Charlotte Harbor 100/114/99

By David Simpson

On March 26, 2006, Andy "The Punk" Bankert set out to defend our title at the Charlotte Harbor 100. Paul Holmes and other locals conceived the idea of running a British style birdathon to raise funds for environmental education in Charlotte County. Last year was the kickoff in connection with the FOS meeting in nearby Sarasota. Andy and I, with help, managed to find 114 species within Charlotte County within the six hour time frame of the competition. This year we would have our work cut out for us. Local powerhouses including the infamous Jeff Bouton were poised to take the crown back into local hands. Three days of scouting revealed that there were far fewer birds than last year (at least to the eyes of us out of towners) Local knowledge of the whereabouts of ducks, freshwater shorebirds, and even waders could make the difference. The Aqui Esta ponds that provided so many species (coots, moorhens, hooded merganser, pied-billed grebe) last year were virtually birdless. Replacements were hard to come by. We searched to the south and west and found a few ponds with a couple pairs of grebes, one pond with Greater yellowlegs and one with Black-necked stilts. Gasparilla Island hosted Red-breasted merganser, Common Loon and various beach shorebirds. The only migrant songbird was a Hooded warbler in someone's yard. It was going to be tough to even get to 100 this year.

We were the first team to leave the starting line. We had not seen any sign of Bouton when we left, but he still had six minutes to start. The six teams were staggered two minutes apart in order to avoid bottlenecking. Each team had six hours from their start time to report back with their totals. There is a penalty of one species for each minute late in reporting. We wasted no time in getting on the road. We had been at Bayshore Oaks Park for 20 minutes waiting for the start. As dawn grew, we staked out the dawn chorus to tick them all off at 0600. We left the park with seven species of singing song birds and noisy water birds on the bay. We had determined that we could start on the south side of the Peace River at Ponce DeLeon Park without losing too much at Babcock Webb WMA. There was a remote chance of picking up Mangrove cuckoo. While scouting the day before, we easily found both species of night-herons and a dawn flight of Common loons. On this day we found our targets, although they made us work. We found one of each of the night-heron species. Only two loons flew over us, announcing their arrival as they came into view. Yesterday we had 13. We left the park with our target species, but a little off our schedule.

We stopped along the way to pick up Burrowing owl and got Lesser scaup and Hooded merganser. A quick stop at the park at Aqui Esta and Bal Harbor failed to yield the Prairie warbler from yesterday. We had to scoot along to Babcock Webb before the early birds became the silent birds. We did manage to pick up a Muscovy duck and the other countable exotics along the way. When we arrived at Babcock Webb, we had amassed 32 species in 18.0 miles. We were 10 minutes late, arriving at 0650. No problem considering we had so much slack in the schedule. We made a quick run of Webb. After picking up Limpkin and bobwhite near the Iron Ranger, we stopped at the intersection of Tucker's Grade and Oil Well Grade. Friday, I had 4-5 Grasshopper sparrows here. Today there were none. We moved along the road picking up Red-cockaded woodpecker and other important species. Around the corner from the end of Oil Well Grade we tried for King Rail. Without a tape and with The Punk unwilling to wade into the marsh, we left without. However, we did pick up Marsh and House wrens, Swamp and Grasshopper sparrows, and Brown-headed nuthatch. The Swamp sparrow would save us a run back down Tucker's Grade to the only spot I had them in scouting. On the way back to the entrance, we stopped at Crooked Lake for our staked out Pied-billed grebe. Amazingly we missed. An interesting nuance of birding small areas is that some species we take for granted are scarce in other counties. Common moorhens are rare in Duval County. Boat-tailed grackle has never been seen in Okaloosa County, American crows are common in the Everglades but absent in the keys. Pied-billed grebes are certainly present in Charlotte County, but we had only found a few pairs in scouting. Fortunately, we had a spot near our route to pick them up late. We were feeling pretty good about Webb when we left. We had most of our scouted targets. We were seven minutes ahead of schedule at 0723 and we had 59 species for the day. We headed on to Washington Loop Rd. while the early morning was still upon us. This was the last species rich area. After this it would be mostly stake outs and single species stops. The north end of the loop produced one of the few stake out scrub jays. We found Red-headed woodpeckers along Serene Road (heading west from the east end of the loop) at the designated spot. There was a Prairie warbler here as well and a Swallow-tailed kite. We did not find the Indigo bunting present on Friday. We moved on with one miss, one bonus, and one pick up of a previous miss. Not bad. We hit Hathaway Park on the south side of the loop and picked up a few species, but the activity was less than last year. We found Chipping sparrow and Barn swallow, but not much else. The screech owl in the box stayed in the box without so much as a screech. Last year we found Ovenbird, Hermit thrush, kinglet, screech owl, and others. When we left Washington Loop Rd. at 0827, we were now eight minutes ahead of schedule with 75 species. From here on, it would be a few species at a time.

Nine minutes later we arrived back on the north side of the harbor. We poked along the shore, checking the parks along the way and picking up the usual water birds. Among the water birds we picked up a singing Brown thrasher across the road from Bayshore Oaks Park. We left the last park at 0920 with 88 species and 67.4 miles.

Our next stop proved to be quite fruitful. We had dipped on Pied-billed grebe at Webb, so we headed to our backup spot. We had discovered this place while scouting and scouting and scouting the ponds of western Charlotte County. We had a backup and a backup backup for PB grebe. We arrived at our backup (the corner of O'hara and Administrator) at 0927 with 70.8 miles and 88 species. We spotted the appointed grebes and snapped up our first yellow-rumped warbler and even a Yellow-throated warbler. There weren't very many Yellow-rumps left, and we hadn't counted on the Yellow-throated. We left at 0929 with 91 species and a general feeling of confidence. Ollie's Pond had produced a Louisiana waterthrush but no coots or ducks. The woods nearby held hopes of kinglets and BH vireos as well as a staked out screech owl nest. We arrived at 0933 with 91 species and 74.1 miles. We skirted the north side of the lake trail in search of yesterday's waterthrush and yesterday's missing kinglets and vireos. We saw a few more Yellow-rumps and some pine and palm warblers. No new species in the water or woods. The screech owl (another back up) was cooperative this time. One at a time. That's how it will be from now to the end. We hiked back to the truck and left the area at 0940 with 92 species.

From here, we crossed back over the interstate and headed to the ponds around the airport. We first hit the one we called "Cool Pond". The pond itself was not so interesting to us this day. The waters held no ducks and the cattails surrounding the pond held nothing of interest. The field next to the pond "Cool Field?" held a rarity of sorts. In scouting, we had found many Grasshopper sparrows in many places, sometimes 5-6 in one spot, but we had found only one spot with Savannah sparrow. Cool Field was it and we spread out to find our quarry. We flushed several Grasshopper sparrows before finally getting Savannah. Another species, another check. We left Cool Field at 1024, eight minutes after our arrival, with 94 species and 93.1 miles.

I don't know the next spot we hit because I can't read Andy's writing and it's been so long, I don't rightly remember. At any rate, we arrived at 102? with 94 species and 95.x miles. This stop would add zero species. We left at 1032 en route to Jones Loop Rd.

Along the north side of Jones Loop Road, we stopped by a pond in a field with the hope of filling a few of our wading bird gaps. We did not fill any gaps, but we found eight Savannah sparrows. So much for Cool Field. We cruised on around Jones Loop, stopping along the south side, east of I-75. From there, we could barely see a few ponds behind the nearby weigh station. It was here that we found our only Wood storks and Glossy Ibises in scouting. It was here that we found our only Tricolored herons on this day. We crossed I-75 and missed our only Black-necked stilts on the route. That hurts. We only have a couple gimmes left. The Charlotte Harbor 100 may be difficult this time. We left Jones Loop at 1051, only 69 minutes left, with 95 species and 101.7 miles.

Our next stop was Uncool Pond (CR 765A just east of US 41). In scouting, we had found Greater yellowlegs on the shallows. In competition, we found nothing in the shallows. That was the last of the easy ones. We left at 1055, 65 minutes to go, with 95 species and 102.4 miles.

We decided that we had time to hit the Charlotte Harbor Buffer Preserve trails south on Burnt Store Road. In scouting, we had found a few warblers and swallow-tailed kite. We arrived at 1104, 56 minutes left, and blasted through the 1.75 mile trail to no avail. We left at 1132 still with 95 species and now 105.6 miles.

Our last stop was back at Bayshore Oaks Park for the final tally. We were the first to arrive at 1145 with 95 species and 114.1 miles. We scanned the shores and docks and picked out a Sandwich Tern. Other groups trickled in, but no Bouton. We filled out our checklist and found that we had forgotten to write down Loggerhead shrike. That brought us to 97 species. Later, I would realize that we also forgot Belted kingfisher and Mottled duck. That brought us to the total of 99 species (as you probably guessed from the subject line) just shy of the challenge but good enough to win. There were many more species to be found, as we found from discussions with the locals, and I am sure that if Bouton were here, he would have taken back the crown.

We had a great time. We found a few new birding spots. We found out about a few more new spots. We got to meet a few more local birders. We raised money to educate local kids about our environment. Not bad for a day's birding.