It was dark when I stepped out my front door. There was a thin crescent
moon and just the first blush of light on the eastern horizon. It was only
a ten-minute walk down suburban streets and a paved pathway that connects
my neighborhood to the Centre Pointe area. I could hear the low grunts of
wading birds in the cypress trees as I neared the pond.
It’s a small depression, less than three acres and lies about twenty feet
below the surrounding land. It shows up on 1955 topo map and a historic
aerial from that time shows it as cleared land, possibly pasture. When the
surrounding areas was developed in the 1990’s it was converted into a
holding pond and has spreading cypress trees that provide a convenient
roosting area for migrant and wintering waders. It’s listed as Centre
Pointe Pond on eBird.
Six cypress trees out in the pond were covered with waders. I walked along
the pond’s edge as the light gathered, scanning each tree and trying to get
an initial estimate of birds. My first take was about a thousand based on
whitish shapes. I picked a good vantage point and waited for the morning
flight.
At 6:33 am, a single White Ibis took off headed east, silhouetted against
the brightening sky. It was framed between two cell towers on the horizon.
This is urban birding. Through the trees on the far side of the pond I
could see drive-through traffic at the McDonalds on Capital Circle. A few
minutes later, five Snowy Egrets flew off. It was first light, now, and I
could see more detail. The birds were more active, vocalizing and
stretching their wings. I heard a Limpkin’s plaintive call and a Belted
Kingfisher flew low across the pond.
Most of the birds took off in the fifteen minutes before sunrise. It was
hard keeping track of the numbers, but I estimated 700 Western Cattle
Egrets, 400 Snowy Egrets, 300 White Ibises, 50 Little Blue Herons, 25 Great
Egrets and a lone Great Blue Heron.
The Snowies and ibises were in the vanguard. The cattle egrets were slow
in leaving. White feathers were floating on the water around the cypress
trees when I left to head home for breakfast.
Date: 8/2/26 11:27 am From: Peter Yaukey <peter.yaukey...> Subject: [NFLbirds] Intermediate Birding zoom course offering
Hello North Florida Birders:
I am posting to let you all know of a birding course that will be offered by the Orleans Audubon Society, entirely by zoom, on five consecutive Sunday evenings starting on Aug 9. Recordings of each session will also be made available to participants, on YouTube (so you don't have to worry about missing a session).
The course will be all about birds and birding in the Southeastern USA, particularly LA-MS-AL-North FL.
This is the second in a series of four birding courses offered by Orleans Audubon (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2). None of the courses have any prerequisite. Cost is $100 per course.
Please find inserted below a link to a flier for the course (on the Orleans Audubon webpage)..
Date: 7/25/26 5:14 am From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] Late July at SMNWR
Moonset was long past by the time I got down to St. Marks NWR this week. An
Eastern Screech Owl was giving its whinnying call on Lighthouse Road and
one of the teenage Great Horned Owls near the Visitors Center was
squealing, but Chuck-wills-widows have stopped calling and may have left.
This month’s rains have helped to refill the refuge’s ponds, pools and
marshes and out in the darkness, unseen frogs of several species were
loudly proclaiming their approval of this fact with a chorus of croaks,
toots, honks and grunts. I made my way out the levees to the far end of the
Stony Bayou Pools and waited for sunrise, listening as the night faded and
the sky lightened.
It is late July at the refuge and seasonably hot. Partridge pea is
blooming and half-grown bobkittens are following their mothers as they
learn to hunt. Along Lighthouse Road, Fish Crows are eating swamp dogwood
berries and heavy clumps of ripe elderberry are bent over waiting for
cardinals.
Yet, despite the heat, Fall migration is well underway. Post-breeding
shorebirds are on the move and wildfires in Canada may have caused
additional birds to leave early. Additionally, Tropical Storm Bertha was in
the western Gulf and may have shifted migrants east over the prior few
days. Whatever the reasons, there were a lot of shorebirds on the refuge.
I counted 493 shorebirds of 21 species as I slowly drove my survey route
on the levees. This is about thirty percent more birds and five more
species than I had expected at this time of year.
The “good†shorebirds, the ones only seen at the refuge on migration, were
more common than usual. I had Pectoral, Spotted, Stilt and Solitary
Sandpipers, as well as, a single Red Knot. Peeps, the small gray
sandpipers, are also migrating through. Least and Semipalmated Sandpiper
numbers are increasing and I had a handful of Western Sandpipers.
Among a group of American Oystercatchers that were on Lighthouse Pool was
a banded bird. I reported it and found that it was originally banded at
Fort Desoto in Pinellas County in 2024 as a chick, spent last winter in
Chokoloskee Bay in southwest Florida, returned to Pinellas County for the
summer, and is now visiting the refuge.
It is not just the shorebirds that have begun to migrate. I’ve had a
single Blue-winged Teal and seen two Pied-billed Grebes, both species were
early by a month. Songbirds are moving too. I have had Prairie Warbler,
Black-and-white Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush on the refuge this month.
As I scoped the mudflats for shorebirds during my survey, I identified at
least three species of biting flies feeding on me. There may have been
more. However, if you choose to live on the Gulf coast of Florida that is
part of the price you pay. Living in Florida comes with benefits too. On my
way out of the refuge, I had a mixed flock of 75 Mississippi Kites and 11
Swallow-tailed Kites over East River Pool, swooping, diving and soaring
against the summer sky.
Come down to St. Marks. There is heat and there are bugs, but there are
also natural wonders.
