It was a cloudy, breezy day with occasional drizzle and light rain. These were not the best conditions for birding and photography, but we did well, all things considered. We covered four areas of the refuge. Some of the birds we saw along Beach Road …
We went on an open-to-the-public First Saturday morning birdwalk led by members of the Sussex Bird Club. We took two trails starting with the Boardwalk Trail. Birds we saw along this trail included bald eagle, osprey, belted kingfisher, semipalmated plover, lesser yellowlegs, greater yellowlegs, white-eyed …
Our first stop was the Boardwalk Trail. Among the birds we identified here were blue grosbeak, indigo bunting, snowy egret, purple martin, greater yellowlegs, osprey, red-winged blackbird, turkey vulture, northern flicker, laughing gull, and common yellowthroat. The Dike Trail produced 28 species. Birds we saw …
Several birds were nesting at the rookery including great egrets (some seen with eggs) and white ibises (some seen with newborns). Other birds identified included American oystercatcher, black-crowned night heron, yellow-crowned night heron, clapper rail, little blue heron, tricolored heron, glossy ibis, mallard, Canada goose …
We went to the Ocean City Welcome Center for the first part of our day. It was cloudy during our visit, so it wasn’t the best lighting for photography. Nonetheless, we saw a decent variety of birds in the rookery and while we walked along …
We walked the path around Taylor Lake. This path was mostly along the shoreline but it went through some wooded areas as well. Birds we saw included ring-billed gull, pied-billed grebe, green heron, American anhinga, white ibis, American coot, blue-gray gnatcatcher, palm warbler, common gallinule, …
We birded from the Visitor’s Center to the Heron Hideout Trail to Marsh Rabbit Run up to the observation deck and back to the parking lot. Whistling black duck was the species we saw the most, at least 50 of them. Some of the other …
We covered most of the eastern part of the Wetlands today including Wetlands Blvd, Night Heron Lane, Bobcat Trail, Cypress Boardwalk, Osprey Blvd, Bald Eagle Blvd, and Limpkin Lane. On the south side of Bald Eagle Blvd, we were treated to seeing a male vermillion …
For the second part of our trip to Merritt Island NWR today, we drove around East Gator Creek. We walked a little bit at first but then we decided to drive around the road. The highlight was seeing at least 50 white pelicans. Some of …
We mainly walked along the following trails: Wetlands Blvd, Night Heron Lane, Bobcat Trail, Cypress Boardwalk, and Osprey Blvd. The highlight of the was was seeing about 20 roseate spoonbills from the boardwalk. Other birds seen included wood stork, limpkin, American anhinga, sandhill crane, blue-winged …
