From: Bruce M. Bowman To: pxf3@psuvm.psu.edu Subject: Florida birding Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 23:45:25 Paula, I'm back from my Florida trip and have just finished my list work. Summer birding is kind of boring just about anywhere, and I think Florida is no exception, but I had a great time since I've never birded there before (or anywhere else in the south). I got 11 new life birds, as listed below. My total count for the trip was 47. Least Bittern (incredibly, a life bird) Wood Stork Glossy Ibis White Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Mottled Duck Limpkin Snail Kite Fish Crow Loggerhead Shrike Boat-tailed Grackle I was based in Stuart. My itinerary was: DAY 1 Savannas Recreation Area Sandhill Crane Park Swampland Tour, Okeechobee Jaycee Park, Okeechobee Belle Glade Noxahatchee NWR futile search for Burrowing Owl sites (land is now developed) John Prince Park Solid Waste Authority (West Palm Beach) Hobe Sound NWR DAY 2 Fort Pierce Inlet State Recreation Area Jack Island State Preserve Jonathan Dickinson State Park A few comments. 1. The Swampland Tour was great. I told Barry that Paula Ford told me about the tour. I also gave him a printout of the Email you said you posted to the Internet. (rec.birds?) He's really appreciative of your support. I had my new book with me, the ABA's _A Birder's Guide to Florida_, by Bill Pranty. I showed him the section about the Swampland Tour. He hadn't know of it before. He got the book title/author from me and said he was going to get it right away from the ABA. He said it will be helpful in making his case for support from the school system (?) in Florida. I've recommended his boat trip to the friends my wife and I stayed with in Stuart and would recommend it to anyone. It was a highlight of my trip. Thanks for telling me about it. The best bird was a Snail Kite, the only one I saw on my trip. It was perched facing us, about 40 feet from the boat. It sat there until we got tired watching it. Neat bird. We saw several Limpkins, and we got great looks at a couple that paid us little attention. There were some "calico" first-year Little Blues. I've seen them before but not so well. We saw Common Moorhens with chicks. That was fun. The chicks are pied-billed. The boat operator misidentified a Loggerhead Shrike as a Northern Shrike. It was near the dock. Barry surely knew, but he wasn't on the boat yet and didn't see it. We saw alligators and their nests. We saw 25 species of birds on the boat trip. Barry said we would see 40-45. He may think we did. He wasn't counting. I don't doubt that there would be 40 in some other months. Here's what we saw. Anhinga Double-crested Cormorant Least Bittern Green Heron Tricolored Heron Little Blue Heron Cattle Egret Snowy Egret Great Egret Great Blue Heron Glossy Ibis Limpkin Purple Gallinule Common Moorhen American Coot Turkey Vulture Snail Kite Osprey Rock Dove Fish Crow Loggerhead Shrike Northern Mockingbird Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Boat-tailed Grackle 2. I saw 300 White Ibises flying over at the Solid Waste Authority near West Palm Beach. Wow! 3. I saw three different flocks of Wood Storks, each with 30-40 birds. 4. John Dickinson State Park is the pits. I don't think it would be good even during migration. It's nothing but scrub pine. Supposedly there are Florida Scrub Jays there, but I saw zip. I must admit, though, that I didn't have time to go to the river. Have you ever seen anything at John Dickinson? 5. The best places were Swampland Tours (25 species), Jack Island State Preserve (15 species), and Noxahatchee NWR (22 species). My trip list is below. Thanks again for your help. Bruce ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Birding Near Stuart, Florida June 21-23, 1996 SPECIES LOCATION OF FIRST SIGHTING Brown Pelican Ft. Pierce Inlet State Recreation Area Anhinga Savannas Recreation Area Double-crested Cormorant Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Least Bittern Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Stuart Green Heron Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Tricolored Heron Sandhill Crane Park Little Blue Heron Sandhill Crane Park Cattle Egret Stuart Snowy Egret SR-70, Ft. Pierce to Okeechobee Great Egret Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Great Blue Heron Savannas Recreation Area Wood Stork SR-880 east from Belle Glade Glossy Ibis Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee White Ibis Solid Waste Authority, West Palm Beach Roseate Spoonbill Jack Island State Preserve Sandhill Crane US-441 near Loxahatchee Mottled Duck Loxahatchee NWR Muscovy Duck John Prince Park, Lake Worth Limpkin Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Purple Gallinule Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Common Moorhen Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee American Coot Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Laughing Gull Ft. Pierce Inlet State Recreation Area Turkey Vulture Hobe Sound Black Vulture SR-70, Ft. Pierce to Okeechobee Snail Kite Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Osprey Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Rock Dove Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Mourning Dove Sandhill Crane Park Common Ground-Dove Jaycee Park, Okeechobee Red-bellied Woodpecker SR-70, Ft. Pierce to Okeechobee Northern Flicker Hobe Sound NWR Great Crested Flycatcher Loxahatchee NWR Eastern Wood-Pewee Ft. Pierce Inlet State Recreation Area Purple Martin Belle Glade Blue Jay SR-880 east from Belle Glade American Crow Belle Glade Fish Crow Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Carolina Wren Loxahatchee NWR Loggerhead Shrike Swampland Tour, Lake Okeechobee Northern Mockingbird Stuart Northern Cardinal Savannas Recreation Area Red-winged Blackbird Savannas Recreation Area Common Grackle Savannas Recreation Area Boat-tailed Grackle Sandhill Crane Park House Sparrow Stuart ============ Total = 47 ============