Christmas Bird Count Florida style

American Alligator digiscoped on Zellwood CBC, FL - Leica D-Lux 3 through APO Televid 77

No snow, no ice... a bit different from my memories of Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) of old, but that's just one of the things I've come to accept since moving to the deep south over 8 years ago from Fairbanks, Alaska. I spend so much time travelling and birding across the country in my job with Leica, it seems I rarely bird here in FL any more. When I'm home, I typically want to be AT home. One Florida birder even told me recently, "Oh, I thought you'd moved away..."

However, one "no miss" Florida birding event for me is the annual Zellwood/Mt. Dora CBC. In its first year this incredible birding locale set a new record high species count for an inland count circle (near 180 species of birds seen)! Like other Florida locales the wading birds are well represented, but the Green Heron depicted below offered a unique reminder of how often we SEE a species but don't take the time to really study it.

Green Heron (subadult?) digiscoped on Zellwood CBC, FL - Leica D-Lux 3 through APO Televid 77

In my 20+ years of birding I've observed countless Green Herons, and I posted this one on my Flickr photo sharing site as an immature Green Heron. Fortunately it didn't take long for someone to call me on this and ask if this wasn't an adult. This forced me to go back and take a closer look. Yeah, most of the feathering on the body is more in line with adult plumage, but the older worn feathers on the upper wing coverts resemble that of an immature, showing a sclloped edge with the additional white spotting. Hmmmmm...... At any rate, this was a very real reminder of just how much I don't know this very common bird and one of the things that makes birding so much fun!

Purple Gallinule winter adult digiscoped on the Zellwood CBC 22 Dec 2006

One of the bonus birds and one of my contributions to the count was this co-operative Purple Gallinule. Since it was posing so nicely I had to rattle off a couple pictures. Note how in winter the bill and head coloration is very drab and greatly reduced. This is not well depicted in many field guides.

immature Red-shouldered Hawk watches intently as I grab a quick pic!

The Zellwood area is well known as a raptor hotspot. The first documented FL records for Rough-legged & Ferruginous Hawks were found here, and a female Eurasian Kestrel spent most of January 2002 here to the delight of hundreds of birders. This winter was no exception and even though there were no Eurasian Kestrels, the spectacle is amazing. At one point, I could spin sround and count >30 individual raptors all perched or flying low over the fields: Red-tailed & Red-shouldered Hawks, American Kestrels, Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawk, and Bald Eagles.

Eastern Phoebe digiscoped on 2006 Zellwood CBC

Leica D-Lux 3 camera and APO Televid 77 spotting scope

The flycatcher spectacle at Zellwood also is a bit different from my northern experiences. To date since 1998, I've personally seen 10 different species of tyrant flycatchers in the count circle! The main reason for this high count is a winter Kingbird roost that regularly attracts dozens (sometimes over 100) of Western Kingbirds, and lesser numbers of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers each evening in winter. For at least 5 years now a Cassin's Kingbird has been seen joining these birds irregularly. Rare Ash-throated Flycatchers are found alongside the ubiquitous Eastern Phoebes in weedy fields each year, and a Least Flycatcher or two is typically spotted in the hedgerows and woods edge as well. Rare flycatchers seen in years past included a single Gray Kingbird that sat by day with a lone Tropical Kingbird, I can still picture the stunning male Vermilion Flycatcher that was around pre-digiscoping one year, but the mega-rarity of the Zellwood CBC flycatchers was the Fork-tailed Flycatcher present for most of December 2005. This was the first time this rare Central/South American species had ever been recorded on a US CBC!

For those in FL at the end of the month you can join trips to the Zellwood area through the Spacecoast Bird & Wildlife Festival. (another FL "NO MISS" event for me, come visit and we can do some digiscoping!)

http://www.nbbd.com/fly/