I am not very happy about getting up at 5am but when it comes to helping the Florida Keys Hawkwatch, it’s worth it! This past weekened, I was involved in a Bird-a-thon put on by the Space Coast Audubon to help raise money for the Florida Keys Hawkwatch. There were several teams of birders whose goal was to find bird species between 6am-6pm anywhere in Brevard County and the team with the most species won. Each team asked for sponsors to help raise money for the Hawkwatch. My team was my mom and I and then later in the day, my dad joined in. I was SO happy to get several sponsors and our goal was to find 100 birds by the end of the time.
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| Gabe at Jetty Park |
We knew the day was going to be interesting when we spotted what we were 99.9% sure was a Peregrine Falcon flying over us on I-95 and then about 2 minutes later, a Bald Eagle flew over us! We started out at Kelly Park East in hopes of getting early birds as the sun came up and then we moved onto Jetty Park at the beach. There were SO many shorebirds and I spotted a Great Black Backed Gull – boy was he huge!
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
We quickly moved onto the Cape Canaveral Locks to look for Black Crowned Night Herons and we spotted 3. After spotting a few other birds, we decided to head to the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge where we attempted to look for Peregrine Falcons…but no luck. Peregrines are my favorite animal on the planet and I was really disappointed that we didn’t find one…especially after hearing at the end of the day that another team spotted one on the refuge….so I plan on heading back there soon to do another search! At the refuge I did find some Sora, a Red Breasted Merganser and a whole group of American Avocets. After the Refuge, I had to take a short break to race my Pine Wood Derby Car in our Cub Scout Event and then we were back on the road. Our next stop was the Viera Wetlands and the Click Ponds where we watched a Northern Harrier soar over us and I found the Gray Kingbird that has been seen often in the area. My dad was able to join us for the Wetlands and I was very surprised at how our time was running out – 12 hours goes really quickly when you are birding! We decided to hit the Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary last in hopes of finding a Scrub Jay. It didn’t take very long before the Scrub Jays found us by landing on my dad’s head and we were able to find a Yellow Throated Warbler and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.
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| Florida Scrub-jay found Gabe's dad! |
We were hoping to squeeze in some more birding as we headed back to the meeting spot but we didn’t want to be late because for every minute you were late, they were going to take a point off your score. In the last 2 minutes of the Bird-a-thon we were able to add one last bird…Cedar Waxwings, as a whole flock flew right over us in the parking lot.
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| Glossy Ibis |
At the end of the competition, I had spotted 91 species. We were so close to our goal and I was so proud. The winning team spotted 114 species and we came in 3rd place. Our team was able to raise over $150.00 for the Florida Keys Hawkwatch. The Florida Keys Hawkwatch is very special to me and is an amazing program that counts migrating raptors in order to look for any changes in the bird populations which helps track changes that may be occurring in the environment. I had SO much fun with the Bird-a-Thon that I wanted to keep going but, it is kind of hard to bird in the dark…..so many birds, not enough hours in the day! Can’t wait for our next birding adventure!
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| Royal Tern |
Pictures and text by Gabe & Jen Cenker
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