Long-billed dowitchers feeding in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
This year most of my field trips were in watery habitats, so the birds I saw tended to fall in that category. As a result, I saw fewer songbirds this year. Here’s the list of birds I saw during the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival (with help from more experienced birders):
- Mottled Duck
- Blue-winged Teal
- Northern Shoveler
- Ring-necked Duck
- Lesser Scaup
- Hooded Merganser
- Ruddy Duck
- Common Loon (at Smyrna Beach jetty)
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Marsh Wren
- American Robin
- Northern Mockingbird
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Yellow-throated Warbler
- Palm Warbler
- Savannah Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- Painted Bunting (at the feeder at MINWR visitors center)
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Northern Gannet
- American White Pelican
- Brown Pelican
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Anhinga
- American Bittern
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- Little Blue Heron
- Tricolored Heron
- Cattle Egret
- Green Heron
- Black-crowned Night-Heron
- White Ibis
- Glossy Ibis
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Wood Stork
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Osprey
- Bald Eagle
- Northern Harrier
- Sharp-shinned Hawk
- Red-shouldered Hawk
- Crested Caracara
- American Kestrel
- Peregrine Falcon
- Sora
- Common Moorhen
- American Coot
- Limpkin
- Sandhill Crane
- Black-bellied Plover
- Wilson’s Plover
- Semipalmated Plover
- Piping Plover
- Killdeer
- American Avocet
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Willet
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Ruddy Turnstone
- Sanderling
- Western Sandpiper
- Dunlin
- Long-billed Dowitcher
- Bonaparte’s Gull
- Laughing Gull
- Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull
- Lesser Black-backed Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Caspian Tern Forster’s Tern
- Royal Tern Sandwhich Tern
- Black Skimmer
- Mourning Dove
- Belted Kingfisher
- Loggerhead Shrike
- Florida Scrub-Jay
- American Crow
- Tree Swallow
Had I chosen field trips in a greater variety of habitats it would have been possible to double the number of species I saw. The total number of species seen by attendees during recent years are:
- 2009: 191 species
- 2008: 197 species
- 2007: 178 species
The Festival keeps a master list of birds seen during the event showing the location the bird was observed. It is on display in the exhibition center.
Here are some photos from some of my field trips:
Here is a nice look at a Great Black-backed Gull sitting next to two Ring-billed Gulls. Note the extreme size difference. Taken along the Titusville Causeway.
Heading to the beach via the long boardwalk at Smyrna Dunes Park.
While we were on the boardwalk at Smyrna Dunes Park, an osprey flew overhead with a nice fish dinner.
Birders gather at the base of the dunes on New Smyrna Beach.
Getting serious with binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras on New Smyrna Beach. We spotted a Bonaparte's Gull, a Common Loon and large flocks of Northern Gannets.
A Wilson's Plover on Disappearing Island. Smyrna Dunes Park.
Birding in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge with Kevin Karlson and David Simpson.
