Fort De Soto, 2/24/2012

Palm Warbler

This afternoon I went to Fort De Soto with a friend, and we had a fantastic time.  We only saw a total of 30 species of birds from about 3:30pm to 6:00pm, but the lighting was wonderful and the birds put on quite a show.  To start the afternoon off, we went to East Beach and there was a very nice Willett among some Laughing Gulls.  Some Palm and Yellow-Rumped Warblers were in the trees, and a beautiful Palm Warbler put on a show for me.  We also saw one Prairie Warbler.

Willet

From there we went to North Beach, and here things really were fun.  The first thing we saw once walking to the beach was a white morph Reddish Egret, and then a dark morph came by and they put on quite a display.  In fact, I took so many pictures of these two birds that I'll include them in a later post.  We saw five American Oystercatchers, lots of Willett, Dunlin, and other shorebirds.   One of my favorite moments was seeing a Great Blue Heron fly up into a tree with a Belted Kingfisher.  I thought for sure the kingfisher would have been intimidated into flying away, but he held his ground.  I also saw my first of the year Marbled Godwit as he flew by me.  I even caught a glimpse of a dolphin--pretty fun.

American Oystercatcher

Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher

Sanderling

Dunlin

Snowy Egret

Here's a list of species that I saw this afternoon a Fort De Soto:

Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 11
Snowy Egret 3
Tricolored Heron 1
Reddish Egret 2
White Ibis X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 5
Black-bellied Plover 5
American Oystercatcher 5
Willet 25
Marbled Godwit 1
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 5
Dunlin 20
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Laughing Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull 2
Royal Tern 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 5
Fish Crow X
European Starling 1
Palm Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Prairie Warbler 1
Boat-tailed Grackle X