Tuesday, October 2, 2007

All day walk to Lake Seminole

I had the pleasure of leading an all day walk to the Lake Seminole area this past Saturday. The birding was great and the weather was glorious. We began our birding adventure at Three Rivers State Park which is located between the town of Sneads and Lake Seminole. We ambled along the dry creek trail for a couple of miles enjoying several migrant songbirds. We had good looks at a Wood Thrush, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Cooper's Hawk and best of all a Least Flycatcher.

After our picnic lunch we went for another walk to the lakeshore where we saw a Belted Kingfisher as well as Great Egrets, Pied-billed Grebes and a magnificent Bald Eagle.
A small trail near the carpark yielded more migrants, best of all was a gorgeous male American Redstart.

We then drove a few miles to Sneads Park, which overlooks Lake Seminole. Amazingly we counted 65 Pied-billed Grebes on the lake as well as a Common Tern. The best bird though was a juvenile Peregrine Falcon. He whizzed by the lakeshore and headed south over woodruff dam, no doubt following the Apalachicola river to the coast.

The dam was our next stop. Bank Swallow and Green Heron were observed. At a nearby park we saw a few more migrants including Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Black-and-white Warbler.

We finished the day with over 60+ species. It was a lot of fun!

Andy

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