I started the year off in my grandmothers neighborhood
with Great-horned Owl and Killdeer as the first birds of the year.
As I approached De Soto I ticked some more year birds like Wood
Stork, Wilson's Plover, Semiplamated Plover, Dunlin, Short-billed
Dowitcher and other shorebirds, along with three Spoonbills. I
think this started me off with 12 species for the competition, but all
the night birds would be seen later.
As the sun was rising, I walked out to the Boreal Chickadee spot (named
while sleep deprived on a previous big day) the rain began. Once
I got out to the end I saw only a few shorebirds and thought to myself
what the lowest total the event ever had was. Despite the rain I
was able to find most of the shorebirds like Snowy, Piping and
Wilson's Plover, and Red Knot as well as a Common Loon which can
be difficult at De Soto. The list was not impressive, but I
trudged on in the rain. I went around the northern end of
the park for most of the morning looking for songbirds, especially
Blue-headed Vireo. The rain kept fogging up the binoculars, but
no birds I looked at appeared to be this key species. While
trying to find one these little guys both kinglets, Hermit Thrush,
Black-and-White Warbler all appeared, and I finally got my eyes on a
Blue-headed near North Beach. The beach itself had very low
numbers of birds, with my day Reddish Egret, one Oystercatcher, and a
surprise Harrier I took what I could get and packed the car up to head
out of the park. I decided to skip the Mulberry area and make a
quick stop at East Beach Turnaround before heading out of the park for
more birds. The turnaround held the usual Horned Grebe as well as
a Lesser Black-backed Gull.
A five minute stop at the duck pond outside the park gave me all the species I needed,
Redhead, Ring-necked, Ruddy, Wigeon, and Green-winged Teal, and a drive
around town gave me many new species as well as many more loons.
The most unusual bird outside the park was a Chipping Sparrow that I
found on the 31st and saw again on the day of the competition.
Time was running out as I went back into the park. A quick stop
for a scouted out Sapsucker at North Beach failed. A late
decision turn to the Gulf Pier gave me a Gannet after about 10 minutes
of looking. While out on the jetty I thought to myself that this
was the only pier I could stand on in Florida and have Loons outnumber
Gannets. Since I had about 50 minutes left I figured I could
spend a few minutes at the Mulberry area since I did not hit it hard in
scouting and something new could show up. As I was just leaving
the parking lot a group of Palm Warblers flew up with one bird with
white outer tail feathers. Year Bird, but what? A pipit?
Vesper Sparrow? Junco never hit my mind, but that's what it was
and I got all the birders in the area over to see it.
After a lengthy stay
at the lunch at East Beach Woods I worked my way up to Hudson and picked up my
year Frigatebird and Black Vulture before meeting up with Dave Simpson before
the West Pasco Count the next morning. Unlike most birding adventures, we got to sleep
before 9, and my year list stood at 110.
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