I woke up really early to make it out to Garcon Point in Santa Rosa County. The habitat looks good for Yellow Rail. Le Conte's Sparrow is easy. I did not know it would require a long walk before Le Conte's started popping up with the Swamp Sparrows and Sedge Wrens. I saw a total of 5 Le Contes by walking about 1/2 mile off the trail into the marsh, but did not see too much else of any interest. A quick stop by the spots in Ft. Walton Beach revealed that most of the areas were closed. I decided that I should start heading east. So I did. A few stops on the Choctawhatchee River produced a few new self found birds like Fox Sparrow and Creeper, as well as my year Winter Wren. I also got a year woodpecker in the area. Just a Hairy, not Ivory-billed. Since it was getting a little late, I rushed up towards the Alabama boarder on route 2 to find some good looking fields. My first two fields sucked. One yard on county road 164, or something like that, had a bunch of Chipping Sparrows, and 2 blackbirds in a field. I scoped them out hoping they could possibly be Brewers, but both were Brown-headed Cowbirds (something Alex was very happy to see on my last trip). When I came to a stop sign on CR 164 I decided to turn to an open area. 'Yep, this is the area I wanted to get to' is what I thought when I came to the large dirt field where I found Horned Lark, a big rarity in the state. It did not take long to find a Lark in the field which only contained 2 other species. I quickly called Dave to let him know, and he said he would be there in about 40 minutes. I also called Bob Wallace, who I knew needed the bird to let him know he should be up there the next day. After watching them for a little bit, I decided to get better directions from route 2. Once I got back to the spot with the correct mileage, Dave pulled up and easily located his state bird. I decided to leave to make it to Lake Seminole to pick up my year Canvasback. I looked for a good Pipit field I found on my last trip on River Road, but could not find it. If anyone is up in the area, you might want to drive down to Three Rivers and look for a good field on the east side of River Road a good ways north of Lake Seminole. I was almost to the dam when a group of geese caught my eye. A quick scan revealed a lack of Cackling and Snows and anything that was not Canada. Once on top of the dam it took a while to find a Canvasback, and the only other surprises were a larger number of Buffleheads and Common Loons, as well as four White Pelicans. I could not find an open Dairy Queen, so I settled for a Burger King as my only meal of the day. The year list was at 239 and I was within reach of the 243 that Dave got in January on his big year.
Horned Lark photo by Bob Wallace |
