American Flamingo

 

March 7th

          We had a very good day of birding at St. Mark’s NWR.  The weather was beautiful, and we saw lots of great birds.  We were able to find our special target bird, the American Flamingo, which is rare particularly in the Florida panhandle.  It is more likely to be seen in South Florida. We had to walk about half a mile and still got only distant views, but this very large pink bird is unmistakable. 

          It turns out that the American Flamingo was a life bird for us.  We had never seen it before in our lives!  Since we saw it in Florida, it is also an ABA life bird.  ABA stands for American Birding Association and the countable area encompasses all of North American including the lower 48 states, Alaska including the Aleutian Islands and Canada.  In 2016, the ABA added Hawaii to the territory.  Many serious birders keep track of their ABA life list.  We had 733 birds on our list and today we added one more. 

          Since we’re in Florida, suddenly there are lots of birds that are new for this year (FOY - first of the year birds).  Of course, these birds will not count for our Ohio Big Year, but I will list them anyway.

         Blue-winged Teal              Little Blue Heron

         American Flamingo – rare      Tricolored Heron

         Clapper Rail                            Osprey

     Black-bellied Plover                  Swallow-tailed Kite

 Ruddy Turnstone            Red-cockaded Woodpecker

        Dunlin                                    Eastern Phoebe

      Least Sandpiper                      White-eyed Vireo

Lesser Yellowlegs                        Brown-headed Nuthatch

Laughing Gull                              Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

    Forster’s Tern                           Boat-tailed Grackle

  Royal Tern                                  Common Yellowthroat

        Anhinga                                 Northern Parula

        American White Pelican        Pine Warbler

       Great Egret                        Yellow-throated Warbler

        Snowy Egret

                     (29 FOY birds including one lifer)

CORRECTION - AFTER CHECKING OUR RECORDS, WE REALIZED THAT WE HAD SEEN AMERICAN FLAMINGOS IN THE GALAPAGOS.  SO THIS BIRD WAS ONLY AN ABA LIFER. 

                                 American Flamingo

                                   

                                Great Egret

                                     

                               Swallow-tailed Kite 

                        Red-cockaded Woodpecker


                               




Comments

  1. AnnMarch 8, 2022 at 5:45 AM

    Always exciting to find a "lifer". Congratulations!
    Ann

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnnMarch 8, 2022 at 5:52 AM

    In the ABA area there are about 1000 different species of birds and the goal for most birders is 700 species. Your total of 734 is very impressive.

    ReplyDelete

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