Sparrows!! 1/3/09

Little Talbot Island Sparrow Bonanza!

January 3, 2009

I birded from 10:00 to 15:30. There was dense fog which kept things very active until mid-afternoon. The Le Conte’s Sparrow was a great tip from a visiting birder from Tallahassee, Mark Kiser – thanks! This was a county bird! The Little Talbot Island State Park sand dunes are wonderful for sparrows. This is the third time I have seen a Clay-colored Sparrow here. Both the white-crowned and field sparrows were my all time high number. I dipped on some of the target birds, such as common loon, black scoter, piping plover and brown thrasher, but I’ll take the two sparrows!

Hooded merganser – 1
Northern gannet – 60
Brown pelican – 40
Double-crested cormorant – 25
Great blue heron – 2
Great egret – 3
Wood stork – 1
Black vulture – 4
Turkey vulture – 6
Osprey – 2
Northern harrier – 1
Sharp-shinned hawk – 1
Cooper’s hawk – 1
Killdeer – 3
Willet – 6
Ruddy turnstone – 9
Red knot – 165
Sanderling – 35
Dunlin – 6
Laughing gull – 85
Bonaparte’s gull – 2
Ring-billed gull – 25
Herring gull – 22
Lesser black-backed gull – 1
Great black-backed gull – 7
Royal tern – 2
Forster’s tern – 55
Black skimmer – 200
Mourning dove – 7
Common ground-dove – 5
Belted kingfisher – 1
Eastern phoebe – 3
White-eyed vireo – 2
Blue jay – 1
Fish crow – 10
Carolina wren – 2
House wren – 5
Sedge wren – 2
Ruby-crowned kinglet – 8
Blue-gray gnatcatcher – 1
Hermit thrush – 2
Gray catbird – 7
Northern mockingbird – 14
Orange-crowned warbler – 1
Yellow-rumped warbler – 400
Common yellowthroat – 4
Eastern towhee – 10
Clay-colored sparrow – 1, adult, but some buffy wash on underparts
Field sparrow – 17
Savannah sparrow – 4
Le Conte’s sparrow – 1, several quick, but satisfactory looks
Song sparrow – 15
Swamp sparrow – 8
White-throated sparrow – 2
White-crowned sparrow – 45, many singing!
Northern cardinal – 10
Red-winged blackbird – 20
Boat-tailed grackle – 6