Birding Brevard: Space Coast Festival Makes History

By Dave Freeland

Just about everyone in our area knows about the stunning success enjoyed each year by planners, volunteers and participants in the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival. This year"s Festival, held January 24-28, must now be certified as the best ever.

Ten years earlier, Laurilee Thompson of Space Coast Audubon launched what has become the country's No. 1 birding festival and now, after a couple of significant variations on the original theme, our signature annual event has become the very best in the nation, attracting approximately 1000 visitors to savor Brevard County's ornithological wonders. We have Laurilee, right-hand lady Neta Harris, the Brevard Nature Alliance and a whole lot of exemplary volunteers for the growing list of Festival achievements.

My own small contribution to this year's Festival was joining the Board of the Brevard Nature Alliance to keep a birder's perspective clear in the annual planning and execution of the event and four mornings of field trip leadership to Viera Wetlands, my favorite birding site in the area.

I was pleased to have the company of Michael O'Brien and his wife, Louise Zemaitis, as co-leaders of the Viera field trips this year. Michael is the co-author of the hot new biding text, The Shorebird Guide, and Louise is compiler of the famous Cape May, New Jersey Christmas Bird Count, a role I fill now for the Cocoa CBC. I knew Michael and Louise from my Cape May days, and they are both excellent birders and extremely capable trip leaders with lots of patience to go along with their expertise.

The folks who filled our bus each morning had a grand experience with Michael and Louise leading the birding and Viera's showcase of great birds to fill their binoculars and telescopes. We totaled 88 species in four days.

When I moved from New Jersey to Florida four years ago this month, I knew of the spectacular birding sites, Viera Wetlands and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I quickly joined the Festival planning committee to give myself something to do besides have fun, and I'm pleased to be witness to the wonderful growth Laurilee and her team have managed to create.

I hope you had a chance to enjoy the company of birders from all over the United States, Europe and South America who came to Brevard County for the Festival. Brevardians are great hosts and hostesses, and our visitors' stay here was enhanced by our companionship. If you haven't yet attended a Space Coast Festival, make 2008 your year to participate and enjoy the skills of the terrific field trip leaders Laurilee is always able to muster.

Where to Go: Migration is in full swing by March in Florida with shorebirds, raptors and songbirds alike rushing through for a final destination north of us. An easy place to observe all three is the Port Canaveral area. From George King Boulevard and Dave Nisbet Drive off of A1A, take an immediate left onto Mullet Road and follow it around to Port"s End Park, then under the highway to the end of the road at the Canaveral Lock. Along the way, watch for herons and lingering waterfowl in the waters of the Port and watch the trees bordering Avocet Lagoon for landbirds. The lagoon is barely visible southeast of the entrance to Canaveral Lock, but it might hold waders of interest. Loons often linger in the Lock area.

Bird of the Month: The White-tailed Kite found by Kenn Allie (wasn't HIS bird-finding performance awesome the last few weeks!) near the Tucker Lane/Providence Road intersection in West Cocoa. See directions in the January issue of The Limpkin.

Your Question: Yesterday afternoon, several hundred robins (as bird seldom seen here) descended on our canal just off the Banana River on Merritt Island. They appeared to be disoriented as they continually flitted back and forth from rooftops to trees to power lines. They stayed for about an hour, then left en masse. Just curious as to what would cause this to happen.

A -- Robins are a common, sometimes abundant, winter resident in Central Florida and are found in large flocks numbering in the thousands at times. They are very attracted to Brazilian pepper, an intrusive plant that most people want to eradicate, but the robins (as well as Yellow-rumped Warblers and Cedar Waxwings) love those berries. The disorientation you mentioned is likely just an impulsive movement from one feeding or roosting area to another.

Forward your birding questions to me at freela148@aol.com. I'll answer as many as I can directly and will publish one each month in The Limpkin.