Summer, 2005

Ted's Observations...

 

June 7: For the last several years at the Chokoloskee Bay Colony there has been a hybrid Great Blue Heron (a dark bird crossed with a white bird). We have recorded the bird nesting in the same location when doing nest censuses.

We did a nest census at Chokoloskee and photographed two large gray-white chicks (photo, B. Anderson) in the nesting location where the Great Blue-X-Great White adult has been observed before. Because of the lack of much color these chicks are probably from a all white Great Blue Heron (now called the white morph of the Great Blue Heron; formerly called the Great White Heron; as they obliviously breed and produce viable young the two species were lumped togeather into one species) that we have not seen and the hybrid pictured above.

June 22: This White Pelican has been hanging around the Marco Inlet for the last month. Very unusual to see one at this location any time of the year but especially in summer.

August 31: Again we have been brushed by a hurricane (Katrina) and again after it passed, I went out and surveyed the coast from Naples to Cape Romano to see what happened.

The storm passed well south of the area and at that time was not very strong; therefore the only visible effects was sand moved around from beaches and sandbars -- actually nothing more than what we would get from a prolonged summer storm that kicked up the Gulf some. Of course while looking around kept an eye out for unusual birds; no telling what could turn up with such a big storm in the Gulf.

The first thing we noticed was 15 Black Terns feeding just south of Marco, these birds are not common here but almost every year we get a few migrating south late summer. For the last several years we have not recorded any and wondered if we were going to get them this year and we did but late.

Then on Wednesday (8/31) while censusing Sand Dollar (spit, NW tip Marco Island) I observed a small sandpiper that looked a little different. After stalking it and getting a few photos, I knew that it was something different. At the time, I did not have a field guide, but back at the computer, I blew up the digital photo. The pictures showed that the bird was a juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis), right, a new species not only for Sand Dollar but also for Collier County (as far as I know).

This species was rare in Florida until at least the 1950s (quote from Florida Bird Species, An Annotated List. Robertson and Woolfenden. 1992: "Now a regular, rare to uncommon coastal to inland transient (Jul-Oct, Mar-May) throughout, except known in the keys only from two spring reports from Dry Tortguas. Usually as singles or small groups.") According to this information it is easy to understand why this bird has not been recorded here before. Whether either of these species arrived because of Katrina we will never know, as either could have just been migrating; but it seems likely that they did not come up from the Caribbean. For whatever reason, a fun bird to see.