Birding Alva

It's Monday and if you've been following my blog for some time now, you know that means it's birding time! Today our adventure is taking us to Alva, come along.....

Truth be told, we had heard about this Baltimore Oriole being seen off Pearl Street and we hoped to see it too - and we did! What a beautiful bird this is!

We walked the nearby neighborhood and spotted this young Red-headed Woodpecker,

a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,

A White-winged Dove and

another Red-headed Woodpecker. Isn't life grand!

Migration time at the Slough

Migration was heating up at the Slough this past week and it makes me wish that I lived nearby so that I could hop over on a daily basis. In any event, I had the opportunity to visit on Monday and enjoyed seeing/being part of this 'heaven on earth' that the slough exhumes while walking over the water - on the boardwalk that is. 

Several photos were taken and some of them were decent, take a look for yourself.....

My first interesting sighting was in the early morning hours and way up at the top of the trees, after watching it for a bit - I started to recognize

that I was admiring a Baltimore Oriole - the size, the shape, the bill and the wing bars were my main clues - the computer helped me to clarify its identity.

And then, toward the end of our boardwalk enjoyment - we were blessed with quite an exciting viewing....

right in front of us - at eye level - we had this large group of birds show up.....this Worm-eating Warbler,

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,

Yellow Warbler,

Prairie Warbler and

Carolina Wren all of a sudden gathered together and voiced some sort of excitement - they were obviously disturbed over something.....

we watched with excitement and awe and soon realized why they were so....

it was this Yellow Rat Snake that caused all this excitement - eventually the birds left the area, the snake resumed its descent down the trunk and no one was hurt in the process.

And this, my friends, concluded yet another memorable morning at the Slough.

 

Migration continues and the Black Billed Cuckoo returns.

I couldn't wait for the sun to rise so that I could get busy and see what is happening at the Sanibel Lighthouse - the previous day I followed all the new sightings and I could hardly wait and hoped that I could see them as well.

The Blue-winged Warbler never disappoint - what is not to love!

The Blackburnian takes your breath away.

Here's the underside of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Those two chicks were very vocal this morning - probably hungry.

This was a new bird for me this year and this was my first opportunity to actually be able to photograph it - just beautiful.

The Baltimore Oriole.

Yum - a fresh juicy skink for the Great Egret.

And the Black Billed Cuckoo - wow - I was so happy to be able to see it and to be at the right place at the right time.

My Easter bird.

A Green Heron - that was a surprise as I've never seen one at the Sanibel Lighthouse.

Happy Easter.

 

My E-Bird List for today - with 51 species - wow, what a day!  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17976865

Fort De Soto - here we go

This day was a day much anticipated - as I had heard about Fort De Soto being one of the best spot for birding, especially during migration. This day also happens to be the last birding trip of the season with the Caloosa Bird Club - this part makes me want to sail through the summer as soon as I can - so, a big sigh as I remind myself to BE in the journey....this too shall pass.

Okay, onward - let me show you what I feasted my eyes and soul on yesterday.

You are probably wondering what we're looking at....well, often times that is how I felt - the birds looked as if they were on steroids, loaded with sugar with a side of adhd.....because as soon as you spotted something - it was moving - fassssst.

My first -ever- sighting of a Scarlet Tanager, so, even a bad photo is a good photo at this moment in time.

A Cedar Waxwing was heard before being spotted - there were many others too but they couldn't be sighted.

A Red Cardinal - sitting on its nest ..... spring is in the air.

A Gray Kingbird.

Too funny that they would choose a parking lot of all places - but then again, they are "laughing" gulls.

A Yellow-throated Warbler, this one granted us many views throughout the park.

Nanday - also known as a Black-hooded Parakeet.

Some of the vistas - so much land, so much to see, so many places and so little time to do it all.

Another view of the Nanday - this one shows the blue in his feathers and the red on the legs.

The beach side provided much to look at from many directions

This Reddish Egret's bright breeding plumage could be spotted from far away.

Wouldn't you want to be there?

Near the Ranger's house, the Murlberry Trees are loaded with fruits and the birds are loving it. Here is an Indigo Bunting getting his fix.

Very sweet! A Baltimore Oriole and my camera is focusing on it - yeah!

I see that there is also a female Orchard Oriole to his right - how cool is that!

"Yum, I love these fruits....I'm gonna get me more of that".

Another Indigo Bunting - feasting away.

Summer Tanager always seem to take my breath away.

Other than this Summer Tanager that took my breath away - were beautiful species that I couldn't get photos of - such as a Red-breasted Grosbeak and a Black-whiskered Vireo.

A lonely Cowbird

A beautiful Cape May Warbler caught the attention of many.

After seeing this Cape May and the Black-whiskered Vireo, we made our way to the picnic tables and fueled our bellies while we exchanged notes about the 80 species that we had seen. The Black-whiskered Vireo was voted the bird of the day....I so wish that I would have been able to show you - I guess you'll have to open your bird id book for that one if you've never seen it.

After saying our goodbyes to the Caloosa members, my friend Gail and I stepped back to the Murlberry Tree to catch sight of whomever we could see. A nice fellow identified this immature male Orchard Oriole for us and I'm thankful for that.

And this, my friend, concludes my visit to Fort De Soto. Another great day spent birding...now that I've rested, I'm ready to catch sight of the migrants coming through the Lighthouse of Sanibel.

My E-Bird List for today  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17894877