In January 2023 I had a most successful birding trip to the FL panhandle. Not only did I see my first new life bird (White Wagtail) in several years, it was also my first trip to FL from my home base in western NC, greatly expanding my horizons for potential trips. I was now watching the ABA Rarities eBird alerts more frequently, especially focused on potential lifers. And the most likely location for those additional lifers would be in south FL.
Sure enough late in January I started to notice reports of a
Bahama Mockingbird in FL. These rare
vagrants typically appear somewhere in far southern FL which is actually a
pretty short flight from their home in the Bahamas – less than 70 miles as the
Mockingbird flies. But this bird was
being seen in Cape Canaveral, making it about a 3-hour shorter drive than trying
for one that might appear at the southern end of the peninsula. I’ve birded south FL a number of times,
picking up several rarities there over the years. But there has never been a Bahama Mockingbird
there during any of my trips. As a
result, this species has been a key target for me. And with this individual being relatively
“close”, at only halfway down the peninsula, it was definitely one to chase
after.
Now for the research.
The Bahama Mockingbird was being reported daily just outside the eastern
end of the Jetty Park campground in Cape Canaveral. It was first reported on January 10, and it
or another one was at the same site from May through August 2022. The bird was most often seen in a sea grape
hedge, or along the edge of a paved parking lot just to the east. It seemed that most birders just had to put
in some time to wait for the bird to appear, often in the company of Northern
Mockingbirds. That seemed pretty straightforward.
What about other possible statebirds nearby? In the few days before my trip an immature
Iceland Gull was being seen daily in the waters just north of Jetty Park,
though many birders were missing the bird.
Certainly one to look for.
And then there is the Indian Peafowl. In 2020, the ABA Recording Standards and
Ethics Committee concluded that Indian Peafowl has been established and “countable”
in FL since 2007 per their policy “ABA Area Introduced Species”. (www.aba.org/aba-area-introduced-species) When the new policy was published I scoured
my records but couldn’t find any notes about seeing “peacocks” in FL, though I
might remember seeing them in Key West decades ago. But that would have been before 2007 anyway. So this possible new life bird has been on my
radar screen since the ABA policy came out in 2020.
And sure enough it turns out there were quite a number of Peafowl
records just south of Jetty Park. One to
definitely focus on when I got to the area.
Or was it? In 2022
eBird published an article “Important Changes to Exotic Species in eBird”.
(ebird.org/new/news/important-changes-to-exotic-species-in-ebird) In this article eBird concluded that Indian
Peafowl was a non-countable “Escapee”. They
went on to say that a population of an exotic species is considered to be a
non-countable “Escapee” because it is not yet a “population that is breeding in
the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years”.
An obvious difference of opinion on the countability of
Indian Peafowl. But as I always say, see
the bird first, then figure out if it’s countable. So I would still look for it on my trip.
And of course there was also statebird potential along my
route back from Cape Canaveral. Though since
the Mockingbird and Peafowl were my key targets I would take as long as
realistically needed to find them. If I
had time, in FL there were relatively recent reports of Harlequin Duck and
Ash-throated Flycatcher at Huguenot Park just east of Jacksonville. Plus there were several targets in GA and SC
along my route home.
This blog post focuses on my FL searches on this trip. Searches in GA and SC are summarized in later
posts on my blog.
Day 1 – February 4
I stated on the 9-hour drive to Cape Canaveral on the
afternoon of February 3rd, making it as far as Brunswick, GA. That evening while updating my notes on my
target birds I noticed several reports from that day of a male Cinnamon Teal at
Merritt Island NWR. That’s just a short
distance from Cape Canaveral so definitely one to add to the itinerary if the
Mockingbird and Peafowl cooperated.
With the excitement of potential life and state birds in
front of me I was out of the hotel before sunrise on the 4th. And with light traffic nearly the whole way I
rolled into Jetty Park a few minutes before 10 AM. I drove right to the east side of the park, and
parked in the paved parking lot mentioned in so many checklists. There were a couple birders in the area who shared
that the Mockingbird was seen earlier in the morning, though not recently. So I started my vigil especially focused on the
seagrape hedge just east of the campground, hoping that the Mockingbird would
appear.
But over the next 2 hours the area was very quiet. Not only was there no Bahama Mockingbird, but there were no Northern Mockingbirds either. That was quite disappointing since both species were often seen together. The closest I got was a Catbird I spotted in the hedge. Then at about 11 AM a Northern Mockingbird appeared in the hedge and flew over my head to the east. Then a second one popped out. Although I hoped the Bahama Mocker would be with them it was not the case.
Then a few minutes later I noticed 3 birders all pointing
low in the trees a few feet to the south.
I had met them earlier and they were especially looking for warblers, so
I imagined that’s what they had found.
But as I say “bird the birders”, so I went over and asked them what they
had. They had just discovered the Bahama
Mockingbird! Although it just took me a
few seconds, it felt like hours before I finally picked it out among the leaves
just a few feet off the ground. I
wondered if I had missed it as it flew in from the seagrapes, or perhaps it
flew in from the east. Regardless I had
my bird.
A few seconds later it flew to the west and disappeared into
the seagrape hedge. We all got good
views of all the key fieldmarks – brown-backed instead of the gray of a
Northern Mocker, streaking on the chest and flanks, lack of white patches in
the wings, white only in the corners of the tail, and longer tail making it look
more like a Thrasher than a Mockingbird.
Just when we thought we had seen the last of the Bahama
Mockingbird it reappeared in the seagrapes, and flew back toward us landing on
the ground a few feet away. The bird hopped
right by us – I took this photo with my cellphone as it went by within 3 feet
of me.
Later it foraged on the ground just a few feet away and I got this “digi-binned” photo.
What an amazing set of observations! Certainly worth the wait for a species that I’ve wanted to see for decades.
With the Mockingbird behind me rather quickly I had plenty
of time to pursue my other targets. Next
i drove over to the northeast corner of the park to try for the Iceland Gull, and
joined a couple birders already there scoping the offshore waters. Apparently the Gull was seen early that
morning but not since then. I did quite
a bit of scoping and found a number of gulls perched on distant markers and
fencing, including both Lesser Black-backs and a Great Black-backed, but no
Iceland Gull. The latest theory was that
the target gull was roosting there overnight, and foraging during the daytime somewhere
out at sea. If that were the case, I’d
have to wait till later in the afternoon for the Iceland to return.
Given the apparent timing of the gull I decided to pass on
it and pursue my other targets. While I
was closing up my scope I asked the other birders if they had suggestions for
my next target – Indian Peafowl. They
very manner-of-factly said to just drive up and down nearby Atlantic Avenue and
I would run into them just walking along the road. A great tip!
After just a 5-minute ride I reached the northern end of
Atlantic Avenue and started the slow drive south. It was a very busy main thoroughfare through
a suburban shopping district, not typically a place where you would be looking for
a target bird. But this was an exotic
species very accustomed to human interaction.
I hadn’t driven more than a half mile when I noticed a male Peafowl walking
in a small park to the right. I quickly
pulled over and doubled back to get these photos of 2 male Peafowl hanging out
in the park. That was surprisingly easy.
My next target was the male Cinnamon Teal discovered the previous day at Merritt Island NWR. Although there were no reports of the bird that day, several birders reported it the previous day, and one report included coordinates of the precise location of the bird as it fed with Blue-winged Teal. So I was hopeful. However, despite lots of scoping through flocks of an estimated 450 Blue-winged Teal and 250 other dabblers I was unsuccessful in finding the Cinnamon Teal. And the specific impoundment where it was seen the previous day had no ducks at all. Notably, I did find a tight flock of 500 Long-billed Dowitchers, chattering away as they often do while feeding. Here is a picture of one portion of the flock.
It was a bit disappointing to end the day with a miss, but I was still happy to get the Mockingbird and Peafowl.
Day 2 – February 5
My one FL stop on Day 2 of my trip was at Huguenot Memorial
City Park on the coast east of Jacksonville.
My first target here was a Harlequin Duck seen mixed in with Scoters and
other seaducks on the north side of a rock jetty at the mouth of the St. Johns
River. And my second target was an
Ash-throated Flycatcher seen near the parking area at the east end of the park. Unfortunately, neither had been seen in about
a week so I wasn’t overly optimistic.
When I arrived at the park the wind was howling out of the
north. And it was even worse as I got to
the exposed jetty area. This picture
shows the waves overtopping the jetty.
Miserable conditions to find a seaduck. I tried scanning the mouth of the river thinking that maybe it had relocated to these calmer waters but with no luck. One consolation was this large flock of 200 Black Skimmers that were pinned down by the wind and tide.
The parking lot where the Ash-throated Flycatcher had been seen was only slightly less windy. Once again difficult conditions to find a flycatcher. I walked around the area for close to 90 minutes but found few birds out in the strong winds. The closest I got was to find a Phoebe foraging within a foot of the ground.
I couldn’t have asked for worse conditions to find my
targets. Both birds were re-spotted a
few days later, undoubtedly under much calmer conditions.
As I headed out of the park on my way to stops in GA, I
reflected on the mixed results of the FL portion of my trip. I’m not used to missing such a high
percentage of my targets (4 of 6), but if I was only able to see two, the
Bahama Mockingbird and Indian Peafowl were the most important. And I’ve decided to follow the ABA’s rules
for counting the Peafowl. Afterall, I’ve
been following the ABA’s rules for countability of exotics and other species
for many decades. Per the ABA, that
brings my ABA Continental list to 765, and 745 in the Lower 48. And my FL statelist is now up to 332 per the
ABA (only 327 per eBird).
See my next blog post for the GA portion of my February 2023
trip.
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