Fall migration is underway
By DON MORROW
Moonset was long past by the time I got down to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge this week. An Eastern Screech Owl was giving its whinnying call on Lighthouse Road and one of the teenage Great Horned Owls near the Visitors Center was squealing, but Chuck-wills-widows have stopped calling and may have left.
This month’s rains have helped to refill the refuge’s ponds, pools and marshes and out in the darkness, unseen frogs of several species were loudly proclaiming their approval of this fact with a chorus of croaks, toots, honks and grunts. I made my way out the levees to the far end of the Stony Bayou Pools and waited for sunrise, listening as the night faded and the sky lightened.
It is late July at the refuge and seasonably hot. Partridge pea is blooming and half-grown bobkittens are following their mothers as they learn to hunt. Along Lighthouse Road, Fish Crows are eating swamp dogwood berries and heavy clumps of ripe elderberry are bent over waiting for cardinals.
Yet despite the heat, Fall migration is well underway. Post-breeding shorebirds are on the move and wildfires in Canada may have caused additional birds to leave early. Additionally, Tropical Storm Bertha was in the western Gulf and may have shifted migrants east over the prior few days. Whatever the reasons, there were a lot of shorebirds on the refuge. I counted 493 shorebirds of 21 species as I slowly drove my survey route on the levees. This is about thirty percent more birds and five more species than I had expected at this time of year.
The “good” shorebirds, the ones only seen at the refuge on migration, were more common than usual. I had Pectoral, Spotted, Stilt and Solitary Sandpipers, as well as, a single Red Knot. Peeps, the small gray sandpipers, are also migrating through. Least and Semipalmated Sandpiper numbers are increasing and I had a handful of Western Sandpipers.
Among a group of American Oystercatchers that were on Lighthouse Pool was a banded bird. I reported it and found that it was originally banded at Fort Desoto in Pinellas County in 2024 as a chick, spent last winter in Chokoloskee Bay in southwest Florida, returned to Pinellas County for the summer, and is now visiting the refuge.
It is not just the shorebirds that have begun to migrate. I’ve had a single Blue-winged Teal and seen two Pied-billed Grebes, both species were early by a month.
Songbirds are moving too. I have had Prairie Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush on the refuge this month.
As I scoped the mudflats for shorebirds during my survey, I identified at least three species of biting flies feeding on me. There may have been more.
However, if you choose to live on the Gulf coast of Florida that is part of the price you pay.
Living in Florida comes with benefits too. On my way out of the refuge, I had a mixed flock of 75 Mississippi Kites and 11 Swallow-tailed Kites over East River Pool, swooping, diving and soaring against the summer sky.
Come down to St. Marks. There is heat and there are bugs, but there are also natural wonders.
Don Morrow can be reached at donaldcmorrow@gmail.com.