Sightings - Field Trip Reports

Riverwoods Field Lab By Mic McCarty

Tampa Audubon held a field trip to the Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Environmental Studies at Riverwoods Field Lab on the Kissimmee River. We saw 56 species of birds, including an incredible 19 Snail Kites! To see more of the birds encountered, go here. Cypress Point Park By Lilian Saul

In early March the “stars” of the show did not disappoint us: we saw at least 11 Brown Boobies flying and sitting on the signs in Tampa Bay. Another surprise was a Bonaparte’s Gull. The tide was going out so we saw lots of shorebirds. We also had a chance to study the horseshoe crabs that were crawling, digging, and laying eggs in the sand. It was the first time we saw living crabs, because all of us had seen the empty shells of dead ones. I wasn’t the only one taking a video. The complete list is here. Avon Park By Sandy Townsend

The Avon Park Field Trip thrilled the group with birds we don't normally encounter in the Tampa Bay area. The specialties included Crested Caracara, Red Cockaded Woodpecker (pictured), Red-Headed Woodpeckers and Horned Grebes. The group spent the first day exploring the Avon Park Air Force Range and the next day visiting parks in the Sebring area. In all, we saw 88 species. See the full trip list here. Lettuce Lake Park By Mary Keith We had a good showing of birds at our March Lettuce Lake Beginning Bird walk, with 31 species. A Short-Tailed Hawk gave us very good looks overhead. There were multiple Swallow- tailed Kites, with one carrying Spanish moss, either as nesting or as courtship behavior. The kingfishers were either courting or chasing the other out of their feeding spot. The herons, egrets, ibis and cormorants were in full breeding colors, either bills or lores and eye ring glowing reds and greens and blues. See the bird list here.