I did the eastern mangrove earlier today on what seemed a crueller than cruel hot morning 😂. Almost as cruel is the fact that the so called Green Sandpiper from two days ago was not of that species. Although not up for images I got better views and sounds of the bird and was and still am overjoyed to have observed my first Solitary Sandpiper. Bugger one's ego the mistake is more than fair trade off for a lifer 🤗.
The bulk of the wader mass seen then have moved on leaving just 5 flighty Least or Semi P Sandpiper (your guess as good as mine given the difficulty in separating when flying). A pr of Green Heron and a Snowy Egret showed well with a Great Blue seen briefly in flight.
Another first for this trip was a Common Yellow throat and I got a second Belted Kingfisher. A pr of Magnificent Frigate Bird were flying very high up and I got some shots of 2 Turkey Vulture perched on dead branches down to 4 yards.
Also: 3 Killdeer, 2 Gray Kingbird, 1 Northern Mockingbird, 7 GA Grackle, Royal Tern & c26 Guffawing Gull 😆.
After lunch I braved the heat once again but for only just over an hour as both my resolve and the birds were wilting. At the western mangroves a Green Heron allowed for close up photography before it was frightened away by a vociferous Common Black Hawk passing over. Views of this large raptor were good enough to confirm the pair of disputed birds seen on the 21st were of this species. That was it apart from a rocket fuelled dark warbler that I had no chance of identifying as it performed like a bullett.
I can't get my head round the fact that as yet these two large expanses of water have failed to produce a single Duck sp.
