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"Eight of us
(and later in the trip one more)
showed up for this early morning
field trip, which turned up some
great birds today. We had great
early morning views of first of the
season PRAIRIE WARBLER this morning
in the parking lot along with
singing towhees, house wrens and
catbirds. The beach had lots of
Bonaparte’s gulls, Northern gannets,
Great black-backed gulls and plenty
of the usual birds. On the inlet,
Laura identified a white-throated
sparrow, which some of us got to
appreciate. We had yellow-rumped
warblers virtually everywhere, plus
American robins too numerous to
count. There were at least two
common loons in the inlet.
The boardwalk at Ft Matanzas was
under construction, so we had to
switch our plans somewhat, but were
still rewarded with white ibis,
snowy egret, tri-colored heron,
brown pelican and several
black-crowned night herons at the
rookery. We had an adult and an
immature bald eagle in the area, as
well as osprey and the usual
vultures.
We headed to another small park,
where we found a common
yellowthroat, towhees, cardinals and
more yellow-rumps. At another spot
for shorebirds, we had red knot and
marbled godwit. White pelicans were
easily seen. We actually flushed a
Wilson’s snipe in one area. It was a
fun day that ended in an attempt to
find the brown booby, which chose
not to be seen today. Many thanks to
Veronica, Lee, Peggy, Peggy (another
Peggy!), and Diane (another Diane!),
Benjamin, Laura, and JoElla for a
great birding day."
- Diane
Reed, February 9, 2008
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Leaders:
Diane Reed (904-829-9854) and
Veronica Peterson
Date:
Saturday,
February 9, 2008
Time:
0715 (trip ends around 1pm)
Meeting Place:
Ft. Matanzas east side Parking Lot
What to Bring:
Dress for the weather,
binoculars, snacks, etc.
Directions:
Located about 15 miles south
of the historic district of St.
Augustine, Florida. Follow Highway
A1A south for approximately 15 miles
to the park.
Admission Fee
- Call Diane Reed
We’ll start with some offshore
birding from the boardwalk for
gannets, ducks and other winter
migrants. At 9AM, we’ll head for the
park entrance and check the Nature
Trail and Park areas. This is the
perfect time of the year to test
your skills on shorebirds and winter
species.
We will meet at
the parking lot just south of the
main entrance to the park (this is
on the east side of A1A).
http://www.nps.gov/foma/ |
1. Common loon
2. Northern gannet
3. American white pelican
4. Brown pelican
5. Double-crested cormorant
6. Great blue heron
7. Great egret
8. Snowy egret
9. Little blue heron
10. Tri-colored heron
11. Black-crowned night heron
12. White ibis
13. Lesser scaup
14. Hooded merganser
15. Red-breasted merganser
16. Black vulture
17. Turkey vulture
18. Osprey
19. Bald eagle
20. Sharp-shinned hawk
21. Red-shouldered hawk
22. Red-tailed hawk
23. Black-bellied plover
24. Willet
25. Spotted sandpiper |
26. Marbled godwit
27. Ruddy turnstone
28. Red knot
29. Sanderling
30. Western sandpiper
31. Dunlin
32. Short-billed dowitcher
33. Wilson’s snipe
34. Laughing gull
35. Bonaparte’s gull
36. Ring-billed gull
37. Herring gull
38. Great black-backed gull
39. Royal tern
40. Forster’s tern
41. Black skimmer
42. Rock pigeon
43. Eurasian-collared dove
44. Mourning dove
45. Belted kingfisher
46. Red-bellied woodpecker
47. Yellow-bellied sapsucker
48. Downy woodpecker
49. Eastern phoebe
50. Blue jay |
51. Fish crow
52. Carolina wren
53. House wren
54. American robin
55. Gray catbird
56. Northern mockingbird
57. European starling
58. White-eyed vireo
59. Orange-crowned warbler (?)
60. Yellow-rumped warbler
61. Prairie warbler
62. Palm warbler
63. Common yellowthroat
64. Northern cardinal
65. Eastern towhee
66. Savannah sparrow
67. White-throated sparrow
68. Red-winged blackbird
69. Boat-tailed grackle
70. House finch
71. House sparrow |
