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Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge & Viera Wetlands
Field Trip – November 18, 2006
Five intrepid
birders met Tom Dunkerton at a
rather crisp (chilly) 7AM at the
MINWR boat ramp ready for action. We
determined with this size group, we
would change our itinerary to
include Viera Wetlands, since a few
of us had never been there before
and it was showcasing the Masked
Duck at one of the ponds.
We headed out
to Pumphouse Road and immediately
starting seeing large rafts of coots
and other ducks. Palm warblers and
Savannah sparrows were popping up
all over the place. Every so often,
a bald eagle would fly through and
all of the ducks and peeps would
take to the air and then
redistribute. What a sight. This
phenomenon would usually occur just
as we had our scopes ‘fixed’ on the
duck group – only to have to start
scoping all over again. What fun it
turned out to be. In the mix, we
actually found one black tern
dipping and hovering over the water,
which we deemed rather late for the
season.
At the
Pumphouse Road, we had dowitchers,
red knots, western sandpipers, least
sandpipers, black-bellied plovers
and others that will be listed
below. We watched white pelicans fly
over. American avocets in large
groups were seen feeding in the
shallow waters. There were a few
marbled godwits hanging around the
area to add a touch of color and
variety to the mix. Ducks were quite
distant for scoping, but gave us
better views for later in the day.
Many of the ospreys sat perched on
the pilings giving us great views.
Next stop was
Blackpoint Nature Trail which was
equally as productive. At this
point, Meret Wilson joined the group
and birded the rest of the day with
us. We decided to use two-way radios
in an attempt to be sure everyone
saw the target birds. We had plenty
of the marsh waders, to include
Reddish egrets with their delightful
displays. This area was alive with
ducks and we were treated to hooded
mergansers, better views of
green-winged and blue-winged teal,
plus large numbers of Northern
pintails and plenty of sightings of
the ‘daffy duck’ Northern shoveler.
One of my
target birds for the day was
Gadwall, which Tom found for me as
we scoped from the top of the
Cruikshank platform. We had great
views of beautifully plumaged
roseate spoonbills, plus good lucks
at the ducks. On the way out, we
attempted to get an elusive wren out
of the shrubs, which we feel pretty
sure was a sedge wren. The common
yellowthroats kept getting in the
way. We scoped lesser scaup on the
way out of the refuge.
At this point,
we re-grouped and decided we should
head over to Viera Wetlands, which
was another exciting stop for our
group. Viera is located about 20
miles south from MINWR and is worth
the visit, once you have driven this
far from St. Augustine. Viera is an
amazing place to visit, especially
when your trip leader is there
birding all the time and knows the
exact target areas.
We headed to
the ‘click’ ponds first and found
one lone ruddy duck. We could see
the sandhill cranes in the distance.
With the water levels rather high at
the click ponds, there was not much
else to offer, other than the
pied-billed grebes and ring-necked
ducks. Tree swallows were passing
throughout the day, I might
mention. Some of the group stopped
at this point and decided to check
out the beautiful butterflies in the
corner near the click ponds. Meret
found blue-gray gnatcatcher,
white-eyed vireo, and ruby-crowned
kinglet. Brown-headed cowbirds were
hanging around as well.
The excitement
mounted as we headed towards Masked
duck territory. We drove onto the
Wetlands roads and bypassed the
folks that were searching in all the
wrong places, as Tom led us to the
exact location for the MASKED
DUCK. And there she was – with no
disappointment whatsoever. We
watched the masked duck as Tom D.
and Marie Dailey took photos. During
this time, we also had an American
bittern and limpkin moving around
the area.
For our near
finale, Tom decided to show us the
Cinammon Teal. He took us to the
area where there were hundreds of
ducks and Gary D. was the first to
spot the bird. It was an amazing
bird to find. Mixed into the group,
were more fantastic looks at teal
and shovelers. As we were leaving
the area, Tom asked me to stop the
car ‘Just one more time, please’… He
then lept from the car and proudly
announced that there were Canvasback
ducks...and one Redhead duck with
them. What fantastic comparisons
between these two ducks. We could
not have asked for a better
opportunity to view these ducks side
by side. If that was not enough, Tom
then found a Wilson’s snipe at the
edge of one of the ponds.
As we reached
the end of the Viera wetlands still
without a Crested Caracara, we
decided to make a quick loop around
to the newly opened Conservation
area inbetween the click ponds and
the wetlands. There are plenty of
warning signs saying Do Not Stop. We
were careful to obey the warnings as
we drove this three mile road to the
end. Hunting was also in progress,
so we knew not to stay there too
long. We didn’t find our caracara in
this area, but did find
red-shouldered hawk and American
kestrel. We had an encounter with a
water moccasin seen on the side of
the road. On the way out, as Diane
R. briefly paused to view a kestrel,
a car came speeding towards us. The
driver abruptly stopped and quite
specifically warned Diane about
following the rules saying Do Not
Stop on this roadway. Go figure… we
never could determine why they have
that rule, but needless to say,
Diane R. was quite happy to get away
from the Security guard with only a
reprimand.
As our group
bid farewell, we decided to ‘stop
one more time’… Off in the
distance a lone Crested Caracara was
seen perched at the top of a tree as
the sun was setting. The perfect
ending for a fun-filled 12+ hour
birding day.
- Diane
Reed, November 19, 2006 |
Leader:
Thomas J.
Dunkerton
