Viera Wetlands, 1/24/2012

Osprey

On my way home from Miami this morning I took a break from the monotony of I-95 and visited Viera Wetlands. I only had about a half hour to spare, but I ended up staying for closer to 45 minutes.  I drove around the main wetlands area once and the "click" ponds once just to see what I could find.   I'm sure I breezed by many birds worth my attention and missed species that were there, but I did see an American Bittern and many Green Herons.  Just outside the wetlands by one of the residential ponds on Wickham Rd, I also saw about seven Black-bellied Plovers.  An Osprey was eager to pose for me; he seemed very curious about what I was doing with my camera.

Osprey

Double-crested Cormorant

American Bittern
(he poses well, but he needed to give me a better background)

Northern Shoveler

All said and done, I saw 42 species, some of which were seen just outside of the park. Here's a list of the species I found:

Blue-winged Teal 5
Northern Shoveler 1
Ring-necked Duck 3
Hooded Merganser 5
Pied-billed Grebe 10
Wood Stork 1
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Anhinga 3
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron 6
Cattle Egret 13
Green Heron 5
White Ibis 15
Glossy Ibis 3
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Common Gallinule 1
American Coot 100
Sandhill Crane 2
Black-bellied Plover 7
Killdeer 1
Caspian Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 3
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Fish Crow 3
Tree Swallow 50
European Starling 10
Common Yellowthroat 1
Palm Warbler 2
Savannah Sparrow 2
Swamp Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 3
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 10
Boat-tailed Grackle 10