Date: 12/22/25 5:16 am From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] The St. Marks Count
December brings various celebrations depending on your religion, culture,
or belief. It also brings the Christmas Bird Count season. These counts are
winter bird surveys done within a defined 15-mile diameter circle.
Participants count as many birds as they can within the count circle on a
scheduled date. Counts happen over a three-week period at the end of the
year and are part science and partly an annual recreational birding
celebration. This year marks the 126th Christmas Bird Count.
So, this past Saturday at 4:30 am, three hours before sunrise, I unlocked
one of the refuge gates, drove in and began birding my assigned area on the
St. Marks Christmas Bird Count. It was a cold, still night with no moon.
Night birding requires a lot of passive listening and plenty of opportunity
to watch the sky. I saw three meteors as I listened for birds. By 5:00 am I
had already recorded three species; Eastern Screech Owl, Barred Owl, and
Sora rail.
Over seventy other area birders were taking part in the St. Marks count
and most of them would also start the day with a predawn owling session.
Most of the day’s birding would be done on foot or by car, but there would
be two canoe teams, one on the St. Marks River and another on the Wakulla
River. I would be part of a boat team taking advantage of a late afternoon
high tide to survey the offshore waters.
By the time it got light, I had added another four species, including a
calling King Rail. As I closed out my owling list, I saw a large black
cloud of birds rising out of the marshes. It bulged and quivered like a
living being before breaking up and spreading out. I estimated that it
contained 1,100 Red-winged Blackbirds.
The daytime portion of my territory included Stony Bayou 1 and a portion
of Lighthouse Road. Not an especially interesting territory, but all of the
circle needs to be covered. I spent four hours counting sparrows, wrens and
warblers on levees and roadsides before stopping to head for the Lighthouse
boat ramp.
I was meeting Joe Reinman, retired refuge biologist, who had agreed to
take me out. The refuge supplied an aluminum skiff with a 60 HP outboard
motor, along with a truck and trailer to move it. We launched at 1:00 pm
with a plan to be back by 4:00 pm. There was only a 2.9-foot-high tide that
afternoon which gave us limited depth and time to work with.
As we got out on the water, Joe casually mentioned that he hadn’t
operated a motorboat in many years, being more of an airboat kind of guy.
He also said that the boat did not have a full fuel tank when he picked it
up, but it probably had enough fuel to get us out and back and he had
brought paddles just in case. The Christmas Bird Count, however, must go on
and we bumped along the shallows counting birds.
There are a lot of birds out on Apalachee Bay and always the chance that
something rare lurks out there. We found nothing rare, but we did find
gulls, terns, pelicans, Horned Grebes, cormorants, and Common Loons.
Scattered about were many small black-and white Buffleheads, along with
other ducks; scaup, mergansers, Common Goldeneyes and especially Redheads.
Five percent of the entire continental Redhead population, possibly as
many as 40,000 ducks, winter along the Big Bend coast, grazing on
seagrasses. We found a Redhead flock that we estimated at 2,500 ducks. We
also found 180 Red-breasted Mergansers, the largest flock that I have ever
seen.
We did make it back before the fuel gave out. It was just 4:30 pm. when
Joe loaded the boat on the trailer. I said goodbye and headed for home.
Elsewhere in the count circle, other teams had finished up and some were
still out birding. The St. Marks Christmas Bird Count was drawing to a
close.
Christmas Bird Counts are held regardless of the weather, but this had
been a glorious blue-sky winter day and a good day of birding.
