Fort De Soto

For the second day of our trip to the Gulf coast, we headed north up to the excellent Fort De Soto Park, which is situated at the southern end of the keys which run south of St Petersburg into Tampa Bay. This was probably my favourite site of all those visited due to its potential, and which certainly warranted a lot more time to fully explore then we were sadly able to give it.

After arriving at the park, the first bird on the agenda was the nesting Great Horned Owls up at the north end of the park, and after quickly finding the cordoned off area, Mum, Dad and baby were quickly found and all showing well up in the trees there.

A quick walk through the trees from the Owls and I was on the North Beach and the shorebird protected breeding area. Scanning the lagoon there and my next target, the wintering Long-billed Curlew, was quickly located, and like most of the other shorebirds encountered, it gave excellent close-up views.

Also on the lagoon were Black Skimmers, Willet, Reddish Egret, Royal, American Sandwich & Forsters Terns and a few Marbled Godwits.

Being the only target species that I failed to find at the sites visited yesterday, I was determined to find a Snowy Plover today, but it wasn't going to be easy as the small shorebirds were congregated a fair distance away inside the roped-off area and there was a fair bit of dead ground there too, plus the rapidly increasing temperature was creating a lot of heat haze to hamper viewing further still. However Wilsons, Piping and Semi-palmated Plovers could with patience all be picked out from the flock, but frustratingly there was no sign of a Snowy. An American Oystercatcher was also picked out, along with a pair of recently arrived Least Terns.

Then finally after over 2 hours of meticulously sifting back and forth through the visible part of the flock, much to my relief and delight, a Snowy Plover materialised out of the haze and showed well if distantly, and completed the hoped for haul of waders during the trip.

Heading back across the north beach towards the trees around the picnic shelters, a few Brown Pelicans drifted over.

In the trees by the picnic shelters I located a fairly large feeding flock of warblers, with Yellow-throated, Yellow-rumped, Pine & Palm Warblers all present.

Earlier whilst watching the Owls, I had met a group of U.S birders who had apparently done all the known hotspots in the park and said that there were no migrants around at all so I wasn't expecting to see any myself but whilst continuing to enjoy the warbler flock, suddenly there in front of me was this glowing bright yellow warbler! After a few expletives as to what it was, I tried to stay cool and note its features, and with reference to the field guide I realised it was actually an easy task to identify and that it was a Prothonotary Warbler, and a stonking male to boot!

Sadly it was lost from view all too quickly presumably having moved on with some of the other warblers which had now dispersed, but in searching the area to trying to relocate it I chanced upon another totally unexpected migrant in the form of this Blue Grosbeak.

After enjoying the grosbeak for a while, I started the walk back south towards the fort area, and after a short while noticed a bird sitting on some distant overhead wires. Raising my bins I was amazed to see it was a Kingbird sp. so I quickly took the record shot below to aid the id, and a quick look in the book confirmed it was an Eastern Kingbird.

So in the space of less than an hour I'd managed to find 3 totally unexpected migrants, all of which had presumably been grounded the day before last by the only rain we had during the fortnight, and which was without question one of those magical birding moments that stay with you for ever.

I carried on walking south and was treated to the sight of a Magnificent Frigatebird drifting over high up and also noted a Loggerhead Shrike, a singing House Wren and a few Barn Swallows passing overhead. My attention was then grabbed by a call which alerted me to the fact that a Black-hooded Parakeet had just alighted on the roadside wires, and it then flew to a tree stump where it was joined by its mate before they both returned to the wires to indulge in a bout of mutual preening before heading off over the trees calling loudly.

Arriving at the fort, and after a short wait I located the over-wintering Lark Sparrow, a Florida rarity, which showed well feeding on the ground only a few feet away.

Sadly the day was fast coming to an end but as we set off home, a quick stop off a mile or so north of the park produced a good sized flock of Redheads along with a few Lesser Scaups at the Tierra Verde pond. Finally driving back round the south side of St Petersburg 3 probable Monk Parakeets flew over the road, but unfortunately didn't land to enable the id to be clinched, but nevertheless it had been a truly excellent day at what is a truly excellent site.