Fort Myers Birding and Butterfly Watching - Part 2 Birding (Part 2 of 2)

Part 2 Birding


I had planned on lifering 10 extra species on this trip... In particular - Snowy Plover .... But I got skunked! No new lifers for me!

These were some of the birds I was hoping to see:

1. Mangrove Cuckoo
2. King Rail
3. Backmans Sparrow
4. Saltmarsh Sparrow
5. Snowy Plover
6. Least Tern (arrives late march)
7. Scissor Tailed Flycatcher
8. Short tailed Hawk
9. White tailed Kite
10. Monk Parakeet

Still... The birding wasn't a complete letdown. There were some decent sightings. Some photos below:

Point Pelee Piping Plover

This morning, I had heard my phone chime as new email had come in. Classically conditioned like Pavlov's dogs, I instinctively checked my email to see that Steve Pike and a Local Leamington Birder who goes by the name "afternoon shift" posted a Point Pelee peninsula Piping Plover! Much to the chagrin of my wife and two kids I kissed them adieu and fled to the southernmost point of Canada. Upon arriving to the tip, Jeremy Bensette hinted that I might best walk to East Tip (not East Beach!) through Sparrow Field. There it was, in perfectly front-lit perfection! At one point, we heard it singing or 'piping'! This little flufball of cuteness was for many years (and still is) "Endangered" because its preferred habitat is big wide sandy beaches. If you have a few minutes check out this amazing link documenting the life and habitat of the piping plover: http://www.audubon.org/plover

It soon fled from East Beach upon Kory's arrival to see the bird. But we agreed it probably flew back to the tip, and that guess was correct. At one point, a few birders were laying down on the sand to get better photos and I had noticed a lady with a dog was walking by - Did she think we were nuts? It just so happens that staying low to the ground lets you separate the bird from its background, making the bird jump out from its Gaussian-blurred background.

A couple of other cool birds seen today were four Tree Swallows (sitting on the sand!), an Eastern Phoebe, and a Long Eared Owl!

Last weekend, I tried to get a Purple Sandpiper at Pelee's Tip but dipped. I did get a breathtaking look at this Eastern Screech Owl... A dirt bird at Pelee but still amazing!

Tufted Titmice are easy to see at Ojibway Park during the late Fall and Winter months. Always fun to see these birds!

Good birding!
Dwaynejava

This is what a plover looks like at normal zoom range. Can you find it?

Note: At some point today on Sunday Nov 25, 2013 - My blog reached 100,000 hits!

Birding in Fort Myers Florida (Part 1 of 2)

 
I just got back from one week in beautiful Florida. My trip was not mainly a birding trip, as it was more of a family trip, but I still did get in a fair amount of birding. To get some birding in without disrupting the family too much,  I would wake up before sunrise on several morning and drive out to to places like Babcock Web WMA  or Little Estero Lagoon and be back at the hotel for 9am. This posting only covers my last day in Florida... it was that good!

Little Estero Lagoon on Fort Myers Beach

During our Florida trip, we had a hotel more 'inland' but I had booked one night right on Fort Myers Beach. I chose the famous "Holiday Inn" [map] with the nature preserve behind it. I had attempted to bird this area once or twice in the past, but found it birdless (or just the most obvious birds) and did not understand what the big deal was. A birder told me that I need to go in the morning, and to check out the second small lake, more to the southwest of the hotel. This second lake was a little better! I had about 7 plovers, one was a black-bellied, the 1 was a Piping Plover (unbanded) and the other 5 were Semi-palmated Plovers (I think). Most readers of this blog already know that the Piping Plover is endangered due to its habitat requirements --- Wide sandy beaches. This gorgeous little shorebird simply makes a small cup in the sand (a scrape) and lays sand-coloured eggs right in the middle of the beach. If people are walking on the beach, driving on a beach (think Sauble Beach or Daytona Beach), dogs, cats, gulls, snakes, crows, racoons etc... any of these natural or mademade interruptions... the nest fails and the population plummets towards extinction. Luckily we see some attempt to have areas of beaches flagged off for piping plover nests.

Piping Plover - Endangered Species!!!

I took note of the area, and scanned for anything I could see. Several White Ibis, Tricoloured Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Least Sandpipers, Black-crowned night Heron, Osprey, Brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls, Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets.

Then, as I was walking back to my hotel room, I saw two photographers with tripods walking briskly towards the beach. I was not expecting to see this next bird, which was huge (literally and figuratively)... An American Oystercatcher, just strolling slowly along the beach, completely ignoring the morning joggers and shell-collectors!

Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral Florida

This was my last day in Florida, and we needed to catch a plane at 2pm, so later on, at lunch, I had asked our waitress (who was from Cape Coral) if she knew of the famous Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral Florida. She suggested a park (Jaycee Park) in Cape Coral that was not far off our path to the airport. Nobody at this park new of any Burrowing Owls... I must have asked 5 locals and hardly anyone knew of them or their locations. One lady said to look in vacant lots and look for PVC pipes sticking out of the ground.

Out of time, I had to drive back to the airport. I was not going to see these owls on this trip. I was explaining to my wife about "Thats how  birding goes... You try your best but sometimes you're not going to find what you're looking for"... Just then I see a vacant lot  with PVC markers...Pulled over, binoculars... Bamm! Burrowing Owls!!!

Here is a street-level map of where I found these owls!

View Larger Map

Jim Mccormac has a good writeup on Burrowing Owls in Cape Coral [here] .
The City of Cape Coral has an official page about Burrowing Owls [here].


Finally, as we arrived at the airport (on Terminal Access Road), two Swallow-tailed Kites flew right above my car. I pulled over on the shoulder and snapped a few photos. Perhaps these two are setting up a nest near the airport? This Kite has nesting materials!

This was just the last day of my trip, I will try to pack in the remainder of the week in my next posting!

Good birding!
Dwayne

PS: Here is a list of target birds I had for this trip (ambitious list!). I had  a humble 7 life birds and 5 or so life butterflies on this trip.

Target Birds:

Black whiskered vireo

Mangrove Cuckoo

Swallowtailed Kite

Snail Kite

Brown headed Nuthatch

Barred Owl

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Bachman's Sparrow

Red Cockaded Woodpecker

Western Sandpiper

Snowy Plover

Wilson's Plover

Least Tern

Prairie Warbler

Black legged Stilt

American Oystercatcher

Long billed Curlew

Target Butterflies:

Mangrove Skipper [link]