Florida 19th November 2012

Another day in and around the Tallahassee area with Wakulla Springs State Park, Lake Munson, Maclay Gardens and Tall Timbers Research Station all visited. I was hoping to pick up a few more northerly based species in the area. The most productive site was Tall Timbers. I arrived at 1530hrs only to be told that it was closing at 1600hrs. I had no time to walk the trails but the area around the buildings was excellent with a lot of birds visiting a leaking water tap. I caught up with one of my highlights of the trip here - Red-headed Woodpecker, a cracking looking woodpecker especially in flight. There was a family party in the area which gave good views. Also coming to the tap were Eastern Bluebirds, Blue Jays, Chipping Sparrow and Purple Finches. Would have been great to have spent a lot more time here. I spent the last hour or two around a nearby lake walking along the shoreline in a large area of weed fields. I was looking for more sparrows and although there were dozens of Savanah and a handful of Swamp Sparrows there were no other species present. I was surprised not to have picked up any Song Sparrows at all on my trip. Even with seven species of sparrow for the trip I had missed some of the sparrow specialities despite trying several times such as Bachman's, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed, Nelson's Sharp-tailed, Seaside, etc.
Once the last of the light was gone I made the long push back South and spent my last night in Florida in the not so glamorous area off the Interstate 75 near Ocala.

Hermit Thrush, the only Catharus to commonly winter in the States.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-headed Woodpecker

Adult and juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker, Blue Jays & Common Ground Dove in background.

Blue Jay

Wood Ducks

Manatee, honest!

Grey Squirrel

Florida 18th November 2012

Ducks, ducks, ducks! I spent the whole day in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge which is well known for its wildfowl and newly established wintering flock of Whooping Cranes. I was too early for the latter and also a little early for the large numbers of the former. Although the numbers were low I did see Gadwall, American Wigeon, Blue-winged Teal, Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser and Ruddy Duck during the day. Earlier in the trip I had already seen Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Mottled Duck, Pintail and Surf Scoter at several other sites. I would also catch up with Wood Duck the next day. One of my main reasons for heading this far North was in hope of seeing a few Canvasbacks but even this apparent reliable site for them failed to produce any sightings which was a little disappointing. Great to see Lesser Scaup at such close quaters in the company of Greater Scaup.

Left to right Redhead, Lesser Scaup, LS, Greater Scaup & 2 LS.

Lesser Scaup

Spot the Greater Scaup?

Greater Scaup on the left of three Lessers

Greater Scaup and Bufflehead with Lesser Scaups.

Lessers with a Greater on the right.

First-winter (female?) Lesser Scaup

First-winter female and adult male Lesser Scaup.

Adult female Lesser Scaup

First-winter male Lesser Scaup, not as advanced as the bird below.

First-winter and adult male Lesser Scaup, note eye colour difference and different moult. Also note the green sheen to the adult compared to the purple sheen below, this changed depending on posture and angle to sun.

Adult male Lesser Scaup

Greater Scaup with Lesser behind showing diagnostic bill pattern.

Greater to the front left with Lesser Scaup.

First-winter male Greater Scaup

First-winter female Greater Scaups with adult male Lesser.

Male American Wigeon

Male and female American Wigeon

White-winged Dove

Red-bellied Woodpecker

American Goldfinches

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Eastern Towhee

White-crowned Sparrow

White-tailed Deer

Tour de North-West

Had a very productive weekend up in the North West over the weekend with Hugh Delaney. I met up with Hugh in Sligo and we headed North from there. The Lissadell Goose Field was the first stop of the day. A few hundred Barnacles and an assortment of duck were present but not the hoped for Cackling Goose. We moved onto the Ballintemple/Ballyconnell and found a smallish flock of Barnies just to the South East of the main crossroads and thankfully one of the Cackling Geese was present. It was a dark bird with no contrast between the breast and the flanks and also had a prominent white half collar at the base of the back neck sock. I didn't note if it had a black chin strap or not. The whole flock was quickly
purposely flushed by a farmer from the fields behind and although most of the flock relocated to the West we didn't see the Cackling again. I didn't manage any shots but it looks very like the same bird here http://www.sligobirding.com/October2012Gallery.html
We continued North from here and stopped off at Tullaghan, Co. Leitrim to have a look for the American Wigeon. Derek Charles and Majella Callaghan had seen the bird already on the day so we knew it was about.  We eventually picked it up amongst the rock pools at the outflow of the Drowes River with close to 30 Eurasian Wigeon. There were a few features that seemed a little odd at the time like the soft head pattern and a slightly darker breast but I think this may have been down to the dull light conditions and distance. I wouldn't think there are many previous records for County Leitrim of American Wigeon. The river here forms the border between Leitrim and Donegal and it has been seen on the Donegal side also.
I wanted to have a look at Killybegs given how scarce white-winged gulls have been in Galway so far this winter. I had yet to see either Iceland or Glaucous so far in 2013. One the way we past the first of four speed camera vans that we past in our 24 hours in Donegal - bit of overkill me thinks!
Killybegs was relatively quiet even though there were a few large trawlers offloading their catches. Most gulls were distant, Nimmo's Pier it isn't. In the end we saw about two first-winter, two second-winter and one third-winter Icelands, two first-winter and one second-winter Glaucous Gulls. The third-winter Iceland had some dark pigmentation to the subterminal part of the outer primaries but it failed to show much contrast between the outer and inner primaries so probably best left as Iceland. It did however show brown freckling to irides. Derek had a few more Icelands and Glaucous and also a first-winter Kumlien's Gull.
We had just enough time to visit Sheskinmore Lake for the white phase Snow Goose. We stumbled on the Snow Goose in the company of around two dozen Greenland White-fronted and a single Barnacle Goose in the field just between the pokey little bird hide and the lake itself. I don't think it's the same Snow Goose I found at Inch Island the previous winter on size as this bird was definitely smaller than the GWF's. The Inch bird approached Greylags in size. We had a quick look at Narin to finish off the day but no sign of the usual Long-tailed Ducks in the surf nor the flock of Barnacles out on Inishkeel.

The next morning found us on the causeway out to Inch Island. Just as we got out of the car an Otter surfaced right next to the road but disappeared promptly. Hugh quickly picked up the Bittern in amongst the reeds on the island side where it showed on and off for an hour and a half. This was the first Bittern I've managed to see on the ground in Ireland. Amazingly to see how quickly it would disappear behind such a small amount of vegetation once it stopped moving. We also had great views of the presumed returning male Smew from here but the light was dire and when it improved we were looking straight into the sun. We had a male Smew around an hour later at the other end of the lake. Hard to know if it was the same bird as earlier. Inch has had several Smew down through the years. There was a good flock of Whoopers and Greylags out on the levels with a flock of 15 Pink-feet being the best in amongst them.
We also had a look for the Cattle Egret at Saint Johnstown. It certainly wasn't present while we there although it returned a few days later. Nice to see a few Tree Sparrows here mixed in with the flock of Chaffinches. It's one in big demand for Galway listers with no known resident flocks in the county anymore.
Blanket Nook was also checked. We had a few feral Canada Geese with a small flock of Greylags in the fields on the way down which proved to be our eighth goose species of the weekend, not bad! While the lagoon was all quiet there was the usual Slavonian Grebes far offshore, at least half a dozen. Big Isle had a few hundred Greenland White-fronted Geese. On the way home we quickly checked Murvagh in Donegal Bay. Only a handful of distant Common Scoters there. We had checked Rossnowlagh on the way up the previous day and had no Scoter at all. Last site of the day was Rath Lough just inland of Ballintra. I've had Goosander here in the past but not today. There were some reported very nearby the same day that we only later heard of.

Barnacle Geese

Barnacle Geese

Barnacle Geese

First-winter Common Buzzard

First-winter Common Buzzard

Third-winter Iceland Gull

Third-winter Iceland Gull

Second-winter Glaucous Gull

Male Smew

Male Smew

Bittern

Bittern

Bittern

Florida 17th November 2012

I continued on my way North and spent the first half of the day at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. I was now within the range of some species normally only found in Northern Florida, these included Carolina Chickadee, Vesper Sparrow, American Goldfinch, etc.
Paynes Prairie is well known for its herd of 50+ American Bison which were introduced in 1975. Apparently there are actually some cattle genes in their make-up so cross breeding must have occurred at some stage. They were very docile as I passed them.
The other highlight for me while about two miles out along the trail was the appearance of four A-10 Thunderbolt II tank buster planes. They must have been on practice flights from some nearby airfield. The canon mounted at the front of the plane can unload 3,900 rounds of depleted uranium per minute - scary stuff. I headed from on to my final destination of Tallahasse, quite close to the Georgia state line.



 

Ex-American Bittern

Vesper Sparrow

A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog"

A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog"

A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthogs"