Bob's Gone Birding: Not So Fast, My Friend!

Barred Owl

When I started this blog I said it would be about birding and my own learning curve. Yesterday was a good example. My friends and I had a wonderful day birding in and around Cedar Key with about 65 species and some really terrific bird. But what I thought was the Bird of the Day was, well, something different.

The day started off really well on SR 24 between Ellzey and Rosewood. We saw something large fly up from a drainage ditch to the wires above. Is that an owl? I pulled off the road, did a U-turn, and drove back to the spot. Yep, it was a Barred Owl perched on the wires above the shoulder of the highway. It was nice enough to pose for us long enough to get several photos, including the one you see here.

Florida Scrub Jay

One of the goals for the day was to add a Florida Scrub Jay to our year lists. We first tried the usual spot in the Cedar Key Scrub Reserve, but this time we had no luck. Next we tried the area on SR 24 across from the entrance to Waccasassa Bay Preserve. Again, we failed. Next we headed out toward Shell Mound on CR 347. While driving along, we saw a pale bird flying parallel to us. When it landed, we pulled over to check it out and found two very sociable and cooperative Scrub Jays. They watched us watch them, and even followed us back to our car.

Feel free to skip this paragraph if you want to avoid one of my rants. Still with me? OK ... Florida is the only place in the world that this bird can be found. It's beautiful, curious, intelligent and sociable. As long as it isn't disturbed, it lives its whole life within a short distance of its birth place. It will even help its parents build nests in future years. So why isn't this the state bird of Florida? I have nothing against Northern Mockingbirds - great singers - but they're everywhere! The Florida Scrub Jay is here ... and ONLY here. Our state legislature needs to wake up!

Gull-billed Tern

Soon we reached Shell Mound which is a terrific spot for observing shorebirds. We weren't disappointed. There were loads of Dunlin, several Marbled Godwits and Least Sandpipers, a couple of Willets and Black-bellied Plovers, and more birds to look at on every sandbar. As I scoped the area, I saw something I had never seen before. It was a tern of some sort who was nattily attired in a striped cap! But terns don't have striped heads! Well, as I was about to learn, yes they do. After some investigation we realized this was a Gull-billed Tern, a species I have only seen twice before, both times at a distance and on the wing. Now here was one posing in its not-yet-ready-for-mating-season plumage. What a great view and what a treat is was to see the bird and be able to study it. I learned something (not for the last time on this day) about the unusual molting pattern for this species. Very cool!

Prothonotary Warbler

After my second lunch at Annie's in as many weeks (great burgers, by the way), we headed toward the Cedar Key Cemetery. At first it appeared to be birdless, but soon we were surrounded by a mixed flock that included my first of the year Great-crested Flycatcher, a fabulous Prothonotary Warbler, and what I believed was a White-breasted Nuthatch! Wow, was I excited! White-breasted Nuthatches are few and far between in this area, and I had never seen one in Levy County. I couldn't wait to get this posted on the Bird Brains listserv. As Lee Corso might say ... Not so fast, my friend. After posting my "find" that evening, I learned that my companions disagreed with me. They remembered seeing a black eye line and white eyebrow indicative of the Red-breasted Nuthatch. I remembered a white face and a pointy bill, but these are very good birders whose observational powers I respect. All I can say in my defense is that I saw no red at all on the belly of the bird - just white. Still, they remembered the thick black eye line, so I quickly posted a retraction. Lesson learned: Check with the others before posting a "rare find."

It was time to start back toward Gainesville, but it took a while to get out of town. We had to stop and look at the flock of Black Skimmers and the hundreds of American White Pelicans on the sandbars along SR 24. As we looked at them, one other bird stood out - a Caspian Tern complete with the rich red-orange of the bill tipped in black. My photo (below, left) isn't the best, but it's good enough to ID the bird.

Our last objective was to add Burrowing Owl to our year lists, so we made a detour north on CR 337 out of Bronson. We then took CR 103 to its end and there was the little guy pictured below, right. That was species #65 for the day and completed a terrific day of birding.

Keep scrolling down for a few "Bonus Photos". I hope you enjoy them.