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Posted by Rick Schofield on 10:45:09 01/06/14
About 40 people crammed and squished into 10 cars for the first caravan tour of Stormwater Treatment Area 1-East (STA-1E) of the new year. Skies were overcast at the beginning but quickly cleared to crystal blue, practically cloudless and it became quite hot. Even though the winds were wicked when I left home on the coast at 6:45, there was hardly a breath inland and the impoundments were like mirrors.
I live not too far away so I have the opportunity to come here often. And it is always worth it because the varieties are constantly changing. While total numbers of individual birds was down this trip, the number of different species was quite high at 80 + 2 sp. including 11 different duck species, 12 waders, 8 raptors, and 12 (+ 1 sp.) shorebirds. Not too shabby!
Tropical Audubon has an STA-1E trip scheduled for February 1 so sign up now with Brian to reserve a spot.
Thanks to Cory Callaghan for sharing the following list.
Rick
Stormwater Treatment Area 1E--Auto entrance, Palm Beach, US-FL
Jan 5, 2014 7:10 AM - 12:12 PM
Protocol: Traveling
9.0 mile(s)
Comments: STA1E auto tour trip. LOTS of people on the trip, so it was difficult to get super accurate counts, but the counts are conservative estimates of birds seen or heard. Includes about 30 minutes of birding and counting birds flying out of the STA in the morning. Then the trip around the area. It was roughly 9 miles traveled as measured on Google Earth. Good diversity of birds throughout the area.
80 species (+2 other taxa)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 143
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 41 one large group in the back of an impoundment on the way out. Then one individual bird elsewhere.
American Wigeon 90 lots of wigeon on the way out in one of the impoundments, and only a couple elsewhere
Mottled Duck 80
Blue-winged Teal 141
Northern Shoveler 65
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 92
Ring-necked Duck 16
Lesser Scaup 3
Hooded Merganser 2 flyovers early in morning while waiting for the group
Pied-billed Grebe 39
Wood Stork 12
Double-crested Cormorant 30
Anhinga 29
American White Pelican 1
Great Blue Heron 32
Great Blue Heron (White form) 1 continuing bird.
Great Egret 24
Snowy Egret 16
Little Blue Heron 21
Tricolored Heron 14
Cattle Egret 24
Green Heron 5
Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
White Ibis 13
Glossy Ibis 26
Roseate Spoonbill 43
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 26
Osprey 10
Snail Kite 4
Northern Harrier 5
Bald Eagle 2 one adult near the edge of STA in a ways, and then one third year bird kettling with vultures as we left
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 both immatures
Red-tailed Hawk 1 seen at very end as I was pulling out of gate.
Sora 1 heard distinct whinny
Purple Swamphen 34
American Coot 677
Limpkin 23
Sandhill Crane 1
Black-necked Stilt 24 close to an exact count. sprinkled throughout the drive.
American Avocet 12 close to an exact count. sprinkled throughout the drive.
Black-bellied Plover 5
Semipalmated Plover 35 conservative estimate
Killdeer 11
Greater Yellowlegs 1 at least 1 flew in front of vehicle calling. didn't pay much attention to yellowlegs as there were few sprinkled around.
Lesser Yellowlegs 15
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 3 near dike, early in trip
peep sp. 60 2 different groups of peeps that went unidentified. Too distant and too much distortion to get enough detail to id for me.
Long-billed Dowitcher 205 couple of different large groups. Conservative count.
Wilson's Snipe 1 1 flyover early in trip
Ring-billed Gull 2
Gull-billed Tern 32 all congregated together. conservative estimate
Caspian Tern 27
Forster's Tern 39
Black Skimmer 340 conservative estimate
Eurasian Collared-Dove 13 near entrance
Common Ground-Dove 1 flyby
Belted Kingfisher 14
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 near entrance
American Kestrel 4
Peregrine Falcon 1 nice scope looks. was chasing terns at one point as well
Monk Parakeet 6 near entrance
Eastern Phoebe 2
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Fish Crow 8
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 27
Tree Swallow 2
House Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Gray Catbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 1 flyover early in morning.
Common Yellowthroat 20
Palm Warbler 70 plentiful throughout.
Savannah Sparrow 21
Swamp Sparrow 5
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark 4
Common Grackle X
Boat-tailed Grackle X
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16243778
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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