Week 2 (1/13/19) - Heading North... Again

As much as this is a birding blog, it is also very much about my efforts to return to fitness. Combining those two interests, I have resumed taking short walking breaks at work, but now with an added focus on looking at the birds. My co-workers have given me some odd looks as I circle the parking lot with my binocs around my neck, but who cares? I'm getting fitter and slowly building up a reasonable little location list for the office.

I'm not sure exactly how many times I took one of those walks this week, but it was at least one per work day. The highlight of the week for sure was two dozen Cedar Waxwings going to town on the berries in the trees next to the parking lot. They make such a great sound and are incredibly attractive birds. Sadly I was not able to snag a pic, as they move quickly. I think I also want to invest in an adapter for my digiscope setup so I can use it with my binocs. Hopefully that'll help me get pics I might otherwise struggle to get.

Saturday morning saw another trip out to Huguenot and Big Talbot to try and pick up a few more year birds for me, as well as my Duval first Purple Sandpiper and Marbled Godwit. Huguenot was fairly busy, as has been the case on recent visits, though there was less activity around the spot where the Red-necked Grebe has been hanging out. Mandy was along for the ride this time, and hadn't been able to see the grebe last week due to a presentation at a conference in Tampa.

The bird was not visible from the free parking lot (I'm assuming some sort of collusion with park staff) but was readily visible from the first part of beach. As before, it dove continually, making pictures difficult. I think it was in better light today, though, and so the pics came out well, even though I think the bird was a little further away this time.

Red-necked Grebe - note clearly visible red on neck and yellow on bill

Enlarged to better show features

Following that we strode out to the jetty in search of the elusive Purple Sandpiper. We ran into Pierre again today, who said some other birders had just seen the flock of Turnstones and the infamous Sandpiper fly north. We decided that there was a reasonable chance the birds would circle back to their favored spot and so maintained vigil south of the rocks. The number of birds there is a little overwhelming at times - hundreds of terns, skimmers, gulls and shorebirds all intermingling.

Mixed flock with Black Skimmers, Forster's Terns, Royal Terns, Laughing Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls

Royal Terns - they look the same age, but one seemed to be begging the other food quite relentlessly and making quite a racket in the process

Alas, despite all my scouring through roughly 50 Ruddy Turnstones (left no Turnstone unturned) there was no sign of the Purple Sandpiper. I am going to take a break from looking for him next week, in the hopes he will be more cooperative when I do finally get around to seeking him out.

Me scouring through gulls, terns and waders in search of the presumably invisible Purple Sandpiper. Went for a very blue ensemble today - blue hat, blue hoody, blue t-shirt, blue jeans, blue shoes... Hmm...

After mixed results at Huguenot (Mandy was very happy to have seen the Grebe, naturally) we headed north, past Little Talbot Island SP (sorry, Ani) and onwards to Spoonbill Pond at Big Talbot Island SP. As we were pulling into the parking lot, Mandy was able to spot the Avocets from the car. That told me we were in for a good visit.

American Avocets - we saw ten in total! In summer their heads change from white to red and therefore far less like their European brethren, the Pied Avocets of RPSB logo fame

I currently have hourly rare bird alerts for Duval County on my phone, so I know if something like the Grebe shows up. Two Marbled Godwits have been showing up in my inbox almost constantly for the past two weeks. Obviously last week was a disaster for the pond itself due to those miscreant youths, but this week the pond was perfect - very birdy and containing everything I was hoping to see and more!

Marbled Godwit - a relatively common bird in NC, but a very good bird for north Florida. Note the bicolored bill, pink at the base and changing to black at the tip. Also note the buffy tones both above and below, as well as hulking size

The Godwits are so much larger than everything else around them it's almost comical. They are like a Wookie trying to hide on Endor, among the Ewoks (congrats if you get the reference). They are also a lovely warm brown color compared to the grayish brown of the vast majority of the shorebirds who frequent Spoonbill Pond in the winter.

I was also very happy to see the Northern Shovelors lurking in the background of the pond, as they were showing up on my 2019 Needs e-mails for Duval. We were also treated to an unexpected surprise, as a Cooper's Hawk (or Blue Dasher if you prefer) swooped low over the water twice, causing quite an uproar among the settled shorebirds. No-one was keen to become an explosion of feathers, as is the usual fate of an accipiter's prey.

Northern Shovelers - didn't realise how awful this picture was until I got home. You can see the buffy flanks, green head and golden eye that are all good field marks. Unfortunately the best field mark - stonking big bill - is submerged

After birding, I stopped by St. John's Town Center to play a bit of Pokemon Go, since it was Community Day and I wanted to get me some shiny Totodiles. After walking around for an hour and half, and partaking of a samosa from one of the food trucks, I was happy to call it a day with four shinies collected. All in all, I managed a little over 12,000 steps between birding and poking and am at around 78,000 for the month. That's not nearly as many as it could be, but it's an improvement on what I had been doing, and that's the goal right now.

I started the day on 110 birds this year in Duval county (and just in general for the year), just two short of the entirety of 2018, and added four new birds, taking my 2019 tally to 114. I've been thinking about goals for 2019 in Duval as well as my overall 2019 goals. My Duval life list stood at 166 at the end of 2018 and has already risen to 177. I would like to push that over 200 for sure and maybe even aim for 200 just for 2019. That strikes me as a really good accomplishment, if I can manage it. So, that's the new goal! I'm going to add some new items on the right side of the screen, so you can see various tallies in addition to the Life List birds added throughout the year.

Week Two Checklists
Huguenot Memorial City Park list
Big Talbot Island SP - Spoonbill Pond list