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Introduction.
This trip was a holiday and as such I had to cater for my wife's wishes including some touristy days, during the trip. So there were not many dawn rises or late finishes and no overnight drives. This taken into account would reduce the species we would see but as I have been to Florida before I could target species I needed. All the places referred to are in the Pranty Guide (details at the end of the report) the couple which are not are described in detail in the text, and yes as the title suggests it was hot - very hot every day!
Saturday 18th
We drove south from the airport to Kissimmee our base for a few days, the first of many Osprey was the first bird of note. Our hotel had a pond of sorts hidden behind the car park, it held a killdeer and some mottled ducks. The car park also held northern mockingbirds and mourning doves.
Sunday 19th
A reasonable start and we headed to Merrit Island which I could not visit on my last trip due to a shuttle launch. Here we quickly had good views of Osprey, both grackles, white ibis,ring billed, laughing and American herring gull. We took the Gator creek road and Blackpoint wildlife drives and quickly connected with all the large heron's and egrets, double crested cormorant, anhinga and green heron. Waders were quite numerous, black bellied plover, willet, ruddy turnstone, semipalmated sandpiper, semipalmated plover, lesser yellowlegs were quite numerous, a single greater yellowlegs allowed good comparison with a lesser. A flyover roseate spoonbill was the only one spotted. A bald eagle, common yellowthroat and savannah sparrow the only non waterbirds seen on these drives. We headed for the Manatee viewpoint with both black and turkey vultures eating a dead hog nearby. A couple of Manatee's were present on our arrival and showed well for 20 mins or so. Our next stop was Playlinda beach, where just by the first layby after to pay station we parked up and were immediately investigated by two Florida scrub jays. The other laybys were productive as well, several white pelicans a few roseate spoonbills, the beach was busy – with people but a few birds off shore were mostly northern gannets and laughing gulls. A gopher tortoise was in the car park sand dunes showing nicely. We headed south crossed a few of the bridges over the Indian river but no black skimmers were seen, but we did stop for a pod of Bottlenose dolphins showing down to a few feet.
Our last stop was Viera wetlands, in the general area we had a couple of Sandhill cranes and a Canada goose. The wetlands was excellent, least bittern, several crested caracara, mottled duck, blue winged teal were all present. The highlight was a northern harrier which put up all the birds quite a sight. There was a big egret roost which also held a black crowned night heron. The first amphibian was a bullfrog being eaten by a great egret, it put a fight but the egret won.
Back at out hotel pond cricket frogs were making a racket, they were quite easily located by torchlight but could not be approached.
Birds 167
Pied Billed Grebe Audubon's Shearwater American white pelican Brown Pelican Magnificent Frigatebird Masked Booby Brown Booby Northern Gannet Anhinga Double Crested Cormorant Least Bittern Great Blue Heron (GBH) Wurdemann's Heron (GBH from) White Heron (GBH form) Great Egret Snowy Egret Cattle Egret Reddish Egret Little Blue Heron Tricoloured Heron Green Heron Black Crowned Night Heron Yellow Crowned Night Heron Glossy Ibis White Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Wood stork Canada Goose Black Bellied Whistling Duck Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mallard Mottled Duck Blue Winged Teal Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey Swallow Tailed Kite Snail Kite Sharp Shinned Hawk Northern Harrier Red Shouldered Hawk Broad Winged Hawk Red Tailed Hawk Bald Eagle Crested Caracara American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon Common Peafowl Wild Turkey Northern Bobwhite Sora Moorhen Purple Gallinue American Coot Limpkin Whooping Crane Sandhill Crane Black Bellied Plover Kildeer Semi Palmated
Plover Black Necked Stilt Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Willet Marbled Godwit Ruddy Sandpiper Sanderling Red Knot Dunlin Semi Palmated
Sandpiper Western sandpiper Least Sandpiper Long billed Sandpiper Short Billed Sandpiper Laughing gull Ring billed Gull American Herring gull Royal Tern Forsters Tern Least Tern Sooty Tern Brown Noddy Black Skimmer Rock Dove White Crowned Pigeon White Winged Dove Mourning Dove Common Ground dove Collared Dove Blue Crowned Parakeet Monk Parakeet Black Hooded Parakeet Red Crowned Parrot Lilac Crowned Parrot White Fronted Parrot White Chevroned
Parakeet Mangrove Cuckoo Yellow billed Cuckoo Smooth billed Ani Eastern Screech Owl Great Horned Owl Barred Owl Burrowing Owl Common Nighthawk Lesser Nighthawk Chuck will willow Chimney Swift Belted Kingfisher Rd Bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Red Cockaded Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Gray Kingbird Scissor Tailed Flycatcher Loggerhead Shrike White Eyed Vireo Black Whiskered Vireo Yellow Throated vireo Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Cave Swallow Barn Swallow Bank Swallow Purple Martin Sedge Wren Blue Gray Gnatcatcher Eastern Bluebird Swainson's Thrush Gray Cheeked Thrush Hermit Thrush Wood Thrush Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher Cedar Waxwings Starling Common Myna Hill Myna Red Whiskered Bulbul Blackburnian Warbler Black throated blue warbler Palm Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Blackpoll warbler Yellow Throated Warbler Black and white warbler American redstart Worm eating warbler Common yellowthroat Northern waterthrush Ovenbird Hooded Warbler Scarlet Tanager Blue Grosbeak Rose Breasted Grosbeak Indigo bunting Northern Cardinal Eastern Towhee Bachmann's Sparrow Orchard Oriole Eastern Meadowlark Red winged Blackbird Common Grackle Boat Tailed Grackle Brown Headed Cowbird House Sparrow Bahama Mockingbird Budgerigar Egyptian Goose Red Masked Parakeet Reddis Egret (White
Form) Cerrulean Warbler Tennessee Warbler Parasitic jager Red Junglefowl Mammals and Herps 35 Manatee Eastern
Gray Squirrel Fox
Squirrel Racoon Armadillo Mouse
sp White
Tailed Deer Key
Deer Green
Vervet Monkey Marsh
Rabbit Eastern
Cottontail Lower
Keys Marsh Rabbit Bottlenosed Dolphin Brazilian
Freetailed Bat Green
Anole Loggerhead
Turtle Green
Iguana American
Alligator American
Crocodile Gopher
Tortoise Eastern
Diamondback rattlesnake Black
Racer Leatherback
Turtle Giant
Day Gecko Brown
Watersnake Pig
Frog Bullfrog Chicken
Turtle Yellow
Bellied Slider Brown
Anole Insects 31
Monarch Great Southern White Black Swallowtail Little Wood Satyr Dainty Tropical Chequered Skipper White Peacock Gulf Fritillary Giant Swallowtail Meridean Duskywing Clouded Queen Danaus Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Zebra Longwing Common Buckeye Eastern Pygmy-Blue Regal Darner Blue Dasher Southeastern Lubber
Grasshopper Scarlet Skimmer Roseate Skimmer Rambur's Forktail Metallic Pennant Little Blue Dragonlet Halloween Pennant Golden Winged Skimmer Great Pondhawk Four-spotted Pennant Regal Darner |
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