Texas Tour 2014 - Nueces County Big Day! - Sept. 19, 2014

     Today Libby and I would complete our second Big Day as Team Hawksauce, this time restricting ourselves to Nueces County, Texas. We had decided that this Big Day would be much more relaxed than the one we did in Florida since we were both exhausted, and wanted to spend a little more time enjoying the birds rather than just checking them off. There was also no previous record set (that we could find) for a Nueces County Big Day, which took off a lot of pressure.
    Although Libby tried her best, she ended up having very little time to do much scouting or planning since she was counting hawks almost every day. Thus, I had spent a lot of time during the weeks leading up to this day doing research from afar (Pennsylvania), using eBird and other resources to strategically plan our day. This made some of our decisions a little tricky, but we definitely ended up learning a lot along the way.
     We had planned to be at our first stop at sunrise, but between stumbling over each other trying to get the car loaded and breakfast eaten, and the fact that I needed to check into my flight at a certain time, we got a late start. Sunrise was at 7:15 am, and we had planned on being at our first stop by then, but our official start time ended up being 7:22 am. Our first birds were a bunch of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds who were feeding at the hummingbird feeders under the carport. On our way to our first official stop (Pollywog Pond) we were able to quickly check off Great-tailed Grackle, Loggerhead Shrike, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Long-billed Curlew, Laughing Gull, and Rock Pigeon.

Loggerhead Shrike

   
Upon arriving at Pollywog Pond we immediately spotted a few Chimney Swifts and a Northern Cardinal. We were disappointed to find that the paths at this highly recommended birding hotspot had not been mown in a few weeks, and the thigh-high grasses were heavy with dew. However, we pushed on, soaking our pants and shoes in the first few yards. The mosquitoes were also thick and hungry, and we were unprepared for such a situation. After about 10 minutes of battling the dewy grasses and slapping our way through the mosquito soup, we gave up and hustled back to the Jeep. At least we were able to check off a calling Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and a flock of fly-over Black-bellied Whistling Ducks during our hasty retreat which brought our count up to 11 species!
     On our way to Hazel Bazemore County Park, at a major intersection with heavy traffic, we spotted our 12th bird of the day, a European Starling who was picking through the gravel on a concrete island. Almost simultaneously, Libby realized that we had forgotten to pack the scope in the car. This was a serious bummer because it meant we would have to spend time getting close to birds that normally we could scope from afar, and we knew that we would miss some birds without the extra magnification power of a scope. However, since we we already had a late start we simply could not give up another 30 minutes of our precious morning time when birds are most active to go back home for the scope.
     Arriving at Hazel Bazemore at 8:04 am we decided to do the driving loop around the park and pick up any "easy" birds that were hanging around. We then spent some time on the hawk watch platform and walked around a bit, which yielded another 24 species including Olive Sparrow, American Avocet, Inca Dove, Great Kiskadee, Couch's Kingbird, Crested Caracara and Bronzed Cowbird! Unfortunately it was an incredibly slow day for raptor migration, so we would have to keep an eye on the sky all day and hope to get lucky with some raptor spotting.
     It was 9:00 am when we finally left the park and headed for Hilltop Community Center. On the way we swung by a local sod farm, but saw only Great-tailed Grackles and Killdeer, both of which we had already checked off. Arriving at Hilltop we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of birding here and in our quick loop around the walking trails we added White-eyed Vireo, Turkey Vulture, Baltimore Oriole, Black-crested Titmouse, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, and Osprey. Our total was now at 42 species!
     Many of the locals had told us that we should check out the mysterious Tule Lake, but Libby hadn't been there to scout it out, and there were no recent eBird reports, so we were hesitant to spend time looking for a place that might not be productive. However, one of the birding guidebooks we were using said that the only reason to visit Tule Lake is for the quality of the birding, so we decided to go for it. As we were approaching the area where the lake was supposed to be we found ourselves surrounded by intimidating, towering refineries. It no longer felt like we were on planet earth, but instead had been transported to some filthy, alien planet where machines ruled and humans were scarce. After getting slightly lost, we finally arrived at our destination - a lake/emergent wetland full of garbage, nestled in-between many huge refineries. If you could bring yourself to look past all the garbage, the place was also full of birds! Wood Storks and American White Pelicans were plentiful along with Roseate Spoonbills, egrets, herons, ibis, and others! We were so intrigued by this completely unexpected and bizarre birding mecca that we slowed our pace slightly and took some time to enjoy the birds and take a few photos.

Roseate Spoonbill

Wood Storks hanging out with a Great Egret.

Wood Stork

Great Blue Heron sun bathing

American White Pelicans with one Brown Pelican

Killdeer

     Now at 49 species and making pretty good time, but missing quite a few songbirds, we headed off to one of our optional stops on our route - Blucher Park. This park is fairly small and located within the city limits of Corpus Christi, which makes it a migratory bird's oasis in an otherwise uninhabitable urban landscape. If you can ignore the signs of homelessness and ignorant littering humans, it is actually quite a beautiful park. We were considering skipping this stop due to time constraints and the fact that we had plenty of other stops on our route with similar habitat. However, since we were forced to bail on Pollywog Pond earlier in the morning, we decided to at least do a quick walk through Blucher. We nearly had a game-stopping moment during our jaunt around the park when Libby tried to ascend a small, steep hill, resulting in a face full of spider web. This caused her to suddenly pull back, stumbling over me. I then fell sideways due to the weight of my camera pulling me off balance. Luckily, we were both able to catch ourselves and came out of this potential disaster with only a few friction burns. Regardless of the misadventures, stopping at Blucher was one of the best decisions we made all day and resulted in 8 more species being added to our list including a few warblers!
     Our next official stop was to be the Aransas Jetty, accessed from I.B. Magee Beach Park. On the way we made a few quick stops along the Redfish Bay Causeway and checked off Willet, Black-bellied Plover, Whimbrel, Little Blue Heron, and Reddish Egret.

Willet

   
While waiting on the ferry that would take us across Aransas Pass to Port Aransas, a Forster's Tern flew by directly in front of us and was added  to the list!  Arriving at the Aransas Jetty at 12:24 pm, we were immediately impressed with the diversity of tern species that were literally everywhere! We quickly found all possible tern species except for Gull-billed Tern, checked off some gulls, and added Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling to our list. We also spent some time watching the sea turtles that were feeding along the edges of the jetty!

Sea turtle!

Black Tern taking a dive

Walking down the jetty.

Looking at how far we had walked.

This is only a very small portion of the terns sitting on the beach by the jetty. 

Sandwich Tern sitting on a post where we could find him easily.

     After spending almost an hour walking the Jetty, our next two stops were quick ones. Paradise Pond and Port Aransas Nature Preserve provided us with Canada Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Eastern Kingbird. It was while we were at Aransas Preserve that it started to rain, but luckily we only caught the edge of the storm and the precipitation was not long-lasting. Whew! With only 77 birds at 2:16 pm, a serious thunderstorm would have set us back considerably.
     Turnbull Birding Center was our next stop and turned out to be quite productive! It was here that we closed out our list of terns with the spotting of a Gull-billed Tern, and we found both Neotropical and Double-crested Cormorant. We added nine species here, bringing our total up to 86 species, and I even saw my first Nutria! Having a scope here would have been a huge help, but sometimes making do with what you have is half the fun! At the top of the observation tower at Turnbull was one of those gigantic, industrial steel binoculars for visitors to use. As per usual with this kind of optical equipment subjected to public use 360+ days a year, the lenses were all scratched and foggy, and the whole setup was awkward to use. I decided to give it a try anyway and see if I could see any further then I could with my own 8x42 binoculars. Scanning the edges of the emergent vegetation was not easy, but these giant binoculars gave me just enough additional magnification power to pick out a Black-crowned Night-Heron that was just barely poking its head up above the grasses, and to confirm the id on a Redhead!

Tricolored Heron fishing at Turnbull Birding Center

Nutria in all its wet, matted, miserable-looking glory.

     It was now 3:01 pm and we were starting to feel the ill effects of not eating lunch so we found a quaint little snack shack in Port Aransas that had a drive-thru window. Thinking that a drive-thru would be the quickest option, we went for it. Were we ever wrong! Sitting down at a restaurant would probably have taken the same amount of time - 45 minutes. This did not include eating time. Once we got our food we also had to get some gas in the Jeep, so we ate while sitting in line for a gas pump. While waiting, we were well entertained by a man and woman pushing their gasless car into the station. The woman did not look very happy. I am guessing it was because she was the one pushing the car. At least the guy pumped the gas while the woman stomped into the convenience store and let off some steam.  When we finally got up to our pump, there was a small sign on it saying that the credit card reader wasn't working. Of course, we had no cash on us, so we had to wait even longer. Sigh. Our food and fuel stops had cost us a whole hour.
     Our next two stops, Packery Channel and Redhead Pond, yielded no new birds, so we moved on to Hans A. Suter Wildlife Refuge. Here we finally spotted American Oystercatcher, Marbled Godwit, and Semipalmated Plover. This was another place where remembering the scope would have been very helpful. On the way back to the Jeep we had to use a sidewalk that was right up against a busy main road. This was the last place we expected to find a new bird for our list. However, I saw a dark bird flapping around in the immediately adjacent shrubs so I stopped to investigate. It was a Groove-billed Ani! Species number 90 for the day!
     To finish out the day we decided to return to Hazel Bazemore County Park and try to locate a few species we had missed in the morning. This turned out to be a solid plan, and we checked off both Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawk, Green Jay, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Belted Kingfisher, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and Greater Yellowlegs! At around 7:10 pm the daylight was fading fast and we were antsy to get a few more species, so we took a drive around some farm fields which yielded a few Bank Swallows. We were now at 98 species and really wanted to break 100, so we headed back to Hazel Bazemore which wasn't to close until 8pm. As we were creeping around the park in the near darkness, a county park patrol vehicle came sneaking up behind us and put on his lights. When we pulled over, preparing to explain to him that we are birders and would not leave until the park was officially closed at 8pm, the patrol vehicle passed us without a single question.  We saw the patrol vehicle a few more times during our search for the last two birds of the day, but not once were we questioned. Very weird. Finally, at 7:40 we spotted two nighthawks that appeared out of thin air and disappeared just as quickly. Not being able to identify them as either Common or Lesser Nighthawks was a bummer, but they still counted as species number 99 for our Nueces County, TX Big Day!!!! Biggest miss of the day? Black Vulture. Embarrassing. Still don't understand how we managed that one!
     Team Hawksauce cannot wait until our next Big Day. Where will it be? Only time will tell.

Full list is as follows:

Number	Species	Location
1	Ruby-throated Hummingbird	House
2	Great-tailed Grackle	Rand Morgan Rd.
3	Loggerhead Shrike	Rand Morgan Rd.
4	Scissor-tailed Flycatcher	Rand Morgan Rd.
5	Long-billed Curlew	Rand Morgan Rd.
6	Laughing Gull	Valero on Rand Morgan
7	Rock Pigeon	Valero on Rand Morgan
8	Chimney Swift	Pollywog Pond
9	Northern Cardinal	Pollywog Pond
10	Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher	Pollywog Pond
11	Black-bellied Whistling Duck	Pollywog Pond
12	European Starling	Leopard Rd. and Highway
13	Great Egret	Hazel Bazemore
14	Northern Mockingbird	Hazel Bazemore
15	Carolina Wren	Hazel Bazemore
16	Mourning Dove	Hazel Bazemore
17	White-winged Dove	Hazel Bazemore
18	Bronzed Cowbird	Hazel Bazemore
19	House Sparrow	Hazel Bazemore
20	Olive Sparrow	Hazel Bazemore
21	Inca Dove	Hazel Bazemore
22	Eurasian Collared-Dove	Hazel Bazemore
23	Killdeer	Hazel Bazemore
24	Green Heron	Hazel Bazemore
25	Barn Swallow	Hazel Bazemore
26	Least Sandpiper	Hazel Bazemore
27	Green-winged Teal	Hazel Bazemore
28	Blue-winged Teal	Hazel Bazemore
29	American Avocet	Hazel Bazemore
30	Mottled Duck	Hazel Bazemore
31	Lesser Yellowlegs	Hazel Bazemore
32	Couch's Kingbird	Hazel Bazemore
33	Great Kiskadee	Hazel Bazemore
34	Crested Caracara	Hazel Bazemore
35	Common Ground-Dove	Hazel Bazemore
36	Great Blue Heron	Hazel Bazemore
37	White-eyed Vireo	Hilltop
38	Turkey Vulture	Hilltop
39	Baltimore Oriole	Hilltop
40	Black-crested Titmouse	Hilltop
41	Osprey	Hilltop
42	Golden-fronted Woodpecker	Hilltop
43	Roseate Spoonbill	Tule Lake
44	Snowy Egret	Tule Lake
45	Tri-colored Heron	Tule Lake
46	Wood Stork	Tule Lake
47	Brown Pelican	Tule Lake
48	American White Pelican	Tule Lake
49	Black-necked Stilt	Tule Lake
50	Long-billed Thrasher	Blucher Park
51	Black and White Warbler	Blucher Park
52	Yellow Warbler	Blucher Park
53	Nashville Warbler	Blucher Park
54	Northern Parula	Blucher Park
55	Least Flycatcher	Blucher Park
56	Red-eyed Vireo	Blucher Park
57	Blue-headed Vireo	Blucher Park
58	Willet	Redfish Bay
59	Reddish Egret	Redfish Bay
60	Little Blue Heron	Redfish Bay
61	Whimbrel	Redfish Bay
62	Black-bellied Plover	Redfish Bay
63	Forster's Tern	Ferry to Aransas
64	Least Tern	Aransas Jetty
65	Common Tern	Aransas Jetty
66	Caspian Tern	Aransas Jetty
67	Royal Tern	Aransas Jetty
68	Sandwich Tern	Aransas Jetty
69	Black Tern	Aransas Jetty
70	Ruddy Turnstone	Aransas Jetty
71	Herring Gull	Aransas Jetty
72	Ring-billed Gull	Aransas Jetty
73	Sanderling	Aransas Jetty
74	Canada Warbler	Paradise Pond
75	Northern Waterthrush	Paradise Pond
76	Eastern Wood-Pewee	Paradise Pond
77	Eastern Kingbird	Aransas Preserve
78	Neotropical Cormorant	Turnbull Birding Center
79	Double-crested Cormorant	Turnbull Birding Center
80	American Coot	Turnbull Birding Center
81	Common Gallinule	Turnbull Birding Center
82	Black-crowned Night-Heron	Turnbull Birding Center
83	Redhead	Turnbull Birding Center
84	Gull-billed Tern	Turnbull Birding Center
85	Northern Shoveler	Turnbull Birding Center
86	Western Sandpiper	Turnbull Birding Center
87	Groove-billed Ani	Hans A. Suter
88	Black Skimmer	Hans A. Suter
89	Marbled Godwit	Hans A. Suter
90	Semipalmated Plover	Hans A. Suter
91	Red-tailed Hawk	Hazel Bazemore
92	Red-shoulder Hawk	Hazel Bazemore
93	Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Hazel Bazemore
94	Green Jay	Hazel Bazemore
95	Belted Kingfisher	Hazel Bazemore
96	Ladder-backed Woodpecker	Hazel Bazemore
97	Greater Yellowlegs	Hazel Bazemore
98	Bank Swallow	Farm field near Hazel Bazemore
99	Common/Lesser Nighthawk	Hazel Bazemore

A Big Day in Lee County, Florida - May 17th, 2014

     As explained in my previous post, my friend Libby and I decided to do a Big Day in Lee County, FL. If you are not familiar with what a Big Day is, please refer to my previous post. Although we technically could have started at 12:00 am on our chosen day, we instead decided to get more than a couple hours of sleep and planned to wake up at 3:00 am. "Loosing" these 3 hours did not hurt us at all because there were very few species that we could detect in the overnight hours, and starting out a couple hours before dawn would give us plenty of time to go in search of the nocturnal species.

   After only 4.5-5 hours of sleep, getting up at 3:00 am was not pretty. By the time we were both functional enough to leave the trailer and pack the Jeep with our piles of snacks, drinks, and gear, our official start time had been pushed back to 3:53 am. The goal for the day was to break the previously set Lee County record of 86 species in a 24 hour period. This record was set on Feb. 24, 2013. We knew we had a challenge ahead of us since most of the migrant species had already left Florida for breeding grounds further north, but we were highly optimistic that we could find more than 86 species in one day.
     Our first target species we knew would be easy, so we eagerly headed off to our first stop which was at the Bailey's General Store parking lot. As we were approaching our destination, we heard our first bird of the day! A Chuck-will's-widow was calling incessantly from somewhere behind the general store. We were now officially awake, motivated, and excited to see what the day would bring. Right after hearing the Chuck-will's-widow, we were lucky enough to check off a Mourning Dove, Black-necked Stilt, Green Heron, a calling Killdeer, and a singing Northern Mockingbird in quick succession. We then moved on to a more wooded location and after many intense minutes, checked off a calling Eastern Screech-Owl! It was now 5:30am and we had checked off all the expected nocturnal species on Sanibel Island plus a few others. If things kept going like this all day, we had a very good chance of breaking the record. We had to keep up the pace though, so we headed off to Bunche Beach Preserve in Fort Myers to wait for sunrise.

Libby scoping the mudflats as the sun rises at Bunche Beach.

     We were extremely lucky that low tide coincided perfectly with sunrise on this day. Low tide was necessary to expose prime feeding grounds for many species of shorebirds, and having it happen at sunrise when the birds are most active was essential. It was here, at Bunche Beach, that we gained a lot of confidence in our ability to break the record. In the hour that we spent at this location, we were able to check off an additional 29 species including a very confused looking immature Yellow-crowned Night-Heron that stared at us for quite a long time. I guess it wasn't used to seeing people on the beach so early in the morning.

Species found at Bunche Beach: 

Northern Cardinal

Black-bellied Plover

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Willet

Snowy Egret

Semipalmated Plover

Great Egret

Sanderling

Laughing Gull

White Ibis

Tricolored Heron

Black Skimmer

Dunlin

Great Blue Heron

Brown Pelican

Least Tern

Royal Tern

Prairie Warbler

Little Blue Heron

Osprey

Reddish Egret

Roseate Spoonbill

Short-billed Dowitcher

Ruddy Turnstone

Wilson's Plover

Double-crested Cormorant

Barn Swallow

Common Ground-Dove

Fish Crow

     At 7:00 am we left Bunche Beach very happy with a total of 36 species on our list for the day. Our next stop was the local Publix. Yes, you read that right. We went looking for birds at an urban grocery store. To be more precise, we were aiming for a little-known local birding spot located behind the Publix in an empty lot. Here we were able to find Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Gray Kingbird, and Great-crested Flycatcher. We did not spend too much time at this location, and quickly moved onto our next stop which happened to be at the local Walmart. We were aiming for a water retention basin located along the edge of the parking lot which we knew would have Muscovy Duck and Rock Pigeon, but we didn't expect to pick up Anhinga here as well! As we were leaving Walmart, Libby spotted a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a shopping cart that had been ditched in the landscaping. Part of the fun of birding is finding birds in the least expected places!
     It was now almost 8:00 am, and we headed off to some residential areas in search of Eastern Bluebirds that we had gotten a tip on a few days before. While cruising through these older neighborhoods with many mature trees we were able to check off Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Downy Woodpecker, and Red-shouldered Hawk. Tucked away at the end of one of the streets was a "back" entrance to Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. We stopped here for a quick look and ended up finding Glossy Ibis, Lesser Yellowlegs, Mottled Duck, and Blue Jay. I did hear an Eastern Bluebird calling a few times, but Libby did not hear it, and we had decided in the beginning of the day to not officially check off any species that we did not both hear and/or see. We also heard a faint sound that was probably an American Robin, but we could not confirm the identity of the sound, and needed to keep moving.

     Our next stop was at the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, but from the "official" entrance this time. As soon as we got out of the Jeep, Libby calls my attention to a hawk that is circling above the parking lot. This was a very lucky observation since the bird disappeared behind the trees seconds after we identified it as a Short-tailed Hawk! Doing a quick walk around the boardwalk added Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Northern Parula, and Black-crowned Night Heron to our list. Now with 58 species, we headed off to Harnes Marsh Preserve. 

     Since Libby was driving, it was my job as the co-pilot to keep a sharp eye out for any species that we needed. Many times during the day our conversation would be interrupted by me jabbing frantically at the windshield with my index finger to indicate that I found a "new" species for the day and yelling at Libby to "Pull over! Pull over!". This constant vigilance really paid off on our way to Harnes Marsh, as we added Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Swallow-tailed Kite, and Bald Eagle.  As soon as we pulled into the parking area of the marsh, we were greeted by Sandhill Cranes parading around making a spectacle of themselves. 

Boat-tailed Grackle showing off his iridescence at Harnes Marsh Preserve. 

We had been hoping for Limpkin at this spot, and Libby had seen them here many times during scouting trips, but they must have been at an out-of-state Limpkin convention on this particular day. Although we walked halfway around the marsh, not a single Limpkin was seen or heard. However, we did manage to find Common Gallinule (previously known as Common Moorhen), Snail Kite (a life bird for me!), American Coot, and a flock of Bobolinks that Libby miraculously picked out of the sky. We took a short break here from the whirlwind of the day to watch the Snail Kite swoop back and forth across the marsh, hunting for juicy snails. When he finally snagged one and perched atop a small evergreen to eat it, we moved on. 

   

Snail Kite with a snail. 

      It was now noon and we were at 68 species for the day. Not too shabby for missing a few target birds, and with most of the migrants already having passed through. Our next stop was at the Alba Scrub Preserve where we were hoping for Northern Bobwhite. Again, we missed our target bird, but did find some very cooperative Red-headed Woodpeckers! As we were leaving the preserve and cruising through a residential area, I saw a dove careen across the road in front of us. I also was positive that I had seen a flash of white in the wing. Libby had not seen the bird well enough to confirm the id, so she pulled over and I jumped out and ran across the road to where I had seen the bird dive into the vegetation. When I re-found the dove, Libby popped out of the Jeep, got her binoculars on the bird, and confirmed it as White-winged Dove. Although this species of dove seems to be everywhere in most of Florida, and are easily seen on any given day, this was the only one we saw all day. 

      At this point in the day we had already hit all the "big" birding spots and were spending time driving to specific places where we had been told we could find certain species, and hoping we would pick up the more common species along the way. This worked out fairly well and we picked up European Starling and Cattle Egret on the way to a pond that was supposed to provide us with Wood Ducks. This pond was visible from the road, and was located on private property, so we couldn't walk right up to it. Libby pulled off onto what little shoulder there was on the road and we stared at the pond for many minutes. Not one duck, Wood or otherwise. We moved the Jeep up a few feet to view the pond from a different angle. We waited. No ducks. We were tired, the 3:00 am wake-up call coupled with no real meals was starting to hit us. Libby decided we had waited long enough, and I agreed. She checked her mirrors to pull back out onto the road, and began to ease back onto the road. She looked back at the pond once more, yelled "look!" and immediately pulled back off the road and slammed on the brakes. I looked back at the pond and floating out into the open is a pair of Wood Ducks. Pure luck. 

     With our optimism and adrenaline renewed, we headed off to a well-known (at least by area birders) stormwater retention pond in Cape Coral where a Eurasian Wigeon had been hanging out for many weeks. On the way I was able to pick a Red-tailed Hawk out of the sky. We had no problems finding the Eurasian Wigeon, and even got to see American Coot chicks for the first time! 

     Our next stop was a specific clump of vegetation in an abandoned development that was supposed to house a pair of Florida Scrub-Jays. We weren't sure if we could even find the proper "clump", or what an abandoned development might look like. It turned out that the developer had put in the roads and street signs, but never built any houses, so the area had turned into a grassland with named streets laid out in a grid. The Florida Scrub-Jay is classified as threatened, and is usually found in the oak scrub habitat of Florida, so to find them in Cape Coral is very unusual. We parked the Jeep where the birds were supposed to be hanging out and waited. Nothing. Not a peep, not a squawk, not a flutter. Deciding to take a short walk around, we got out of the Jeep and split up. I stayed near the clump of vegetation, and Libby walked down the road a bit. After about 10 intense minutes, I hear Libby say in a very low and nonchalant, yet obviously restrained voice: "I...I found it". At this moment my back was to her, and I knew she had been scanning the tree that was in front of me, so I immediately put my binoculars up and start looking up and down the tree. This is when I hear her say "No, no, look at me, I found it". I turn around. The silly Florida Scrub-Jay is sitting on Libby's head! I could not believe my eyes. What I think Libby meant to say was "It found me". Apparently people feed the Florida Scrub-Jays (even though they aren't supposed to), and they become very tame and accustomed to looking for handouts. Within minutes, the second bird appeared and landed on my head looking for handouts (which they did not get). This moment was definitely the highlight of the day, and one that will be very difficult to beat in future Big Days. 

Florida Scrub-Jay checking the Jeep for treats. 

Florida Scrub-Jay looking for treats and not cooperating for the "selfie".

     As we left this odd landscape, and said goodbye to our new birdie friends, we were also able to add Eurasian Collared-Dove and Eastern Meadowlark to our day's list bringing the total to 78. Before leaving Cape Coral we drove by the library to see the Burrowing Owls that live there, and zipped by the Pelican Baseball Complex to pick up Monk Parakeet.

Burrowing Owl in Cape Coral

Burrowing Owl family. 

     It was now 3:15 pm and time to head back onto Sanibel Island and hope for any birds we could get along the way. Monk Parakeet had put our total up to 80, and we needed to break the record of 86. On our way into Fort Myers, Libby suddenly starts jabbing the windshield with her index finger and simultaneously uttering some grunting and other noises that I assumed were supposed to be words. I took a look at where she was pointing so vigorously and added Cooper's Hawk to the list! It was at this time that we realized that we had somehow managed to not see or hear a single House Sparrow, and here we were with 81 species under our belt for the day. As we navigated through Fort Myers on the way back to Sanibel I did see and hear a few House Sparrows, but Libby was busy making sure she was safely operating the vehicle, so getting her on these birds was impossible. We finally saw our "countable" House Sparrow on a highway sign that was placed over the road. That bird was number 82. Ridiculous. 

     As we crossed the bridge back onto Sanibel Island, we spotted a soaring Magnificent Frigatebird, and stopped to look for any gulls that we didn't have yet. The search for gulls was futile with so many people causing a commotion on the beach. Our next stop was Sanibel Beach where we found Snowy Plovers, and shortly after that we checked off  a whole family of Pileated Woodpeckers! This put us at 85, we only needed one more species to at least tie the record.

Family of Pileated Woodpeckers on Sanibel Island. 

     We had hoped to have over 100 species at this point in the day, but with missing a bunch of our target species, not being able to fully scout many of the areas beforehand, and finding that most migrant species had left already, we were not surprised that we were below our expected number. It was now 5:00 pm and we decided to do a quick walk-through of the Bailey Tract which is part of  J.N. "Ding" Darling NWR. The landscape was very quiet. No new birds for the day. It was starting to look like we might not break this record after all. Then we did the wildlife drive auto tour. Not a single peep or flutter. All was quiet, including us. The air in the Jeep was tense, we were both exhausted,  on edge, and focusing all our efforts on wishing birds to appear. At the end of wildlife drive is Shell Mound trail. When we got there we could not come to a consensus on whether or not to walk the trail. Libby decided she needed to take a walk to reduce the tension and anxiety that was building by the minute. As we walked the trail, we did so quietly, straining our eyes and ears for any little sound or movement. Then, near the end of the trail, a White-eyed Vireo started singing! We were officially tied with 86 species! While we were looking for the vireo, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo let out a startling call right behind where Libby was standing and then flew up and away. We looked at each other... number 87!  We had done it! Sighs of relief. The tension was gone in an instant, and the whole day flashed before us. 

     We got in the Jeep and I asked where we were going to have a celebratory dinner. Libby looks at me and says: "oh no, we need to break the record by two, not one". So off we go, to a place where Libby swears we can get one more species...Chimney Swift. We walk some trails and I don't see a single Chimney Swift in the air. Libby keeps telling me that there has to be a few around because she sees them every evening. We startle a Coyote that is trying to cross the path in front of us. Still no Chimney Swift. As the sun is setting we stop at the intersection of two paths and stare into the sky hoping to see just one more bird. In the last minutes of daylight, at 8:30 pm, a single Chimney Swift pops out of the glow of the setting sun, flies down the path toward us, circles the tree we were both facing, and continues on its journey. We were stunned for a second. Then Libby celebrated this event by much jumping around and many exclamations of "I told you so!", "I TOLD you there was a Chimney Swift on this island!" I just couldn't believe how lucky we were to be in the right place at the right time, not only for the Chimney Swift, but for a lot of other species we had seen that day.         

     Team Hawksauce had done it! We had completed our first Big Day together and broken the record for Lee County, FL with 88 species!!! It was FINALLY time for our first real meal of the day, and a well-deserved one at that! We can't wait to do another Big Day in the near future, so stay tuned for more stories of birding adventures to come!

Celebratory dinner of giant shrimp in the best "sauce" I ever tasted.