CHRISTMAS BIRD-WALK , 2008

Longtime readers know that each Christmas I take an unhurried saunter around wherever I happen to be and jot down which birds I happen to stumble across. This Christmas morning about half an hour after sunrise it was 80°F (27° C), a stiff breeze was blowing off the Gulf, and it was balmy and partly cloudy.

Here basically there are two places to walk: Along the narrow sand road following the sand ridge separating the sea and the mangroves, and along the beach. A perfect two-hour walk I've taken many times is up the beach on the road, concentrating on the mangroves, then back along the beach. Here's what I saw this Christmas morning on that walk, with species listed in the order I saw them, so you can get a feeling for how the walk developed:

*** ALONG ROAD ***

1. CATTLE EGRET stabbing for crabs on the sandy road
2. MANGROVE CUCKOO watching me from roadside scrub
3. WHITE-EYED VIREO calling from mangrove edge
4. GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER pecking in dead mangrove
5. TROPICAL MOCKINGBIRD perched on tall dead mangrove
6. LEAST FLYCATCHER flycatching at mangrove edge
7. PALM WARBLER on sandy road tail-bobbing
8. GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE screeching beside beach house
9. HOODED ORIOLE singing in snag beside beach house
10. WILSON'S WARBLER, soft tch! call in Poisonwoods
11. YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER on snag among Poisonwoods
12. MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD, 2 sailing over road
13. YUCATAN JAY, 3 raucously complaining along road
14. CINNAMON HUMMINGBIRD zipping at mangrove edge
15. GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER calling wheep! wheep!

*** BEACH ***

16. BROWN PELICAN diving just offshore
17. TURKEY VULTURE sailing over mangroves
18. SPOTTED SANDPIPER tail-wagging in driftwood pile
19. SANDERLING, ±30 chasing waves in and out
20. RUDDY TURNSTONE, ±20 among Sanderlings
21. BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER with Sanderlings & Turnstones
22. ROYAL TERN unmoving on Shoal Grass flat

This list is about what I see every day. Occasionally a Laughing Gull flies by. A few days ago a Peregrine Falcon flew about 15 feet above me, and a couple of weeks ago a Common Black Hawk sailed down the beach screaming, but those were unusual events.