AMERICAN BITTERN

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American Bittern, Viera Wetland

BITTERNS ARE SOME OF MY FAVOURITE BIRDS and another species that Florida is an excellent place to catch up with is American Bittern. Although there appear to be fewer around here than there were two years ago, I managed a very nice sighting this morning at Viera Wetland, of a bird that was slowly working its way through a bed of rushes. Viera, as usual, offered some great views of other waterbirds too. The birds here seem completely unconcerned by the presence of people and it is a fabulous site for photography. Unless you have a particular target in mind there is a bewildering choice of birds to point your camera lens at. Caspian and Forster's Terns fished around the lagoons and a Bald Eagle passed overhead several times. A Belted Kingfisher perched on submerged palm stumps and noisy Sandhill Cranes were prospecting potential nesting sites around the wetland. The lagoons themselves were full of waterbirds, including several Wood Storks. The surrounding beds of rushes were literally full of Yellow-rumped Warblers, along with a few Common Yellowthroats and Savannah Sparrows. Thanks to local birder and former High Wycombe resident Warren Jacobi for some great advice today!

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American Bittern, Viera Wetland

FLORIDA SCRUB JAY

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Florida Scrub Jay, the sunshine state's endemic bird

A VISIT TO FLORIDA WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT SEEING ITS SCRUB JAY! An early morning walk at one of my favourite sites for it produced a very co-operative pair along one of the trails through the flatwoods. They can be very tame and inquisitive and at times came too close to focus with the 500. With a declining population of 6,000 – 9,000 individuals it is threatened by destruction of its habitat for housing developments and the degradation of it owing to fire supression. Merritt Island was very birdy as usual in the early morning and other highlights included: a Peregrine Falcon, which had caught a small wader (probably a Dunlin) and proceeded to eat it in a tree; a steady southward passage of American White Pelicans; a pair of Hooded Mergansers and three willets. A gaudy yellow Pine Warbler was amongst the many Yellow-rumpeds, that I am told could well have started to move north again. A quick spin around Black Point Drive resulted in around 20 outrageously pink Roseate Spoonbills amongst the many herons and egrets feeding by the dykes. A couple of Bald Eagles kept watch over the large lagoons here and Black-bellied Plover was also new for this particular trip.

Florida might well be the 'sunshine state' and although it lived up to its tag again today there was a frost on the car this morning and a bitterly cold wind was still blowing from the northwest. The present cold snap has come as a shock to the system for many people here. An interesting birding trivia quiz question is to name the USA's other single state endemic birds (with the exception of Hawaii - that would be cheating). How many others can you name?

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Florida Scrub Jay - Scrub Ridge Trail, Merritt Island

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Peregrine Falcon, heading off after an early morning meal, with blood still on its thighs!

FLORIDA SNOWY OWL

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Snowy Owl (first winter female), Little Talbot Island State Park - the third record for Florida

SNOWY OWL WAS THE LAST BIRD I EXPECTED TO SEE IN FLORIDA as I booked my flights for the 17th Annual Space Coast Birding Festival last autumn. I had toyed with the idea of having a stopover in the northeast in the hope of catching up with the amazing Snowy Owl influx to the USA but had been talked out of it by Pete when we looked at the chance of heavy snowfall there causing travel delays. I was lucky to avoid a foot of of snow in New York yesterday, the airports were closed and 3000 flights were cancelled across the northeast USA... but the influx had already kindly delivered one of these magnificent owls to Florida instead. There are only two previous records for Florida, which is not surprising considering that Little Talbot Island lies at the same latitude as Agadir in Morocco on our side of the Atlantic! Another irony is that it is not purely the blast of polar air that has affected much of North America this winter that is responsible for the influx but more a bumper lemming year on the owls' Arctic breeding grounds. This morning's encounter was a very special one without another birder in sight on the lonely beach here, the sky completely clear blue in an icy northwest wind. The current cold winter is also affecting Florida, with the temperature in Jacksonville just above freezing at 38 degrees fahrenheit but the wind chill made it feel much colder.

There were a few other birds around and these included: Western Osprey (two); Northern Harrier (four males); Brown Pelican (three) and Northern Gannet (many feeding offshore). A small group of 5 bottle-nosed dolphins swam north and the more sheltered parts of the dunes were full of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Savannah Sparrows. A Palm Warbler, a couple of Northern Cardinals and several Northern Mockingbirds were also here. I usually listen to the radio to relieve the boredom of road journeys in the states and there is always some interesting comment. Today's outstanding contributions were the 16(!) signature sauces for you to try at Buffalo Wild Wings and news reader Renée Montana who reported 130 people killed so far in the crisis in Syria (the present total is estimated to be more than 120,000) - can we believe any of the nonsense on the news here?

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Little Talbot Island beach (Iphone 5S Hipstamatic)