Last Gasp on Gasparilla

Our back yard in Boca Grande, Florida

Friday was our last full day on Planet Florida. The weather continued to be superb, and we opted to stay on Gasparilla and take it easy - especially as it was Satty's birthday. Of course my mind was, as always, slightly on the matter of birds and I was only too aware that despite this being my third visit to the Sunshine State I had still failed to add Carolina wren to my world list. Now, as anyone who knows about birding in Florida this species is, by all accounts, common as the proverbial muck itself. How was I missing them so spectacularly? Today, I was going to try and redeem myself. I listened to various recordings of their calls and songs, and read up once more on the habits of these skulking birds.

After breakfast we decided to explore a region of the Gasparilla Island State Park we'd noticed a few days ago; an area a little off the beaten track where invasive vegetation was being managed. This could just possibly provide the perfect habitat for my quarry... and I hadn't even manipulated the plan for my own benefit!

White ibis

We set off along a barely obvious trail, scattering multiple lizards as we went. An American kestrel was hunting the area and we flushed a red-shouldered hawk. The usual vultures and ospreys drifted overhead, but as for other birds it seemed depserately quiet. Until I heard a curious rasping call, not unlike that of a Bewick's wren. Surely this was my bird? I pished. It rasped. I pished again. It rasped again. I caught a glimpse of a bird moving in the dense tangled vegetation, then it was gone. Drat.
A few metres on, that call again. Once again I began to pish quietly. This time it really did the trick and two birds started calling excitedly back in response. And these were unquestionably Carolina wrens. It took a good few, frustrating seconds but eventually one, then two birds showed well. And what smart looking wrens! Big, bright chunky birds, with wacking great supercilliums, even my non-birder companions were reasonably impressed. They became known immediately, and appropriately, as Satty's birthday wrens.

Florida box turtle

We moved on, and we soon came across a Florida box turtle (actually a non-aquatic terrestrial reptile, and more like a tortoise - pictured). The track shortly petered out and we headed back out of the bush and toward the beach, spotting an ovenbird and common yellowthroat on the way.
On the beach it was the same stuff, white ibis (pictured), willet, ruddy turnstone, Forster's, Royal and Sandwich terns (pictured), etc, and we meandered along enjoying the delightful subtropical climate.

Sandwich tern

After lunch (we sat on a table next to a bunch of identically dressed gun-sporting secret service guys, newly arrived in town as part of the Bush family's detail - Gasparilla is the traditional Christmas destination and both ex-Presidents and their entourages were due any day) the ladies went exploring while I joined Paul on the beach and tried a spot of sea fishing. I was, as I expected, hopeless and I lost more bait and tangled more line than I care to admit...

Later that evening as we headed out to a local restaurant to celebrate Satty's significant birthday we heard an Eastern screech owl, very close but in some pretty dense vegetation. I tried to locate the singing bird with my head lamp but unsurprisingly it eluded my beam. Had we not had a table booked, I may have been tempted to dash back to the house and return with my recorder but I had to leave this particular potential lifer for another time. I know that many North American birders will happily tick a bird on call or song alone, but I'm not in that camp. If I don't see it, I don't count it.
The owl was still calling when we returned a couple of hours later and we could even hear it from the back of the house. Oh well, it's always good to have something to look for should I find myself in Eastern screech owl range again.

Magnificent frigatebird

Jenny and I flew back to Victoria on Saturday afternoon. We spent the morning lazing around the house in Boca Grande. A flock of warblers made up of around 40 yellow-rumped and 20 palm warblers came through, with a single pine warbler and a pair of northern cardinals among them. A fine yellow-bellied sapsucker put in an unexpected appearance in a palm in the back yard and 6 magnificent frigatebirds (male pictured) came over to wave us off.
And the highlight of our journey home was adding great-tailed grackle to the trip list at Houston Airport!
Now, back to reality and the onslaught of the festive period...

Brit Birder Returns To Florida

Spent most of Saturday in transit between Victoria and Fort Myers, Florida. We arrived in darkness and were met by my brother Paul and his wife Satty, who had flown in from the UK the day before.
We headed out to Boca Grande, just to the north of Sanibel Island, where we would be staying for the week. After a few well-earned ales we hit the hay in the early hours.
This morning, I awoke and took in my immediate surroundings. The house backs onto a canal, and is flanked by mangroves. Reasonably interesting! The first bird I heard was a palm warbler, which eventually showed as it made its way through the waterside vegetation.
Within seconds an Eastern phoebe flew in and showed brilliantly, flycatching from the top of a nearby mangrove. Turkey vultures soon appeared overhead and several brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants were seen in the distance. A couple more palm warblers came by, as did a yellow-rumped warbler.

After a leisurely breakfast we strolled into 'town' - a small collection of stores and restaurants - and then on to the beach and back. Birds encountered along the way included American kestrel, Cooper's hawk, mourning dove, common ground dove, red-bellied woodpecker, common loon, willet (pictured), Forster's tern, laughing gull and ringed-billed gull.
Later we took a drive out to the nearest supermarket, passing through some great habitat en route. We saw more pelicans, cormorants, gulls and terns and such, plus added black vulture, white ibis, great-blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, tri-coloured heron, black-crowned night-heron, wood stork, osprey, common grackle and boat-tailed grackle to the trip list.
Maybe I'll get chance to get out into some really good areas for some 'real' birding in the next few days, but given that that's not the sole purpose of this pre-Christmas getaway, I may just have to take what I can get!
I do have plans to get in the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area where there is a relatively healthy population of red-cockaded woodpecker, but whether I'll be able to locate any at this time of year is up for debate. Oh well, I can only give it a go, and hope that I bump into any of the 4 potential ticks that occur in the large preserve...!