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Posted by David S. on 08:06:29 11/25/12
Seven of us left Flamingo at 9:10 Saturday morning in 4 kayaks and 1 canoe for a great day of birding the waters and mud flats of Snake Bight. The weather was excellent with sunny, clear skies and a cool breeze 10-15 mph from the NW. Tides were in our favor with low tides exposing the mud flats around 10:30. As we entered the bight from the west, we were rewarded with observing an adult GREATER FLAMINGO flying east. This (or another) Flamingo was observed on 2 different occasions towards Gibby's Point, wading with many other birds on the mud flats. What a Treat! We paddled the western shore of Snake Bight and up towards Gibby's Point, close to several thousand birds were present on the exposed flats and shoreline. Over 500 White Pelicans and about 1000 Willets were seen. Other treats observed were 3 Bald Eagles and a "grocery shopping" Peregrine Falcon terrorizing the shore birds with its' fly-overs, sending hundreds of birds into the air at one time. The small, low-profile boats allowed us to get quite close to many of the birds in the flats. After paddling around the spoil bank close to the board walk, we headed back to Flamingo and finished the tour around 3:30. Other species observed, and some in very large numbers, were as follows:
Pied Billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Comorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron (white morph)
Great Egret
Snowy Egret (few hundred)
Little Blue Heron (few hundred)
Tri-colored Heron
Reddish Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
GREATER FLAMINGO
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Laughing Gull (hundreds)
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Forester's Tern
Black Skimmer (100 +)
Belted Kingfisher
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Short-tailed Hawk (light morph)
Broad-winged Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover (100+)
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet (2)
Willets (400 +)
Spotted Sandpiper
Marbled Godwit (100+)
Ruddy Turnstone
Samipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher ( 500 +)
American Crow
Tree Swallow
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