"Barry Albright, Margaret Carver,
Charles & JoAnna Vander Kolk, and
Diane Reed showed up for this field
trip. Our nice cozy group had plenty
of topics and birds to talk about.
When we met in the parking lot, we
found 5 Eastern meadowlarks perched
on a power line, which was a
pleasant surprise.
Next stop was the kiosk with the
feeders, which for some reason was
in disarray, but that didn’t stop
the birds. There were house wrens,
cardinals, song sparrows and even
ground doves out there giving us
really good looks. We even spooked
up a merlin (we think) that had been
resting in the area.
As the weather warmed up, we headed
for the pier with high hopes of
purple sandpiper, but this was not
seen on this trip. We had great
assortments of gulls and terns to
wade through as they sat resting on
the beach. This gave us opportunity
for study. Another merlin zoomed
through the area. We also saw
exactly ONE coot. There were plenty
of Northern gannets off shore, but
not much else other than the usual
pelicans and laughing gulls. A pair
of bald eagles were seen high in the
sky.
Afterwards, we walked the Willow
Pond trail, which gave us more
chances to study. Jo Anna pointed
out a bird hiding on a tree limb,
which we identified as a hermit
thrush. This was a pleasant
surprise.
We spent time working on bird calls
of hermit thrush and also of song
sparrows. It made it a lot easier to
find the birds. We were able to
clearly find and identify sandwich
tern and Forester’s tern in the
hundreds of gulls at the shore. This
was a great birding workshop type of
day and everyone went home having
learned a little something about
birds."
- Diane Reed,
11/12/2007
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Leaders:
Diane Reed &
Barry Albright
Date:
Saturday,
November 10, 2007
Time:
Park opens at 8AM (Park fee - $5 per
vehicle)
Meeting Place:
Ft. Clinch State Park - Fishing Pier Parking lot;
@ the Great Florida Birding Trail
station.
What to Bring:
Water, lunch,
snacks, sunscreen, insect spray, binoculars,
camera, scope if you have one. Dress
appropriately for the weather
conditions and bring comfortable
walking shoes.
Directions:
Take I–95 to the Fernandina
Beach/Callahan exit (Milepost Exit
373 - Old Exit 129), and stay to the
right. You will then be traveling
east on A1A. (This road becomes 8th
Street within the town limits of
Fernandina) Stay on this road,
(A1A), for 16 miles until you come
to the intersection of 8th Street
and Atlantic Avenue. Turn right on
Atlantic Avenue and go about two
miles, Fort Clinch State Park will
be on the left.
Admission Fee
- $5.00
per vehicle. Those
who have a valid Florida State Park
individual annual pass are admitted
to Ft. Clinch SP 'free'; additional
persons in the vehicle are $1 per
person. Plan on
being at the Pier parking lot for at
least 20 minutes to check for
migratory sparrows and resident
birds. We will then walk the pier
in search of purple sandpiper and
other winter birds.
Afterwards, we
will either walk the Willow Pond
hiking trail or proceed to the area
of the Fort. Time permitting, we
will visit Egan’s Creek Greenway and
then work our way down the coast
stopping at areas for additional
birding. Although this is mainly a
morning field trip, we will plan on
birding until mid afternoon.
Refer to the
previous field
trip report from September 17,
2006 for more details.
Additional
questions, please contact Diane Reed
at 904-829-9854. |
1. Northern gannet
2. Double-crested cormorant
3. Brown pelican
4. Turkey vulture
5. Osprey
6. Bald eagle
7. Merlin
8. American coot
9. Willet
10. Ruddy turnstone
11. Sanderling
12. Laughing gull |
13. Ring-billed gull
14. Herring gull
15. Royal tern
16. Sandwich tern
17. Forster’s tern
18. Black skimmer
19. Mourning dove
20. Ground dove
21. Red-bellied woodpecker
22. Eastern phoebe
23. Tree swallow
24. Barn swallow
25. Carolina chickadee |
26. Tufted titmouse
27. Carolina wren
28. House wren
29. Ruby-crowned kinglet
30. Hermit thrush
31. Gray catbird
32. Northern mockingbird
33. Yellow-rumped warbler
34. Black and white warbler
35. Northern cardinal
36. Song sparrow |
