Surprises In Your Own Backyard

You're probably beginning to notice a theme on this site: Heather and I do a lot of local birding in addition to our forays into other states. Two of our favorite areas are places we have featured in previous posts, L. Kirk Edwards Wildlife and Environmental Area and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Both contain really cool habitats, really cool species, and opportunities to encounter both with minimal effort.

One species that occurs locally but that takes some effort to find is the increasingly-rare Swainson's Warbler. Fortunately, a good population can be found at L. Kirk Edwards WEA and so, one afternoon, Heather and I went there to finally get this species. We've definitely worked harder for birds this year. We walked up to a reliable spot, listened for a couple minutes, and there it was. A male Swainson's Warbler called out from the cypress swamp and we had our bird. Why can't it always be this easy?

The trend of us recording more bird species from St. Marks NWR than anywhere else led us to think that a return there would be a good idea. Heather invited her intern, Zach, along and we drove down to that beautiful place one day after work.

We made our first stop at what, usually, is the best bet of seeing something notable at the refuge: the Double Dikes and Stony Bayou 2. Almost immediately upon exiting the car, I saw a flash of yellow that looked odd flying away from me. I knew I had seen something different and took off to find the bird. I scanned nearby bushes and trees for a couple minutes. As I searched, thoughts raced through my head of what this bird could be. Might it be a real rarity? It was big, had a yellow breast, and a distinct head. I thought it could be a western-type kingbird. But I had to find it again.

My first, distant view, of the bird left me guessing about its identity.

I looked and looked with no luck. Zach and Heather seemed skeptical that I had actually found something of note. Then I saw it. Perched up on the top of a tree was a kingbird. Right away, we knew we had an unreported rarity on our hands. I had never personally found a "rare bird", so this was a big deal. We had to get photos and make an identification.

Zach immediately said, "Cassin's", but I had seen Cassin's and this was no Cassin's. I went to Couch's in my head, as Tropical seemed almost impossible. We were fortunately able to take a number of photos through our binoculars and the scope. The yellow seemed bright on the breast, the tail seemed very forked, and my gut was telling me Tropical the more I looked at it. We reached out to some local birders and, one after another, they said, "It's more than likely a Tropical Kingbird."

A Tropical Kingbird, photographed through my binoculars.

I was ecstatic. This might have been one of the last birds I expected to see on that day, and there it was. Heather and I had a new bird, Zach and Heather both had a lifer, and we had been the first to find a real rarity! I did some research and it turns out that no Tropical Kingbirds had been seen in the area for a few years, although 7 others had been seen in or near St. Marks NWR in the past few decades. Strangely, no one saw the bird after us. It was a fortuitous bird that made up for all of the strike-outs we've had while searching for much more common species.

The first true rare bird that Heather and I were the first to report during our Big Year.

Oh, and we saw our first Reddish Egret hunting in the shallows nearby. But, honestly, everything else paled in comparison to the Tropical Kingbird. That was a birding experience I will not soon forget!