Posted by Justin Miller on January 11, 2016 at 14:22:57
I often skip Peaceful Waters in favor of two closer parks to me - Wakodahatchee and Green Cay, hitting it maybe once for every 50 visits to the other two. I decided this weekend to pop up to Peaceful Waters just to change the scenery as GC and Wako have both been fairly quiet and slow. Well, Peaceful Waters is very active and quite full of birds and some wintering ducks. Loads of roseated spoonbills - upwards of 30-35 of them. Half a dozen white American pelicans, along with some brown pelicans. Royal terns, belted kingfishers, solitary sandpipers, least sandpipers. A dozen or more hooded mergansers, a lovely sight as I don't often get to see them at GC or Wako - at least in 5-6 years. Quite a few northern shovelers - maybe 10? Also a question for TASboard members...how rare a sighting would a white-faced whistling duck be? I've never seen one, and I know they're exotic - I saw some reports of them on the non-native list at FL Fish & Wildlife, but they only show 3 counties in 91, 98, and 2000. A friend of mine got a shot of one in flight hanging with a bunch of black-bellied whistlers...I'm just wondering if it's a fairly common or not noteworthy sighting, or worth having him report or post it.