Day Six - Oscar Scherer State Park and the Celery Fields

At first when I was planning my time birding in Florida, I had a lot of birds on my target list that were unrealistic because I would have to drive too far from Tampa or they were just difficult to find, and it might be very time consuming to search for them. Since it would be my first time birding in Florida, and there were so many birds to see, I decided to target the birds that were closest and easiest and to save more difficult birds for later visits. However, from what several people had told me, Florida Scrub-jay seemed close enough and easy enough to target. So I decided that if the birding was going well, I would make the drive to Oscar Scherer State Park later in the week , but if I had not yet seen some of the other birds I was looking for, I would not. When I checked online on Wednesday night, I discovered that Oscar Scherer was about a 90 minute drive from Palm Harbor--a little further than I had expected. But with 23 lifers already under my belt, I decided to get up early and go for the bonus bird. I also wanted to stop at the Celery Fields on the way back to look for Black-bellied Whistling Duck and Glossy Ibis, which had both been reported to be there recently on ebird.

Excited, I woke up earlier than I had planned and was on the road by 5:30 a.m. I arrived at Oscar Scherer at 7:00 a.m. To my disappointment, I realized that the park did not open until 8:00 a.m. so I had to wait outside the gate. Had I known this, I would have stopped for an hour at the Celery Fields on the way. Once I got in, I was pleased that the fee was reasonably only $4.00. I drove to the parking lot beside Osprey Pond and the Nature Center to park. Along the road just past the parking lot, I saw a Common Ground-dove and, to my astonishment, a Pileated Woodpecker!







There was a couple in the parking lot from New Jersey. They were hoping to see the scrub-jays around the parking lot, but I do not think they were successful. The trail guide said that there was Florida Scrub-jay habitat on both the Blue Trail and the Green Trail. I opted to take the Blue Trail because scrub-jays had been recently reported to be there on ebird and because it was only 1.5 miles long, while the green trail was 2-3 miles long. I hoped to see the birds quickly so that I could stop by the Celery Fields before returning to Palm Harbor.

Getting Florida Scrub-jay was not extremely difficult, but I would not call it easy. It was a hot day, and the whole hike was on loose sand, which is not the easiest turf to walk on. By the time I had hiked almost half of the trail, I was beginning to think I might not see the bird. There were plenty of other birds, including Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Towhee, Red-tailed Hawk, and Blue Jay, but no scrub-jays! Then when the trail dead ended into a gate with some sort of biking trail on the other side, I saw what appeared to be a small falcon up in a tree next to the gate. I photographed the backlit bird, and immediately realized it was a Florida Scrub-jay! Since the bird was backlit, I climbed the fence to get a better view. The bird was no longer in the tree once I got to the other side of the fence. Had I flushed it? No. It had just flown down into the bushes next to the fence, and it did not seem at all shy! Then the bird flew to the ground and eventually perched on the fence a few feet away where it was joined by a second scrub-jay!





Eventually, one of the scrub-jays returned to the ground, and the other flew into the bushes on the other side of the trail. Then the other scrub-jay flew to the same bushes.



I finished the second half of the trail, which contained Brown Thrasher, Northern Mockingbird, and what I thought was Northern Bobwhite until I saw a mockingbird imitating a bobwhite in a tree by the parking lot. Next, I went into the nature center and spoke with a couple of park workers. They told me that people had been saying they could not find any scrub-jays, and they seemed glad to hear that I had seen two of them. They told me if I had a peanut or bird seed, the scrub-jays would land in my hand. Then they added that I was not supposed to feed the birds but that I could fake them out by placing a small rock in my hand. I decided not to go back to bate the scrub-jays, and although there was much more park to explore and probably many other birds including possibly Red-cockaded Woodpecker, though I did not realize this at the time, I began my drive to the Celery Fields in hopes of finding Black-bellied Whistling Duck. By the way, I missed White-eyed Vireo at Oscar Scherer, and White-eyed Vireo is my nemesis bird, but hopefully, I will see one this Fall in Illinois. Before I continue, I want to thank Wes Kolb, Eric Lundquist, and Keith McMullen for recommending Oscar Scherer for scrub-jays.

I learned about the area called the Celery Fields both from Bill Pranty's A Birder's Guide to Florida, which I borrowed from Matt Fraker and from Scott Cohrs' recent thread on IBF, called Sarasota Birding - 6/12 thru 6/16. I want to thank Leo Miller, Eric Lundquist, and Keith McMullen for recommending Bill Pranty's book. I also want to thank Matt Fraker for loaning me the book, which was also very helpful at Fort DeSoto, Honeymoon Island State Park, and Anastasia State Park. Thanks also to Scott Cohrs for the information in his post about birding around Sarasota. As I mentioned earlier I also noticed reports of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Glossy Ibis at the Celery Fields on ebird. So thank you Matthew Cvetas for reminding me to check ebird while planning where to go!

In his book A Birder's Guide to Florida, published in 1996, Bill Pranty does not refer to the Celery Fields by this name, but he does describe this location. He says, "to reach the area where the ducks may be observed, drive the dirt roads East of I-75 between Fruitville Road and Bee Ridge Road." So I took the Fruitville Road exit. I soon realized that these roads were now paved and quite busy. You have to watch the roads carefully for traffic while you are birding. First, I drove East on Fruitville Rd. and turned right on Coburn Rd. Then I pulled off at the pond at Ackerman Park, which is on the corner of Fruitville and Coburn. This was where I noticed first two and then three Forster's Terns. The third was still in breeding plumage.









This Limpkin was also hanging around the pond, and an Anhinga was sitting on a sign.





As I continued driving, I found this Cattle Egret walking along the road.



At the corner of Coburn and Palmer Blvd., there was a pond with American Coots and Common Gallinules. I headed East on Palmer and found a parking area on the left for birders across the road from a large pond with a boardwalk. After I parked in the parking lot, I photographed this adult Red-shouldered Hawk, perched by the road.



Then I got back into my car, and drove East to Raymond Rd. I turned right on Raymond Rd. and checked the ponds on either side of the road. There were Limpkins and egrets in the West pond, but nothing around the pond East of the road but cattle.



I also observed this Loggerhead Shrike on a power line on Raymond Rd.



I got back on Palmer and drove East, where I saw another pond to the North with Tricolored Heron. I turned around and drove back to the pond with the boardwalk. I got out of the car and walked to the boardwalk. As I walked, I saw this female Boat-tailed Grackle.



Next I noticed a couple of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks fly up out of the pond and a third one fly over the pond from the West. I snapped a photo of one of them. These were not the best of views, but it was a lifer!



Once I got to the boardwalk, I saw a Least Bittern fly across the pond and land in some reeds. Another lifer! I could not really see whether I was actually photographing the bird when I took this shot from a great distance, but the Least Bittern is in the shot!



As I walked back to the car, I snapped a couple more shots of the adult Red-shouldered Hawk.



Then I noticed a couple of Wood Storks flying over. As Carrie later said, they are more beautiful in flight than on the ground.



I would have preferred to see Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in the water and I had not found a Glossy Ibis, but I decided I had seen all I was going to see. So I headed back to Palm Harbor exhausted, but excited to have added three more lifers--Florida Scrub-jay, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, and Least Bittern!

On the way back, however, I drove over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Pinellas County, so I decided to pull off at the North Rest Area and try to get one more look at the Whimbrel. I was thrilled to find a large group of Terns on the beach near the rest area. There were Sandwich Terns . . .





Royal Terns . . .



and Least Terns . . .



Here are a couple of shots of the Royal Terns and the Sandwich Terns together.





And here is a shot of all three species together. Notice how small the Least Terns appear next to the other two species.



I continued along the beach and noticed the same Willet I had recently seen and a Magnificent Frigatebird soaring above!



Finally, I saw the Whimbrel again!







This bird cracked me up when it ran with its head down as shown below.



I returned to Palm Harbor in the early afternoon and spent the remainder of the day with Carrie and her family.

Below are lists of the birds I saw at Oscar Scherer and at the Celery Fields.

Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota, US-FL
Jul 6, 2012 7:49 AM - 9:49 AM
Protocol: Traveling
5.0 mile(s)
18 species

Mottled Duck 3
White Ibis 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Sandhill Crane 2
Mourning Dove 4
Common Ground-Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Downy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Blue Jay 3
Florida Scrub-Jay 2
Fish Crow 6
Barn Swallow 2
Northern Mockingbird 8
Brown Thrasher 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Northern Cardinal 3

Celery Fields, Sarasota, US-FL
Jul 6, 2012 9:34 AM - 10:40 AM
Protocol: Traveling
6.0 mile(s)
24 species

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 3
Mottled Duck 3
Wood Stork 2
Anhinga 3
Least Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 5
Tricolored Heron 2
Cattle Egret 6
Osprey 8
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Common Gallinule 3
American Coot 2
Limpkin 4
Laughing Gull 12
Forster's Tern 3
Mourning Dove 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Fish Crow 12
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Boat-tailed Grackle 7

Written and published on July 28, 2012