I was sitting at home on a cold day in November 2024 thinking ahead to the prospects of the upcoming winter of birding in western NC. Winter birding in the area can be pretty slow in good times. But complicating the picture this year was that several of my favorite birding spots were still inaccessible, or completely destroyed, by Hurricane Helene.
That’s when I started thinking about setting up a mid-winter
trip to a southern (and warmer) US location.
I’ve taken several mid-winter trips recently - lower Rio Grande valley In
January 2024, Tallahassee in January 2023, and the Atlantic coast of FL in
February 2023. In each case the trips
were focused on pursuing 1or more life birds, and were most successful. So I checked out the eBird ABA Rarities Alert
to see if there might be potential life bird targets to pursue this winter. There was a long-staying Bananaquit near
Miami that caught my eye. Plus, there are
quite a number of newly countable exotic Parakeets, Macaws, and Amazons in
south FL that would be lifers for me. The
trip was on!
I started planning a south FL trip focused on specialties,
exotics, and rarities. And speaking of
rarities, I also found reports of 2 exciting South American species being seen
in south FL - Yellow-headed Caracara and Large-billed Tern. I mentioned the upcoming trip to my good
birding friend Bill Hooker, and he expressed interest in coming along. Soon we were thinking about a trip for 4 of
us –including Bill and his wife Anita, plus Bill’s friend Bob Cowan. Not only were all of us looking for lifebirds
and statebirds, but Bill was also working on his county lists, and Bob was
embarking on a 2025 big year. Plus,
Anita was great at photographing our target birds. So there were lots of potential targets for
all of us. And speaking of state and
county birds, we decided to drive to south FL instead of flying so we could
work on our lists along the way.
After perhaps 200 hours of research, I mapped out a route
that would take us down the coast of SC and GA, through inland northern and
central FL, then onto south FL. Then we
would return along the Atlantic coast of FL and back through GA and SC. We tentatively planned it as an 11-day trip
including 5 days in south FL. Though we
included more than enough flexibility to pursue any newly reported target
birds. With this itinerary I hoped for 4
new statebirds in SC, 2 in GA, and 10 new statebirds in FL. And perhaps 2 of those new FL birds would be
lifebirds as well. Though unfortunately the
initial trigger for our trip, the Bananaquit, was no longer being seen.
See my previous 2 blog posts for summaries of the first two thirds of the trip.
1/13 – Central Florida
With our south FL birding complete, we started our long drive home. Though of course we would have some birding stops along the way. Our next set of stops would be at the Merritt Island NWR, first to look for a long-staying Eurasian Wigeon. This bird was first discovered back in November, and had been seen nearly daily ever since. Although it was enticing to look for it on our way south through the state, I decided to skip the search for this bird as we headed south so we could use a more inland route through FL for other targets. Instead, we would look for the Wigeon several days later as we took a more coastal route on the way back north. That strategy was a bit risky, but I was betting that the bird would stick around at least until we made our return. And the bird was indeed still being seen daily when we got to the refuge so my gamble paid off. Many of the eBird reports provided good details on the location of our bird (between stops #2 and #3 of the Black Point Wildlife Drive). Now we just needed to find that one bird in a large American Wigeon flock.
We finally arrived at the refuge mid afternoon and headed
straight for the Wildlife Drive. There
were quite a number of waders near the beginning of the Drive, but there were next
to no waterfowl. Just after we passed
stop #2 we got to a lake on the left with good numbers of dabbling ducks in the
eastern end, including quite a few Wigeon.
Now the pressure was on. I
started a slow scan of the closer ducks, then the ones a bit farther out, and
finally the dabblers in the distance. There
were 50 or more American Wigeon but I couldn’t find the Eurasian. There were a couple small mangrove islands in
the middle of the lake that blocked my view of part of the lake, so I changed
my vantage point a couple times but still couldn’t find our target. I was getting worried. I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t overlooking
the bird; instead it was just in a different location.
We drove a short distance farther along to check the western
end of the lake and came upon some more Wigeon.
Did we have the right location now?
Sure enough, within just a minute I had picked out the Eurasian
Wigeon. It was backlit a bit, but the
orangey-red head and gray sides really stood out.
That was my 16th state where I’ve seen Eurasian Wigeon, mostly along both ocean coasts.
Our last targets of the day were a pair of American Flamingos wintering in the northern part of the Merritt Island refuge. Initial eBird reports seemed to suggest that the birds were being seen in multiple locations, but that mostly turned out to be erroneous locations for the checklists. Instead, a bit of research indicated that they were principally being seen at the south end of the Haulover Canal, most often on a small island called Bird Island. All the photos showed the birds were quite far away, roosting with Cormorants and Pelicans. So some distant searching might be necessary.
When we pulled up to the canoe launch area at the south end
of the canal we quickly spotted Bird Island about a half mile away, along with the
roosting flock of Cormorants and Pelicans.
And even with just binoculars you could see pink dots among the
flock. Scope views confirmed we had the
2 Flamingos. Good thing they are such
large and colorful birds.
Flamingo wasn’t a life bird or even a state bird for any of us, but it was great to see these beautiful birds again for our year lists. And it sure was easier than my last FL Flamingos in the Everglades at the end of Snake Bight Trail.
1/14 – Central and Northern Florida
As we continued to head north, our first stop of the day was
at Blue Spring SP for Florida Scrub-Jays.
The park is in the heart of Scrub-Jay habitat, and that part of central
Florida has lots of Scrub-Jay reports in eBird.
But these birds are often in isolated spots, or move through the habitat
in small family groups. So you often have to be lucky to run into one of those
small wandering flocks. In any case, it’s
not a sure thing to find them on any given trip, even in good habitat.
In doing my research I found multiple recent reports from
Blue Spring, some concentrated near the campground and others from the
Scrub-Jay Loop trail. We asked for advice
from the ranger at the entrance booth and he said the best spot was the
Scrub-Jay Loop trail. With a name like
that how could you go wrong? We started
a slow walk down the trail in nice habitat but didn’t encounter any Jays. We turned a curve in the trail and Bob
spotted a bird foraging in the trail in the distance – we had our first Florida
Scrub-Jay. When we got closer we found 3
birds at this spot. And a bit farther
down the road we ran into another group of 4.
This one perched in the open affording nice, albeit backlit, views.
Later we took a short side trip to the spring and got great views of numerous manatees lounging in the relatively warm waters of the spring.
Next we headed back to the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park for another try for the Swifts and Ash-throated Fly. The Swifts had been reported several times since our last trip there, but they continued to be seen only sporadically. The Ash-throated had been reported a couple times too, so we tried to stay optimistic. But despite nearly an hour of waiting near the southern impoundments the Swifts were once again a no show. Then we walked to the northwest part of the park where the Flycatcher is typically seen but had only Phoebes. Rather than doubling back as we did on our first visit, we continued on the loop around the northern impoundment and came back on the eastern side. We had only walked perhaps 50 yards when we spotted some movement at the edge of the low brush – it was the Ash-throated Flycatcher, nicely captured by Anita in this picture. (FL statebird #11)
We were lucky we saw it when we did because it soon slipped down further into the vegetation mostly out of view. FL was my 8th east coast state (along with KS) where I’ve seen this species as a vagrant.
Our next stop was a home in Gainesville where a female Western Tanager was coming to a feeder. It took a bit of effort but I was finally able to obtain contact information for the homeowner. With a quick call it turned out that he was very willing to have us come by his home and watch for his Tanager which had returned for its 3rd consecutive winter. We watched his feeders through his kitchen window, and after a 30-minute wait, the Tanager dropped in to feed (FL statebird #12), along with several of his Baltimore Orioles. Once again, here is one of Anita’s pictures of the Tanager.
My statebird map for Western Tanager is actually quite similar to the Ash-throated map.
Many thanks to the homeowner for his hospitality! He also told us about a pair of rare Common
Goldeneyes in a nearby pond, which made for a most successful last birding stop
in FL.
1/14 – Coastal Georgia
We had just enough time before sunset for 2 quick stops in
southern GA for unusual waterfowl. The
first was a male Common Goldeneye in a small lake along Queens Court just
outside of Brunswick. Unfortunately, we
weren’t successful in finding it, though we had at least 150 Ruddy Ducks on the
lake. The bird was last seen a couple
days earlier, with a photo showing it sitting on the shore, and the birder
commented that it had a bad eye. It sure
didn’t look healthy in that picture; perhaps it passed before our visit on the
14th.
Our last GA stop was at Blythe Island Park where a White-fronted
Goose was hanging out with a small Canada Goose flock. As we arrived at the park gate it was 5:45
and we all noticed the sign that the gate would close at 6. But it was a small park so we hoped we would
have just enough time to find our target and get out by 6. We pulled up to the park lake and heard some
geese calling in the distance. It was
starting to get pretty dark, but I was able to pick out the White-front in the
distance. We quickly drove over to the
campground where we last saw the bird, re-spotted it in with the Canadas (Anita
was able to snap this one picture) and got back out just 2 minutes before
6.
Can’t get any more efficient than that!
1/15 – Coastal Georgia
Our last full birding day of the trip was focused on several
of our targets along the GA coast. First
we headed just a couple miles inland from Brunswick to Paulks Pasture WMA where
Henslow’s Sparrows had been seen recently.
I had reached out to a local birder and got precise locations for the
birds lurking in wet grasses along a powerline cut. I donned my boots and rainpants and trudged
through the tall grass but came up empty, finding just a Sedge Wren, despite
what looked like ideal habitat. It was
nice to find this large patch of pitcher plants that measured at least 3 feet
across.
Our next stop was in the Spartina marshes along the causeway to St. Simons for the 3 “marsh sparrows”. We timed our visit to be close to high tide to aid in flushing them out, but we only had one Seaside Sparrow respond to tape. A Clapper Rail in flight was a nice bonus bird.
Once onto St. Simons we headed to Sandcastle Drive near the airport. A ditch and small riparian area continued where the road stopped, and a Lincoln’s Sparrow had been seen there recently near a railroad tie retention wall. This area was quite birdy, and we found birds like Painted Buntings and an Orange-crowned Warbler. Eventually we found the retaining wall and spotted the Lincoln’s Sparrow skulking in the low brush just below the wall. (GA statebird #1) I now just need this species in 4 more states (the cross-hatched states in my statebird map below).
Our next targets were a pair of Western Kingbirds near the south end of the St. Simons airport, just a 5-minute walk from the Lincoln’s Sparrow spot. They were typically seen perched in a large brush pile, and along the airport fences. But even though they had been seen in the area for some time, they were only seen infrequently. In fact, my local contact told me that he had recently spent 3 days looking for them with no luck. And then the day before we arrived there was a report that they were seen perched on a relatively hidden back side of the brush pile. Luckily I got directions to reach that portion of the pile, and we headed straight to that spot. And within a couple minutes I was able to get distant scope views of one of the birds. (GA statebird #2) Western Kingbird is another of those typically “western” species that is a regular vagrant to the east coast.
Our last stop on the island was a shorebird hotspot named
Gould’s Inlet. A Snowy Plover had been
spotted there recently, but not reported in the most recent couple
checklists. So I wasn’t too hopeful,
though looking forward to seeing some big numbers and variety of
shorebirds. As we arrived there were
already good numbers of shorebirds on the flats, and more continued to fly in
as the tide dropped. We were able to
find 9 species of shorebirds including the only Piping and Wilson’s Plovers of the
trip. And wild estimates of numbers were
dominated by 500 Dunlin, 100 Semi Plovers, and 75 Least Sandpipers. An estimated 300 Black Skimmers were notable
as well. But as expected, we could not
find the Snowy Plover. A flyby flock of
Black Scoters were nice as well.
We continued up the GA coast and headed for yet another try for
Purple Sandpipers at the Tybee Island North Jetty. Two had been reported and photographed there
on the 13th, so we were actually more hopeful this time than on our first
try. But once again we only found
Turnstones and Sanderlings.
1/16 – South Carolina
We made 2 final stops in SC on our last day on the road. The first was at the Savannah NWR Visitor
Center where Bill hoped to find Purple Finch as a new SC statebird. I wasn’t too hopeful since the last time a Purple
Finch was reported there was 12 days earlier at the feeding station. But I liked Bill’s optimism. We arrived at dawn and only found squirrels
at the feeder. We started talking about
how wintering Purple Finches like to eat tree seeds, especially tulip, sweet
gum, and sycamore seeds. I started
looking around and spotted a large gum tree nearby loaded with seed balls. Sure enough there were 4 birds near the top
of the tree that turned out to be Purple Finches. Like I said, I like Bill’s optimism.
Our last stop was at the Orangeburg Sod Farm where we hoped for
Ground Doves, especially around the maintenance buildings. We found numerous MODOs, but alas no Ground
Doves.
Summary of Trip Results
We amassed 213 species on the trip. When the trip was over we were all briefly in
eBird’s top 20 for the ABA Region for the year, and top 5 in FL. And speaking of FL, we saw 43 of 53 south FL
targets.
Other highlights among our 213 species were:
- South FL Specialties - Short-tailed Hawk, Snail Kite,
White-crowned Pigeon, "Great White" Heron, Burrowing Owl, Lesser
Nighthawk, Florida Scrub Jay, Vermilion Flycatcher, Whooping Crane,
"Golden/Carribean" Yellow Warbler, 15 species of wintering warblers
- Exotics - Spot-breasted Oriole, Red-whiskered Bulbul,
Common Myna, Indian Peafowl, Egyptian Goose, 6 species of
parakeets/amazons/macaws
- Rarities - 4 Tropical Kingbirds, Ruff, Brown-crested
Flycatcher, 10 Shiny Cowbirds, 2 American Flamingos, Eurasian Wigeon, 2nd
record of Gray-headed Swamphen for SC, 5 Cave Swallows, 2 Ash-throated Flycatchers,
2 Western Tanagers, Black-throated Gray Warbler, and a remarkable 18 Western
Kingbirds
I ended up with 2 new Lifebirds – Blue-and-yellow Macaw and
Orange-winged Amazon - bringing my ABA Continental list to 776 per eBird’s
countability rules. Plus I added 20 new
statebirds, much better than the 16 I hoped for:
- SC – added 6 bringing my total to 312
- GA – added 2 with a new state total of 272
- FL – added 12 raising my total to 343
The eBird Trip Report can be found at – ebird.org/tripreport/318837
It sure was a nice break from winter birding in western NC!
