To Blog or Not To ... What? There's a Bird?

Northern Shoveler

I'm really enjoying writing this blog.  The problem is, I love birding more.  When there is birding to be done, the blog takes a back seat or even rides in the trunk.  That's what happened this week.  Lots of birding and some other cool stuff too, so I'm finally getting back to the blog after a brief hiatus.  I hope some of you have stayed with me.

So, last weekend was fun.  I spent Saturday at St. Marks with the Alachua Audubon Society and our trip leader, John Hintermister.  I love this trip and try to go every year.  It's out the door by 4:30 AM, stop in Perry for breakfast at the Huddle House, and reach the park by 7:45.  We always start by birding the area around the gift shop and the education center.  This year that proved to me a great idea as we found a mixed flock that included a Brown Creeper, some American Goldfinches, a Brown-headed Nuthatch and a Golden-crowned Kinglet.  Then we joined the bus and car caravan for the tour through Stoney Bayou.  I love looking at ducks and usually this area is filled with them.  This year the numbers were way down, but what we saw still included a nice variety.  We had Redheads, Canvasbacks, Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, Northern Shovelers, American Wigeons, Ring-necked Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers and Lesser Scaup.

American Bittern at St. Marks

We made a quick stop at the restrooms and were fortunate enough to be there when a Red-breasted Nuthatch showed up.  We all got great looks at what was a life bird for many.  Next we went down to the Lighthouse Pond and the Gulf shoreline.  There we saw more of the same and added Common Loons, Gadwalls, Mallards, Common Goldeneye, and nine or ten Razorbills (also a life bird for many of us).  Soon our group got word of the possibility that there were Cackling Geese up in Sneads.  We ended up splitting the group, but I didn't have the time to make that run and get back to Gainesville, so I stayed at St.Marks.  I stopped at the path that leads back to the helicopter pad expecting to search for sparrows, but I never got there.  I was distracted by a mixed flock of birds that included Black-and-white, Pine, Palm and Yellow-throated Warblers and a Marsh Wren.  Then on the way out I saw an American Bittern that was so close I couln't use my scope to see more than a small piece of it at a time.

Green-winged Teal (top) with Redheads

The birding day ended at Bottoms Road in the hope of finding a Short-eared Owl.  No luck.  I headed back to Gainesville, making a serious dent in the buffet at the Golden Corral in Perry along the way.

Mid-week birding included one fun morning where I circumnavigated Newnan's Lake looking at ducks (at a very great distance), White Pelicans, Bonaparte's Gulls, and House Wren (below, left) who scolded me wherever I went at Powers Park.  The middle of the week was also consumed by making some changes to my website on county listing in Florida.  I added a page and a Photo of the Week, and that led to lots of additional work as I added new numbers from birders around the state.

The week ended with a two-day trip to Miami, but this blog is already too long.  I'll write again tomorrow or Monday ... unless a really good bird comes along and then, well, Bob's Gone Birding!

Red-breasted Merganser

House Wren

Common Loon