LBJ Birding @ CWA Lagoon (South Ft. Myers Beach)

South Ft. Myers Beach, FL (85 degrees, blue skies, scattered brief showers)

CWA Lagoon

During the wee hours of the morning we arrived at this lovely spot at the very southern end of Ft. Myers Beach for a birding excursion with our friend France.  We walked along this beach for about two hours observing LBJ's. This stands for little brown jobs, a term birders humorously call  shorebirds.  When we first started getting serious about identifying birds, shorebirds looked very much all the same and were frustrating to identify. We've grown to love these little ones and our skills have improved in noticing their small identifying features.  

Click on the map for directions on where to park and find this area

View My Saved Places in a larger map 

My camera is back at the shop for a repair so most of these pictures were taken by France.  She has a Canon SX50 camera and it has a tremendous zoom.  

Least Tern

Baby Least Tern

Much of this area is roped off to protect it as  a critical wildlife area (CWA) during the summer nesting time. There are lots of Least Terns. They are fun to watch and can buzz you if you get to close to their babies.

We were surprised to see two Rosetta Spoonbills.  The Wildlife Drive has been closed most of the time we have been volunteering at J.N. Ding Darling NWR and have missed seeing these beautiful birds.

Rosetta Spoonbill

We walked slowly and observed the large flocks along the beach.  We added a new bird to our "list". The Black Tern was all by itself and with the help of some folks on an ABA listserve (Birdbrain) we were able to identify it.  He is migrating through this area and was mottling in a big way.  

Black Tern

Semipalmated Plover

Snowy Plover

We saw lots of America Oystercatcher.  It's distinctive orange beak and larger size helps it standout in a crowd.

American Oystercatchers

A parcel of American Oystercatchers

We are new birders and started our "list" this winter while visiting Merritt Island.  Today we reached our first milestone by identifying 100 species.  Pretty cool!  Thanks France for showing us this great birding area. A complete list of the birds we saw during this trip can be found to clicking this ebird link.

Five weeks remain of our volunteering commitment to J.N. Ding Darling NWR.  We have been there since mid April and have enjoyed the experience despite the summer weather very much.  Thanks for stopping by today.  

Harn's Marsh Preserve - A Treasure For Birders (Off the Beaten Path)

Lehigh Acres, FL (86 degrees, sunny, less humid)

Harn's Marsh Preserve

Located in a Ft. Myers neighborhood (Lehigh Acres) is a storm retention facility at the headwaters of the Orange River. It would seem to be an unlikely location for birds,  however, no one told them.  We have not been birding lately due to all the rain and very humid weather. Our friend, France, invited us to join her in the wee hours of the morning to check out this place.  Two birds hang out here which are not on our "list", the Limpkin and the Snail Kite. They munch on enormous island apple snails, an invasive species from South America.

As we got out of the car a chorus of frogs were serenading us and we quickly saw several Limpkins. Cool!  They are very vocal birds. Click on this link to hear what I'm talking about.

Limpkin

Limpkin

France brought along her scope.  This is the first time we have used one.  They are amazing and you can almost see a birds tonsils with them.  :)  

Our friend France

This site is roughly one square mile and in 2007 the north marsh was dredged and cleared of invasive species.  At this time there are not any picnic areas or bathrooms.  So be sure to plan accordingly. We'd recommend arriving early this time of year.  One blogger wrote to France and suggested  to "ideally arrive there about 20-30 minutes before sunrise any time of year.  At that time in particular, you will see a surprising amount of overflight activity though not best for photography.  The Preserve often sounds like a jungle just before sunrise with the Limpkins calling from seeming every direction."

We were surprised to see several Sandhill Cranes.  I really like these birds.

Sandhill Cranes

Common Moorhen

 We saw lots of Red-winged Blackbirds.  

Red-winged Blackbird

However, we were not sure what the  two birds below were at the time of walk.  After some research we were surprised to find out they are female Red-winged Blackbirds.  They certainly do not look at all similar.  

Female Red-winged Blackbirds (France's picture)

The Loggerhead Shrike has a mask like face and is also known as the "butcherbird" due to its use of barbed wire and chain-link fence to impales its prey.  Yikes!

Loggerhead Shrike

We enjoyed our visit to the Preserve even though we did not find the Snail Kite.  A good reason to go back again soon.   If you are interested in going click this link for directions provided by the Caloosa Bird Club.  It is definitely worth a stop.  We saw a lot of birds even during the off season.  Our E-Bird list can be seen here.