BIRD WALK

BIRD WALK - Dec. 20, 2011

What a nice morning… I was joined by 5 other birders for
our walk: Pam (birds with our Lake Region Audubon group),
Bill and Alice, Ann (good to see you back for another season!),
and Wanda. Thanks to all of you for coming out to enjoy the
Sanlan scenery and birds!

Pam and I checked the ponds near the office, before others arrived.
Some of ‘the regulars’ were around the pool pond. A few Hooded
Mergansers showed up here, apart from the bigger group we’ve
been seeing on the pond at the back gate.
Our birds in this area:
Great Blue
Heron

Limpkin

Little Blue Heron
Fish Crow (big groups have been seen….
I’m not sure what the ‘attraction’ is!)
Killdeer

Hooded Merganser
Mourning
Dove
Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher

We walked down to the ponds at the back gate, and had lots
of good sightings. This has become a really good spot this season…
the birds are regularly quite numerous here. The Black-bellied
Whistling Ducks seem to have moved on to another place now. 
We had noticed the numbers dropping, and now it seems they
are gone for this year. Hopefully we’ll get them back again next
year! I’ll keep checking down along the canal at the B & W
Sanctuary… maybe they’ve just moved back there into the marshes. 
Our little Least Sandpipers are at the pond again… They look
like little ‘peeps’. In fact, we refer to them, along with about
3 other species of sandpipers that all are about 6” long, as ‘peeps’.    
Our birds in this area:
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Tree Swallow
White Ibis
Great Egret

Palm Warbler
Wood Stork
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Least Sandpiper
Sandhill Crane
Greater
Yellowlegs

Tri-colored Heron
Pied-bill Grebe
Cattle Egret
Wilson’s Snipe

Then we headed out the Clubhouse Trail. Though we still

aren’t hearing or seeing many small birds, we had some good

sightings as we walked out to Stahl Canal and back. The

butterflies are pretty numerous, especially the Zebra Longwings 

(Yes, the neat ones with long black wings with yellowish stripes…

like a zebra!) We saw other ones, varying sizes and all yellow, that
fit into the group called ‘Sulphurs’. 

The birds we saw in this area:
Kestrel
House Wren (heard, only)
Turkey Vulture
Mottled Duck (pair)

Belted Kingfisher

Brown Pelican
Eastern Phoebe
Yellow-rumped Warbler

Red-tailed Hawk

As we passed back by the big pond again, the Greater

Yellowlegs (a 10” wading bird often found at mudflats) was

joined by a Lesser Yellowlegs, which is smaller. It was neat

to have them there together, to see the difference… it is often

difficult to tell which one it is when there is only one!

That brought our total to 33 species, on our enjoyable walk! Thanks again –