The first half of our vacation, our time in Florida, was coming to an end, and now it was time for Carrie to be a bride's matron in a wedding in Hilton Head, SC while we stayed with my brother Jerry in Savannah, GA. However, we still had a few hours to drive around St. Augustine to see the city and look for more other parakeet species before we drove to Hilton Head for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
Carrie and I barely left our hotel parking lot when we saw at least eight Nanday Parakeets--some on the power lines and a few flying over. The third photo shows off the blue feathers on the wings of one of these beautiful birds.
After taking some shots, we checked a street on Anastasia Island for Monk Parakeets nests, following Bill Pranty's A Birder's Guide to Florida. Of course the book had been published 16 years ago so it was not a great surprise that there were no nests where they had been before.
Next we crossed the bridge into St. Augustine and walked around Castillo de San Marcos. We did not see any parakeets, but we did see a Little Blue Heron on top of the fort.
After walking around briefly, we returned to the car and drove around St. Augustine, but we did not locate any Monk, Rose-ringed, or Mitred Parakeets as we had hoped after consulting Pranty's book. I wonder if these species still live in the city. I read on the internet that the Ringed Turtle Doves that had once lived in St. Petersburg had not been seen for years. Was this the case with these other parakeet species, or had they just moved to a different part of the city like the Nandays I had seen near the hotel?
I did add a couple of species to my Florida list while we drove around town--House Finch and American Robin. The American Robin was hopping around near the Florida School for the Deaf. I thought this was a strange sighting for Florida in the summer and sure enough, the sighting was flagged on ebird. I guess I should have stopped to take a picture.
Looking back, I now wish Carrie and I had visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. I had read about it in Pranty's book and learned that there was a rookery there, but at the time we did not want to spend the money to get in, and I did not realize until later that the rookery included nesting Roseated Spoonbills. The nesting birds at the rookery choose the alligator farm for the rookery because the alligators in the water below prevent potential predators from climbing the trees to get to the nests.
After several hours of driving, we arrived at Hilton Head Island in time for the wedding rehearsal. Since the rehearsal was on the beach, I took a walk during the rehearsal and photographed a few gulls and a crow. I also observed a flying Osprey before I made it back in time for a delicious low country boil dinner.
During dinner, Brown Pelicans were constantly flying overhead.
After hanging around a bit, Carrie and I left for Savannah to stay with my brother Jerry and my sister-in-law Kim. Since the wedding was not until Wednesday, we had some time to spend with them and to do a little more birding in their neck of the woods. We hoped our time in Chatham County, GA would yield a Painted Bunting.
Written and published on August 28, 2012
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