So, understandably I think, I spent some time recovering from the Texas trip which left me rather lacking in energy for Week 16. I did very little aside from the usual birding until Sunday, when Mandy and I headed out to take advantage of the migration madness that has hit Florida.
First up the Theodore Roosevelt Area (basically the same place as the Spanish Pond Trail I've previously mentioned). It was a Smörgåsbord of birds just in the parking lot! So many great birds! And looking back through the pics I see I got almost no pictures of those great birds..
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| Glorious mature Bald Eagle sitting right above the trail |
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| My first East Coast male Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
Look at this marvelous chap! What a beauty. Stunning Northern Parula.
After walking around the Teddy Roosevelt Area we migrated over the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens. I've not been there before, but it has proven very popular with the Duval birders of late, with the diverse flora helping bring in diverse fauna.
Here's the one and only video I have from the Arboretum - but what a video! Always super happy to find a Painted Bunting. This guy hopped out right next to the path and gave us a nice little display. Right around the same time we also saw a couple of Blue Grosbeaks.
All in all I added 13 year birds for Duval on the 21st. That's a really good day by anyone's standards. My Duval total stood at 152 by the time we left the park. I'm gonna drop the lists here since it is a long old post.
Theodore Roosevelt Area list
Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens list
Week 17 passed in similar fashion - with gentle short birding stints during the week mostly restricted to the parking lot at work and my back yard. On the Saturday I made a couple of stops and managed to pick up another six birds for the year.
This guy was the absolute highlight of my 2.5 hour visit to the preserve. Look at him go!
In addition to the Bachman's Sparrows who were calling like crazy (the 5 I reported was almost certainly a very low count), I finally got my Duval Wood Duck. I didn't see the bird, but I heard it flying south across the preserve. There are patches of water there and they've been reported previously, but I've missed out on Wood Ducks in Duval before, so it was nice to get a smallish monkey off my back.
It was a very pleasant time at the park and I even had an opportunity to stop and chat with one of the many local residents using the park for running. It was nice to have a chance to talk to someone who was interested in the birds around them and who clearly appreciated the benefits of the park.
Following on from Julington Durbin, I traveled over to UNF to meet up with Mandy and look for warblers and associates (Warblers and Associates, new band name, I call it!). UNF did not disappoint either. After nearly 3 hours of birding we had seen 37 species, including three more year birds - Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager and the ever glorious Blackpoll Warbler.
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| Scarlet Tanager getting ready to fly away. |
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| Made an animated gif of him taking off because it was too cool! Look at the way he keeps his wings tucked in for a while first. That frame cracked me up the first time I saw it in isolation. |
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| Tanager bullet! |
We also saw this guy! Looks like a Southern Water Snake (based on very brief scouting mission online)
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| Not a bad shot of the Blackpoll in the end. They have a distinct similarity in appearance to Chickadees, at least in their heads. The yellow legs and dashed flanks aren't as clear as I'd like in the pic, but both are very helpful for IDing these guys. |
On the Sunday, I had the opportunity to look after Trevor's girls for a few hours, which was cool. We tried to go to Reddie Point, but it was closed for some construction work, so instead we went to Blue Cypress Park, just down the road. The birds were incredibly uncooperative with the exception of about a dozen cardinals and one snazzy Green Heron (no pics sadly). And that was pretty much the end of Week 17.
Julington Durbin Preserve list
UNF Wildlife Sanctuary list
Week 18 included 5/4/19 which in addition to being Star Wars day was designated as the Global Big Day for eBird. They encourage everyone to get out and just see as much as they can. I have so far done a fairly mediocre job on previous Global Big Days (27 in 2018, 0 in 2017, 49 in 2016, 0 in 2015). So Mandy and I hatched a plan to do something we'd talked about for a really long time - clearing the 100 species mark in a single day!
Before I go on to discuss the craziness of the Big Day, a quick note here to say that I got home from playing D&D on the 1st around 11pm and heard a Barred Owl! It was apparently in a neighbor's tree, as they were out in the backyard with flashlights trying to see it. It called for a good five minutes or so, seemingly happy to ignore the flashlights. An excellent yard bird and Duval bird 159 for the year.
Anywho, back to the Big Day. Obviously it required planning, which we did. I know, I was surprised by us as well. In theory we could expect over 150 birds in Duval County (the area to which we restricted ourselves) on that date, although seeing some of them required good luck and there's only so many places you can go in a 24 hour period. Also, birding all day long is really tiring and I'm not the energetic young thing anymore - I'm 35!
So we concocted a plan which involved meeting up pre-dawn at UNF in hopes of owls, specifically Barred and Screech, which we felt should be out on the trails somewhere. I'll skip the frustration of those pre-dawn hours - not a single owl was seen or heard, but we did see a few Cardinals flapping around the pre-school care centre... so yay...
Once dawn came around, though, we were not disappointed. It is worth pointing out that we made a conscious decision to not stress too much about trying to get images and videos of birds, as that would slow us down and we had a lot of places to visit. So we only really tried to capture pics of the special birds that day (yes, I know, all birds are special, but you know what I mean so don't sass me!).
I've looked back through the videos I did take there and unfortunately there's a distinct lack of properly diagnostic shots, but there were two really great birds and one pretty darn good bird on the trails.
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| Female Nashville Warbler! Apparently not expected as much during Spring (flagged as rare in eBird). If you squint a little you can make out the eye ring which is a good diagnostic feature on a relatively muted bird which can otherwise look similar to the more likely Common Yellowthroat female |
We spent a good couple of minutes trying to get footage or pics of her, and this was about as good as it got. There's better pics for the overall shape, but this one shows that all-important eye ring as well as the muted yellow front.
This profile view also shows a hint of the eye ring as well as the absence of wing bars and the overall muted tones. Trust me when I say I wish I had a better pic, but I'll take this for now.
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| Swainson's Warbler - at least I had been following one and this is what I ended on, so I think it is the same bird... |
On top of the Nashville and Swainson's Warblers, we picked up a Northern Waterthrush (my first ever in Duval) and left UNF around 815 after three hours and with 29 species on the day list.
We left UNF and added a few more birds to the day list (I missed the Purple Martin due to driving duty) and headed to the Jacksonville Arboretum. Obviously we were hopeful of finding the Painted Bunting again and maybe some other friends of his. Alas, during the hour we were there we did not get eyes on any buntings or grosbeaks, but we did still find eight species of warblers, including Cape May, Blackpoll and Black-throated-Blue. We saw 22 species total and helped raise the day tally by another chunk. A brief trip to the Theodore Roosevelt Area parking lot yielded a handful of birds, but few new ones. The Mississippi Kite on our route was nice though.
Next stop - Heritage River Roads Wetlands on the north side of the St John's River. This spot has consistently turned up a very diverse mix of birds and is far more productive than it looks like it should be. Sadly we did not see the Common Loon reported there lately (still missing it for my all-time Duval list somehow), but we saw 27 species total there during our hour-long visit.
On top of hearing a Painted Bunting in the roadside foliage, we added some other very good birds to the list. There was a group of about 10 Gull-billed Terns present, previously reported there by many others at this point. We also picked out a Long-billed Dowitcher from the crowd, associating with the numerous Short-billed Dowitchers. Another good bird for the day was the 40 or so American White Pelicans who flew over at one point.
We also had well over 1000 Laughing Gulls as well as vast numbers of terns, shorebirds and other gulls. One other nice addition for the day was a couple of Savannah Sparrows. They should have been there, but it was good to get them on the list. Hitting 100 requires birds like the Sav Spa.
The day was mostly over by this point, but we weren't done! We stopped in at M&M Dairy on the way back into civilization and added Loggerhead Shrike, Brown-headed Cowbird and a group of Northern Rough-winged Swallow. From there we scooted over to Sheffield Regional Park to try for Coots and Gallinules, getting the Gallinules after a little waiting. We also saw these chaps:
Following on from there we headed back towards UNF. Unfortunately there was a huge sporting event which had several routes through the school blocked off. We were able to add Muscovy Ducks, Eurasian Collared-Doves, House Sparrows, House Finches, and a single Cedar Waxwing calling heard only by me which frankly was a relief as it offset that Purple Martin from earlier in the day.
To say we were flagging at this point would be massively understating it. It was around 730 that evening, some 14 hours or more after we started birding at that very location and we were totally bushed. As we were tallying up the final numbers we added one more bird, a Common Nighthawk flew over us bleeping at us as s/he went. That nighthawk was bird number 104 for the day! A staggeringly high number, yet somehow not the best of the day for Duval. Another local birder managed to hit a couple of extra places and finished on 111. Had we known we were a) that close and b) in such direct competition, I think we would have found the strength to try and find some more birds and try and sneak that top spot. Ah well...
The next day, I barely birded at all. Are you surprised? I logged over 36000 steps on the Global Big Day, absolutely destroying my previous record. So ended week 18.
But then Week 19 started! In fairness it started in a very similar manner to most weeks, with half-hearted birding efforts throughout the work week. But wait, there's more!
I have been wanting to make some more decisive steps towards improving my fitness, so I went out and purchased some running shoes from my local running store. They were not cheap, but I got expert advice on what shoes would be a good fit and I ended up buying the eighth pair I tried on. Then I started running! I ran three times during Week 19. All three runs I felt like garbage. Initially it was my lungs that hurt, then the pain slowly migrated to feet and legs. I am not going to give up though. I knew it would be a slow and painful start. But a start it is.
So to continue my efforts I have signed up for two races in the fall - the Fort De Soto 15k in St. Petersburg and then a return to NC for the Medoc Trail Races 10 miler. I absolutely love that race, it was the first time I pushed myself up to 10 miles. I managed to convince Angie and Mandy to join me in that one. It'll be fun to get the gang back together again.
My one birding outing of significance for Week 19 was a trip to Westside Industrial Park to add another Duval bird for the year. This location is well known to Duval birders as the best place to see Limpkins.
And that is that! I'm up to date! Currently in Orlando for MegaCon. I'll be back tomorrow having very little to update, so the next post will be for Weeks 20 and 21.
Thanks for reading everyone!! Catch you on the flippity-flop
Julington Durbin Preserve list
UNF Wildlife Sanctuary (4/27) list
UNF Wildlife Sanctuary (5/4 morning) list
Jacksonville Arboretum list
Heritage River Road Wetlands list
Big Talbot Island SP list
M&M Dairy list
Sheffield Regional Park list
Westside Industrial Park list
We left UNF and added a few more birds to the day list (I missed the Purple Martin due to driving duty) and headed to the Jacksonville Arboretum. Obviously we were hopeful of finding the Painted Bunting again and maybe some other friends of his. Alas, during the hour we were there we did not get eyes on any buntings or grosbeaks, but we did still find eight species of warblers, including Cape May, Blackpoll and Black-throated-Blue. We saw 22 species total and helped raise the day tally by another chunk. A brief trip to the Theodore Roosevelt Area parking lot yielded a handful of birds, but few new ones. The Mississippi Kite on our route was nice though.
Next stop - Heritage River Roads Wetlands on the north side of the St John's River. This spot has consistently turned up a very diverse mix of birds and is far more productive than it looks like it should be. Sadly we did not see the Common Loon reported there lately (still missing it for my all-time Duval list somehow), but we saw 27 species total there during our hour-long visit.
On top of hearing a Painted Bunting in the roadside foliage, we added some other very good birds to the list. There was a group of about 10 Gull-billed Terns present, previously reported there by many others at this point. We also picked out a Long-billed Dowitcher from the crowd, associating with the numerous Short-billed Dowitchers. Another good bird for the day was the 40 or so American White Pelicans who flew over at one point.
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| Two of the Gull-billed Terns. They have a very crisp black cap extending well down the neck but not their cheeks, as well as a heavy all-black bill. Really cool terns. |
Mixed group here showing Black-bellied Plovers, Dowitchers, Gull-billed Terns and almost certainly some other small shorebirds.
From there we headed to Big Talbot Island in hopes of more shorebirds, maybe a sparrow or two and then whatever else Horus and Huitzilopochtli felt like sending our way. One hour of birding yielded another 30+ bird haul, including another few good birds for that time of year. Once again, Long-billed Dowtichers were picked out from the crowd, as well as a calling Belted Kingfisher (apparently uncommon at this time of year in Duval, so says eBird). We were also able to add a couple of ducks, in the form of Blue-winged Teal, Mottled Duck and Red-breasted Merganser. We also had a lovely sighting of Clapper Rails in flight and swimming! Sadly the tide had dropped far enough that there was no sign of the sparrows.
For your viewing pleasure I submit this grooming Reddish Egret.
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| A much nicer picture of Gull-billed Terns, this time at Big Talbot Island SP. They have a very regal bearing, much to the dismay of Royal Terns everywhere. |
Onto Huguenot Memorial City Park. We had a strong opening, with an American Kestrel, and following that up with a tally of 28 species across a three hour slog of a walk around the entire park!
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| eBird recorded the trip at 4.7 miles, only a small portion of that took place from the comfort of a car. |
We opted to walk on the inside of the lagoon first, looping around the back to see what we could find out there. Our choice was rewarded early on when we encountered a group containing Long- and Short-billed Dowtichers close together with perfect viewing for comparisons.
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| Short-billed Dowitcher - note the more prominent white on the flanks below the wings and general grab color |
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| Long-billed Dowitcher - more colorful overall with far less white on the flanks. |
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| Getting some serious attitude from this Ruddy Turnstone |
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| American Oystercatcher having a little lie down |
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| My first Duval Whimbrel (one of four I think) |
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| I tried to turn this into something more exciting. There is a very vibrant and passionate gull ID community in Florida so I am used to people posting all sorts of unusual gulls out here. Merlin flagged this one as a possible California Gull, but based on relative size to the Laughing Gull in the foreground, I was informed it is almost certainly a Herring Gull. |
The day was mostly over by this point, but we weren't done! We stopped in at M&M Dairy on the way back into civilization and added Loggerhead Shrike, Brown-headed Cowbird and a group of Northern Rough-winged Swallow. From there we scooted over to Sheffield Regional Park to try for Coots and Gallinules, getting the Gallinules after a little waiting. We also saw these chaps:
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| Recently fledged Green Heron babbo! The parents came and visited it right after I started moving away, so no footage of that sadly. There was quite a ruckus though, as other chicks emerged and demanded attention and food. |
To say we were flagging at this point would be massively understating it. It was around 730 that evening, some 14 hours or more after we started birding at that very location and we were totally bushed. As we were tallying up the final numbers we added one more bird, a Common Nighthawk flew over us bleeping at us as s/he went. That nighthawk was bird number 104 for the day! A staggeringly high number, yet somehow not the best of the day for Duval. Another local birder managed to hit a couple of extra places and finished on 111. Had we known we were a) that close and b) in such direct competition, I think we would have found the strength to try and find some more birds and try and sneak that top spot. Ah well...
The next day, I barely birded at all. Are you surprised? I logged over 36000 steps on the Global Big Day, absolutely destroying my previous record. So ended week 18.
But then Week 19 started! In fairness it started in a very similar manner to most weeks, with half-hearted birding efforts throughout the work week. But wait, there's more!
I have been wanting to make some more decisive steps towards improving my fitness, so I went out and purchased some running shoes from my local running store. They were not cheap, but I got expert advice on what shoes would be a good fit and I ended up buying the eighth pair I tried on. Then I started running! I ran three times during Week 19. All three runs I felt like garbage. Initially it was my lungs that hurt, then the pain slowly migrated to feet and legs. I am not going to give up though. I knew it would be a slow and painful start. But a start it is.
So to continue my efforts I have signed up for two races in the fall - the Fort De Soto 15k in St. Petersburg and then a return to NC for the Medoc Trail Races 10 miler. I absolutely love that race, it was the first time I pushed myself up to 10 miles. I managed to convince Angie and Mandy to join me in that one. It'll be fun to get the gang back together again.
My one birding outing of significance for Week 19 was a trip to Westside Industrial Park to add another Duval bird for the year. This location is well known to Duval birders as the best place to see Limpkins.
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| Sure enough - Limpkin! They're so freaking cute! Duval year bird 173! |
Thanks for reading everyone!! Catch you on the flippity-flop
Julington Durbin Preserve list
UNF Wildlife Sanctuary (4/27) list
UNF Wildlife Sanctuary (5/4 morning) list
Jacksonville Arboretum list
Heritage River Road Wetlands list
Big Talbot Island SP list
M&M Dairy list
Sheffield Regional Park list
Westside Industrial Park list
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