Viera Wetlands, 11/19/2011

Loggerhead Shrike

This morning we went down to Viera Wetlands, and we had great weather for birding and photography.  On the main route around the wetlands, we saw all the usual suspects, though I was fortunate to be able to watch an American Bittern for about 10 minutes before he flew off to another clump of grasses.  Those 10 minutes were worth the whole trip for me.  It was also nice to see a few Hooded Mergansers, though they were too far away to get good photographs.  We saw a Pied-Billed Grebe with a big fish in his mouth; it still amazes me how these birds can fit so much into their mouths.  At the click ponds we saw more Hooded Mergansers, Ring-Necked Ducks, and a couple shovelers. We then took the road back toward the River Lakes Conservation area, and we saw a couple nice Kestrels as well as a couple Loggerhead Shrikes. We got to watch one as it caught a grasshopper and impaled it on a barbed wire fence before eating it.

Loggerhead Shrike

American Kestrel

Pied-Billed Grebe

American Bittern

Snowy Egret

Here's a list of species we saw at Viera Wetlands between 7am and about noon.

Blue-winged Teal 4
Northern Shoveler 2
Ring-necked Duck 4
Hooded Merganser 6
Pied-billed Grebe 20
Wood Stork 1
Double-crested Cormorant X
Anhinga X
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron X
Great Egret X
Snowy Egret X
Little Blue Heron 5
Tricolored Heron X
Cattle Egret X
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
White Ibis X
Glossy Ibis X
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 3
Bald Eagle 2
Crested Caracara 1
American Kestrel 2
Common Gallinule X
American Coot X
Limpkin 1
Sandhill Crane 6
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 1
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Loggerhead Shrike 3
Fish Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
Palm Warbler X
Savannah Sparrow X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Boat-tailed Grackle X