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Posted by Elsa Alvear on 11:15:31 12/23/13
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delay, happy lunch break, and thanks Judd Patterson for the "memory list" he posted last week. Here are the results as will be reported to Audubon for the Dry Tortugas National Park CBC on December 17, 2013. Many thanks to the count team participant volunteers!
We had a wonderful trip out there (the ride back was bumpy for sure). The staff and boat crew were wonderful to our count team as usual and we thank the new site supervisor Glenn Simpson and the park staff and boat crew.
We had a total of 40 species (including one species for count week, Sooty Tern). The weather was warm and the species count was a bit low. However the Peregrine Falcons were quite actively feeding on the Sandwich Terns as Judd mentioned. There is a great deal of interest in the Tricolored Munia that Judd and Michelle Davis co-spotted. If anyone sees it again please let the birdboard community know. Also please note, I heard a rumor there was a Little Egret at Garden Key, I believe this was a misidentification of a white phase Reddish Egret that is present there (along with a regular plumage color of the same species). We saw no wading birds with yellow feet like a Little Egret (no snowy egrets, for example, and no Little Egrets). Also note the Brown Noddy, this might be the first time we observed this species during a CBC at this park.
Masked Booby 91
Brown Booby 126
Northern Gannet 22
Brown Pelican 145
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Magnificent Frigatebird 127
Reddish Egret 2 (one was white phase, the other regular plumage color)
Yellow-crowned Night Heron 2
Red-creasted Merganser 3
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon 2 (one was quite small and was thought to be an immature male)
American Coot 1
Black-bellied Plover 9
Killdeer 4
Willet 1
Whimbrel 2
Ruddy Turnstone 35
Sanderling 14
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Pomarine Jaeger 1
Laughing Gull 131
Herring Gull 37
Royal Tern 111
Sandwich Tern 89 (including a few that met their end that day thanks to the Peregrine Falcons, but were alive when counted)
Common Tern 2
Sooty Tern (Count Week)
Brown Noddy 1
Black Skimmer 13
Eurasian Collared Dove 3
White-winged Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Barn Swallow 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Palm Warbler 41
American Redstart 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Tricolored Munia 1 (associates with Palm Warbler/Yellow-rumped Warblers on parade ground inside Fort Jefferson on Garden Key).
Happy birding!
Elsa Alvear & Sonny Bass, co-compilers
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