Southern Florida - Part Two - Dec. 16, 2012

Once again, I'm a little behind, but I'm catching up... do enjoy :D

Cont...
Kayaking at John D. MacArthur Beach Park in North Palm Beach, FL. with my brother and uncle.

Great city views while kayaking!  Brown Pelican.

A motley Red-Breasted Merganser, female.

A single Sanderling.  On the way back to the shore, to return the kayaks, we came across this sandbar that was virtually underwater on the way out.  Now, it was teaming with bird activity! (pictured in the next several pics.)

A Royal Tern... Awesome! (And a Lifer!)

A friendly confrontation among the Laughing Gulls*.
*Lifer! Of course... :)

A juvenile Ring-Billed Gull in the mix.

Smaller than the gulls, and much smaller than the Royal Tern, Forster's Tern.

In the distance, we see the city getting drenched.  Soon after, it was us. 

Oh my gooooodness!  The bird we all hoped to see, just as we reached the end of kayaking.. The Roseate Spoonbill!!!  LIFER!!!

A raised boardwalk across the kayaking water, to see the ocean.  A storm is a-brewin'

Another single Sanderling.

Also seen on the kayak trip:

• Belted Kingfishers
• Great Egrets
• Bonaparte's Gulls
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Common Yellowthroat
• Red-Shouldered Hawk
• Great Blue Heron
• Red-Tailed Hawk

 And, pictured in post one : Southern Florida - Part One - Dec. 14-16, 2012

• White Ibis + Juvenile
• Osprey
• Common Loon
• Little Blue Herons + Juv.s
• Double-Crested Cormorants
• Turkey Vultures

Siletz Spit/ Canon Beach

An attempt to catch the Snowy Owl at Siletz Spit.  As we were closing in on the location that it has been reportedly spotted about two weeks before and two weeks before that, a local guy came out of his house, seeing us all geared up to ask if we were birding.  He informed us the Snowy Owl left last week.  We were a bit saddened by that, but the trip was well worth it anyway.  


Since it was a long trip, I'm splitting up what we saw as we traveled.  


Highway 26 Westbound:

• Red-Tailed Hawk
• American Crows
• Mourning Dove
• American Kestrel 
• Northern Flicker
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Mallards
• Buffleheads
• Double-Crested Cormorant
• European Starlings

Canon Beach:

My goodness that place was dead, as far as birds are concerned.  Oh.. actually that would be quite literally too.  We saw less than 10 Western Gulls, no birds on Haystack Rock, that is except 2 dead Cormorants :(.  Although, on the other side of the rock were several male and female Black Scoters and near the parking lot, a few House Sparrows.

Black Scoters - males and female

Western Gull.... I'm pretty sure.  Gulls are a bit difficult to I.D. sometimes. 

Along Highway 101 Southbound:

• Bufflehead
• Pied-Billed Grebe
• Horned Grebe
• Red-Winged Black Bird
• Anna's Hummingbird
• Less Scaups - males
• Ring-Necked Ducks
• Common Loon*
• Black-Capped Chickadee
• "Dusky" Canada Geese*
• Common Raven
• Great Egrets
• Great Blue Heron
• American Robin
• Brewer's Blackbirds

Siletz Spit:

• American Crows
• Kingfisher - male
• Golden-Crowned Sparrows
• Great Blue Heron
• Great Egret
• Buffleheads
• Spotted Towhees
• Northern Pintails
• Anna's Hummingbird
• Song Sparrow
• American Robins
• Golden-Crowned Kinglet
• Yellow-Rumped Warblers
• Bewick's Wren
• Mallards
• Chest-Nut Backed Chickadee
• Northern Flicker
• Gadwalls
• American Coots
• Varied Thrush - male
• Double-Crested Cormorant
• Surf Scoters
• Red-Breasted Mergansers
• Common Loon
• European Starlings
• Common Goldeneyes - males and females
• Barrow's Goldeneyes* - males and females
• Semi-Palmated Plovers

+Rabbits

+Harbor Seal

*Lifers!!

Surf Scoter - juvenile male

Red-Breasted Merganser - male

Semipalmated Plovers

Common Loon

Cannon Beach

An awesome trip to the beach just to do some birding.  The first of what would turn into several beach birding trips.

• Brown Pelicans*
• Pelagic Cormorants*
• Red-Breasted Merganser* - female
• Harlequin Ducks* - male and female
• Tufted Puffins* (high atop Haystack Rock, only visible through the scope, saw 3)
• Mallards
• Common Murre* (by the hundreds)
• Western Gulls
• Common Tern*
• Barn Swallows
• Killdeer*
• Northern Flicker
• American Goldfinch
• House Sparrows - male and female
• Black Oystercatchers*
• Common Raven* (Surprisingly impressive!)
• American Crows

* Lifer

Haystack Rock