Fort De Soto Spring Migration, 11 Apr 2024
Bird photography was slow today because of the weather. In the morning it was overcast with strong 25 mph winds. I started late while waiting on some light to come into the sky and brewed a pot of coffee. About 45 minutes later I started walking towards the fountain next to the Ranger station. Along the trail I got pretty damp from the sea spray coming off the water. No one was at the fountain when I got there, and about 5 minutes later I realized I didn’t have a CF card in my camera. I hurried back to the van, got a card and also picked up my 1.4x teleconverter, and got back to the fountain. About 10 minutes later another photographer joined me and soon a Prothonotary Warbler landed on the fountain. It got a few sips of water, ate a Roly poly, then took off. I waited another 45 minutes and enjoyed a conversation with the other photographer, Fred. Fred is from Canada, retired, and visits Florida annually. It was nice to meet Fred.
Next I went to the East Beach turnaround. There I saw the Prairie Warbler but because of the violent thrashing of the tree branches the bird was perched on I didn’t really get a better shot than I took earlier in the week. I then went over to the East Beach Picnic Area.
There I found a Scarlet Tanager - probably the same one I’ve been seeing all week. It’s been hanging out with a group of Northern Cardinals and European Starlings. When I first approached it was on the ground and it flew up into an oak. After a few minutes it flew out of the oak onto a nearby bush. I managed to get a few shots before it quickly left the area.
I walked around the picnic area some more but didn’t see anything. The weather was only getting worse, and with work to do I called it a morning. As soon as I got back to my campsite the clouds opened up and down came a heavy rain. It lasted only about an hour, and with the front through the wind died down significantly. I went out later that evening to the North Beach and there were large standing puddles of water all over the place. Surprisingly, shorebirds such as Willet, Snowy Egrets, Greater Yellowlegs, and Marbled Godwits were in these puddles feeding.
The wind really put a damper on the morning, but I am very hopeful the following day will be better. The forecast tomorrow looks great.
Happy birding!