St. Marks NWR, 3/4/2012

Lighthouse at St. Marks NWR

On Sunday afternoon I was driving home from Dothan, AL, and I decided to "drop by" St. Marks on my way home.  Well, it's about an hour out of the way, but it just had to be done.  I spent about an hour and a half in the refuge, and other than one particular crazy driver, it was a nice restful break from highway driving.  St. Marks is beautiful, and I did see a fair number of birds there, but most of them were pretty far away, and I had very few keeper photos.  Most of them merely helped me identify birds in the distance.  I saw my first-of-the-year Black Crowned Night Herons and Canvasback ducks, all too far way to photograph.  But three female Bufflehead did put on a show for me, and photographically, they were my saving grace.  An Eastern Phoebe and Belted Kingfisher posed for me as well.

Belted Kingfisher

Eastern Phoebe

Bufflehead

Perhaps the best highlight was a Bobcat that walked right by my car.  He hid in the bushes just after I pointed my camera at him, but I did get a couple photos of him.  The photo below was in low light, and my shutter speed was 1/60sec.  I'm surprised it came out at all.  He never looked at me, and all my photos were less than sharp, but this is the best I could get.

Bobcat

Here's a list of all the species I saw at St. Marks NWR between about 5pm and 6:30pm.
American Wigeon X
Blue-winged Teal 2
Northern Shoveler 20
Canvasback 15
Redhead 4
Lesser Scaup 5
Bufflehead 5
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Anhinga 2
Brown Pelican 2
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 20
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
White Ibis 5
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
American Coot 10
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 3
Eastern Phoebe 2
Tree Swallow 50
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling X
Palm Warbler X
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Savannah Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Boat-tailed Grackle X