With a dicey early morning drive through some weird Florida conditions where you couldn't keep your windows clear, 14 folks had another great day a Cedar Key with 63 species. Many species of shore-birds at Suwannee NWR and it's a good thing we went there first as our wonderful "Daily Sun" had the tides reversed.

Highlighted bird of the day was the wonderful fly over of the Magnificent Frigatebirds. Also after much research I feel confident in calling the sighting of the Black-whiskered Vireo, seen by Mary Lou Miller and myself at the Museum. I think it was helpful that this bird was in the near proximity of several Red-eyed Vireos as we were able to compare the size of the bill and compare the dull/bright plumage of the two. Cedar Key is as far north as they nest but migrant Black-whiskered Vireos are frequently seen on the upper Gulf coast. This is a first sighting for the club. My car then made a quick pass through Goethe St. Forest on the way home.

Birds Seen Today:

American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-Crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Magnificent Frigatebird, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, American Kestrel, Black-Bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, American Oystercatcher, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Dunlin, Short-Billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Forster's Tern, Black Skimmer, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, White-Eyed Vireo, Red-Eyed Vireo, Black-Whiskered Vireo, Blue Jay, Florida Scrub-Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Carolina Wren, Swainson 'S Thrush, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Yellow-Throated Warbler, Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-And-White Warbler, American Redstart, Summer Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Red-Winged Blackbird, And Boat-Tailed Grackle

Birds Heard Today:

House Wren

Additional Birds Seen Goethe St. Forest
Brown Headed Nuthatch And Eastern Blue Bird.

Next up:

Bourlay Historic Nature Park, Thursday Oct. 26, meet in front of Belk's at 7:15am depart 7:30am. Should be back in The Villages by noon. This was a great new spot last spring but is our first time there in the fall. Hopefully the fall migrants will be visiting there on the shores of Lake Griffin at the same time. Bourlay is a short drive to Leesburg.

MEETING:
Our first meeting of the new year will be held at Paradise Ctr. on Saturday Oct. 28th at 9am. Norm Lantz will present a work-shop on Hawks of Central Florida.

The Christmas Bird Count is scheduled for Friday Dec. 15th

Photos taken on the Cedar Key trip.