Subject: Florida birding
Date: Jan 14 07:14:55 1999
From: Hughbirder at aol.com - Hughbirder at aol.com


I am in Fort Myers planning to attend the ABA conference from Thurs. evening
to Mon. noon. There are two full day and two half-day trips scheduled. I came
down tow days early because I have two daughters that live here. I have been
out the past two mornings for 1-2 hours. There are a number of shallow ponds
and shrub areas with walking and bike trails that follow under powerlines, in
fairly open country surrrounded by houses on either side. The open area
between houses is about 100 yards. I got 24 birds the first morning and 12 new
ones today. So I should have a good start for the conference trips. These are
the birds so far in the order they were seen:

Mourning Dove - numerous
Boat-tailed and Common Grackle - both numerous
European Starling
Osprey - flew over, a pleasant surprise
Killdeer
Common Snipe
Belted Kingfisher
Great Egret
Wood Stork - another surprise
Double-crested Cormorant - numerous
Tricolored Heron
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Little Blue Heron
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Moorhen
American Crow
Pied-billed Grebe
American Coot
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Cardinal - always a beautiful sight
Downy Woodpecker
New birds on second morning in more brushy areas
Great Blue heron
American Kestrel - perched on power lines
Cattle Egret
Northern Flicker
American Robin
Blue Jay - another beautiful bird and a pleasant change from the Steller's
Common Yellowthroat
Gray Catbird
Marsh Wren - I was hoping for a Sedge Wren which would be anew bird for me.
Red-shouldered Hawk - immature
Black Vulture - another surprise - six flew over
Eastern Phoebe

Won't have access to a computer until Monday and will probably give a
conference report then or when I get back home on Thurs.

Hugh Jennngs
Bellevue, WA
hughbirder at aol.com