Little Big Econ SF (Brumley Rd Trailhead), 7/15/2015

Black-necked Stilt

Yesterday I made the long trek out to the St. John's River at Puzzle Lake from Brumley Rd.  I'm always impressed with place when I go. I was hoping for returning shorebirds, and I didn't get anything new for the year, but it was nice to see returning Greater Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers, hopefully as a sign of other species to come over the next few weeks.  Killdeer and Black-necked Stilts are stilt there, of course, and it was exciting to see some little chicks running about.

Black-necked Stilt

Least Sandpiper (one of about 10 I saw)

  I added four new birds to the eBird hotspot: Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Wood Duck, Swallow-tailed Kite and Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and I added Ruby-throated Hummingbird to my own list for the hotspot. In all I saw 47 species--here's my eBird checklist.

Red-shouldered Hawk (immature)

It was also fun to see this Sabatia flower, which I'm pretty sure is a Large Flower Sabatia. I've photographed Saltmarsh Sabatia here before (Rose of Plymouth), but this flower was significantly larger than a quarter, and I don't think the flower petals of Rose of Plymouth are supposed to get larger than a quarter.

Large Flower Sabatia

I also photographed a Robber Fly, which I believe is a Red-footed Cannibalfly. I photographed another a few days ago at the Jones East Trailhead to this same forest.

Red-footed Cannibalfly

Here's the route I traveled.  It's my typical route, though the river seems to be getting higher, and there were a a few places I couldn't go. I wanted to check on the Least Bitterns I'd seen the last time I was out there, but the route to the bulrushes was cut off.