Southeast Volusia Audubon Society

Five people spent a beautiful day at Lake Woodruff NWR. There were lots of warblers, especially Palm and Yellow-rumped, some kinglets, gnatcatchers and phoebes. There were lots of coots, moorhens and a few Sandhill Cranes. The highlight was a Red-Shouldered Hawk that stood perched for about fifteen minutes so everyone could get a good look (and a picture or twenty). Some ducks were in, especially blue and green-winged teals and Northern Shovelers. One Great Blue Heron intrigued us by carrying around a three-foot stick. He did not do anything with it, just carried it. After a while, he just set it down. There were lots of sparrows, including Savannah, Swamp and Vespers. On the way out, we saw a Merlin perched high in a tree. In all, we saw 46 species of birds and twice that number of vultures. Nancy enjoyed walking among them. I thought I heard her mumble something about it being hard to soar with the eagles when you are surrounded by a bunch of buzzards.

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Four hearty souls braved the 45 degree chill factor and highest tides to visit the Smyrna Dunes Park on Friday, Nov 5. As we approached the end of the boardwalk to access the scant beach, Ken alerted on a Piping Plover in front of us. I could only see two Sanderlings. Finally, I saw what he did. The plover was standing on the lee side of a clump of

dead grasses, protecting itself from the cold wind. It was the first of about fifteen Piping Plovers and about 10 Wilson’s Plovers we would see that day, in addition to lots of Semi-palmated Plovers and the other usual birds we see at the seashore. There were Herring, Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, Sandwich, Forster’s, Royal and Caspian Terns, Great and Snowy Egrets, Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, Sanderlings, Western Sandpipers, Brown Pelicans, lots of Osprey, and even a car roof full of pigeons.

An afternoon trip to the Canaveral National Seashore yielded the same shorebirds in addition to Great Blue Herons. Several Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher rounded out the day.

Here is a picture of the PiPl hunkered down against the wind.

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