Teal Pond take 2

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

 I stayed the night in Clewiston last night, rising early this morning to do some more Highlands County listing on the way home before getting on with the business of planning the CBC tomorrow.  And, of course, the write this installment.

I still need Virginia rail for Highlands and I picked out a very nice pond north of the teal pond for them to be found.  I did not tell the rails this, because it was pretty obvious, I thought.  At any rate, I did not get any rails at all and the dawn chorus of birds was fairly lacking.  A good pre-dawn flight of Black-bellied whistling-ducks, totaling 170, headed from the Lykes Brothers lands toward the Kissimmee River.  I got 27 species in 35 minutes, no Virginia rail.

Teal Pond was next up.  Teal numbers were relatively low with 46 Blue-winged teal and nine Green-winged teal.  I was early enough to find 13 Roseate spoonbills at the pond before they flew off for the day.  Shorebird species were similar to yesterday with the addition of four Dunlin.  Songbird variety is always interesting at this site.  This morning I did not see mockingbirds, but I did get White-eyed vireo, Blue-gray gnatcatcher, and Northern waterthrush; all of which were not observed yesterday.  I got 57 species in 31 minutes  If ever I see all of the species present in one stop, I might push it up to near 80.  That's one heck of a point count total!

After the Teal Pond, I decided to check out the S-65 Boat Ramp area on the Kissimmee River.  There are access points to the Kissimmee River PUA along the day and lots of good woodland edge birding along the way.  I did not have time to check it out this morning, but it will be interesting in the future.Now on to more pressing things.

Now, on to more pressing matters.

eBird checklist Flag Pond
eBird checklist Teal Pond