Deja Vu All Over Again

I think this is a Horned Grebe.

Did you ever get the feeling that something that's happening to you right now has also happened to you in the past?  Well, I've heard two explanations ... a glitch in the Matrix (hey, one good movie out of three isn't too bad) or Deja Vu All Over Again (thank you, Yogi).  I have a third explanation: Migration Season!  Whatever the reason, I had that feeling on Friday when for the third time in two weeks I found myself birding in Cedar Key.  Hey, there were two days of winds and storms off the Gulf.  Maybe the migrants would be right behind the front, so let's go birding!!

This time we started by heading right to the Cedar Key Cemetery where we encountered a familiar sight: Florida birding legend John Hintermister, one of the really good guys in the birding community.  John told us to watch the area around where we parked for Red-breasted Nuthatches, and sure enough we found a couple of them.  Then we walked down to the water where we found a Common Loon and a rather untidy bird that we decided was a Horned Grebe.  The day was gloomy and the distance was great, so the photo isn't the best.  I posted it here anyway and invite all of you to tell me if I'm right or wrong by saying something in the comments section below.

Summer Tanager

We followed the shoreline into the grounds of the small park that sits next to the cemetery.  From the boardwalk we had another distant view of a bunch of shorebirds including some American Oystercatchers and Dunlin and a large group of dowitchers huddled together in a big old blob.  Among the group were a couple of birds that grabbed our attention.  After much discussion and later analysis of some grainy and lousy photos that I took, our best guess was that there were several Red Knots in the bunch.  We came to this conclusion based on our impression of the relative size and shape (compared to nearby dowitchers), the presence of some barring along the rear flanks, some black in the tail, and a relatively short, stout bill for a bird of its size.  I may have said this in a previous blog, but shorebirds are hard!! 

John had also told us that his friend Steve Nesbitt had seen an Orchard Oriole at the Episcopal Church in downtown Cedar Key, so we decided to go there next.  Good idea.  By this time the skies were finally clearing and the day was turning gorgeous.  We walked into the parking lot of the church and almost immediately saw several birds in the fruit trees.  One flash of red caught my eye, and I followed it out to a tree along the street.  It was a spectacular Summer Tanager!  My photo doesn't do justice to the breathtaking sight of this bird in good light.

Red-eyed Vireo

Back in the parking lot, things were getting busy! Catbirds and Mockingbirds played tag for a while, joined by a Great-crested Flycatcher followed by a Prothonotary Warbler and an acrobatic Red-eyed Vireo (left).  I would turn one way to look at a bird but then have to spin back the other way for another.  Some Eurasian Collared-Doves landed in a snag high above where they joined some Starlings.  Now, I know that Starlings are introduced and are major annoyances to many.  But did you ever really look at one?  They're actually kind of cool-looking (bottom, right).

Orchard Oriole (Double click on the pic to get a larger view)

Finally the Orchard Oriole made an appearance.  It was a spectacular male.  Or was it a female?  It was both!  This is a bird I just don't see often enough, so getting looks at the male and female in the same tree was a special treat.

Sometimes while birding you see something that's just too cute to overlook.  Among the many birds flying around the church parking lot was a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  This little guy must have been munching on an awful lot of berries all morning long because he throat, neck and chest were coated with red berry juice.  Of course we had to take its picture.  That's the one below this report on the left.

Speaking of photos I really like, I had to include the picture of the Great Blue Heron you see at the bottom.  I love those long, graceful feathers blowing in the wind.  I hope you like it too.

As has become our habit of late, our birding day ended at Annie's for a cheeseburger, slaw and corn nuggets.  Good people, good eating, and good birding.  That's my kind of day!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker with berry stains

European Starling

Great Blue Heron