quinnbirds's Favorites

A solo visit, rather last-minute. There was a report the night before about 2230 on the main Florida birding Facebook group about a possible Tufted Duck at Lake Morton in Lakeland. I decided to chase it. This morning, by 0730, before I left, two European birders had commented that the duck was a hybrid, with Tufted Duck being one parent and either a Ring-necked Duck or a Lesser Scaup being the other parent. Clearly, this news massively dampened enthusiasm for chasing the duck. I'm sure that 60+ birders who had packed their cars last night had decided to stay home once the duck was identified as a hybrid. Birders can be funny about that oftentimes ... I decided to chase the duck regardless, since it was reasonably close (less than a 90-minute drive), I had nothing else planned today, and it's always fun to see all the swans, geese, and other exotic waterfowl -- and the native species too. I arrived at 1030 and the ONLY other birder present was John Cima, who had discovered the duck about a week ago. If not for the two posts this morning, probably 100 birders would have descended on the park today. The weather at the start was sunny and 67 degrees ("feels like" 67) with a light breeze. When I left at 1230, it was sunny and low 70s with a light breeze.

I parked at the southeastern corner of the lake and walked counter-clockwise, since the light was better than walking clockwise. I tried to tally every individual of every bird species present, but it is nearly impossible given the amount of birds and the fact that I was concentrating (as always) of photographing as many birds as I could.

My camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ80 (my sixth, I think) quit working yesterday; the camera turns off when I try to zoom in (it has 60x, zoom, which I use to the maximum). It's still under warranty, so I need to send it back. To my surprise, returning home yesterday, I found an old Lumix FZ80 (maybe my fifth) that I had forgotten about, sitting on a shelf in my closet. The exposure knob no longer functions -- a known defect with this camera model, in my experience -- but a faulty camera with a functioning 60x, zoom is 1,000,000 times better than no camera or a camera with no functioning zoom.

The first few dozen images I took today, in bright sunlight in my standard "Intelligent Auto" setting, were quite dark (the exposure "broke" in a very dark setting). I deleted most of these images, since I do not believe in editing images (other than cropping) that I upload to iNat. I experimented with other settings. To my surprise and delight, the "SCN" setting -- for scene selection -- proved to be a wonderful alternative, taking images that were beautiful in shade and only slightly (at times) overexposed in direct sunlight. Overall, I was quite pleased with this camera today -- I took more than 1,200 photographs here and at Colt Creek State Park, where I visited after leaving Lakeland!

If I have posted multiple records of a species, then I am positive or nearly certain that they represent multiple individuals. Selected bird species and estinmated numbers at Lake Morton Park follow:

White Ibis: 300+, with 95% in adult plumage

Mallard: I quit counting quickly, but I estimate 75-100 in a typically massive degree of variation in plumages. I did not see any Mallards that I thought were back-crosses with Mottled Ducks, but I marked two males as "Mallards, Pintails, and Allies."

Mute Swan: 35-40, with two active nests with eggs

Black Swan: 20-25, with 2 nests with eggs and a pair with two cygnets. NOTE: why can't I "count" the eggs or cygets as wild birds from "captive" parents? According to iNaturalist guidelines referencing captive plants or animals, the progengy of these individuals should be "countable" and Research-Gradable. Right? Or wrong?

American White Pelican: 60, mostly in one flock. At one point, a dozen or more individuals fed in a flock literally along the shoreline, less than 15 feet from where I was standing, taking videos. American White Pelicans are noisy when foraging!

Swan Goose: 1, seemingly not a hybrid/back-cross.

Graylag Goose: 1, seemingly not a hybrid/back-cross.

I did not see either of the two Black-necked Swans or the single Coscoroba Swan that were present in previous years; apparently they are now dead.

I took a ton of photographs of the putative Tufted Duck hybrid. Additional comments on Facebook since I took my photographs suggest that the duck may simply be a very worn female Lesser Scaup. Accordingly, I am listing it as "Scaups, Pochards, and Allies."