and different climate it is the other Florida.
Carlos
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