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Posted by Walter and Sue on 09:49:42 01/05/14
We spent Friday, Jan. 3rd at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Our South Florida resiliency was tested by 45 degree temps, buffeting winds, and misting rain. But we persevered and had a very successful day birding. Our numbers were lower than expected, we assume due to the weather. Some highlights quite a few ducks including buffleheads, pintails, shovelers, bw teals, lesser scaup, hooded and red-breasted mergansers; also a Virginia rail, bonaparte's gulls, scrub jay, lots of spoonbills and white pelicans. We also saw black scoters and horned grebes at Rotary Park off US 1 just north of Pineda. We hadn't seen many hawks yet that day so we were pleased by a merlin perched on a pole at the park. As we watched the merlin, a red-shouldered hawk flew in and replaced the merlin on the perch.
But the best sighting of the day happened as we were entering Rotary Park. We were stopped waiting on the light to change to allow us to make a left into the park and were looking at a dead gallinule on the road in front of us. Our attention was distracted by a bald eagle flying in to examine the same dead bird. It hovered over the bird, about 10 feet in front of us and we watched its eyes look down at the carcass, look over at us, and at the numerous cars going through the intersection. It finally gave up the quest to retrieve the meal and flew off to a nearby pine tree. Phenomenal!
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