Audubon of Florida board member Diane Reed offers this excellent report from Northeast Florida's recent Bird-a-thon! Great work!

Ten birding teams from Northeast Florida set out for the Bird-a-thon on Saturday morning to tally the most species in the Second Annual Fundraiser to benefit the Audubon of Florida Bird Conservation Program in NE Florida. With team names like Moultrie Merlins, Solitary Landcreeper, The Avengers, Plover Lovers, Family Flock, The Over-Birdened, Clay Pigeon and Swallow-tailed Single, how could we go wrong?

Here's one of the stories:  Diane Reed, board member of Audubon of Florida as well as the St. Johns Chapter, led "The Avengers" with a 5:30 am meeting time in the parking lot of Flagler Hospital where she and her bird partner, Veronica Peterson, checked off Common Nighthawks. They then proceeded north to the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Esturaine Research Reserve trails to pick up another 60 or so species, which included nesting and migratory woodland birds. The nearly four mile hike included a trek through a freshwater marsh area where they found Roseate Spoonbills, Glossy Ibis and nearly all the wading bird species. Additionally, they found Solitary Sandpipers and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.  Surprisingly, an American Bittern flew into view this day. For the second time in over 15 years of birding on the Guana trails, a Red-headed Woodpecker was seen.

The trek back included a 'savannah-type' habitat where they had Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Kingbirds and the very elusive Northern Bobwhite.  The trail head parking lot had the Ruby-throated Hummingbird that has been seen there for several weeks. "The Avengers" then continued on throughout the county to pick up an additional 30 varied species.

The total seen from 5:30 am through 1 pm for this team was 95 species.  "The Avengers" came in second place with the winning team of Andrew Thornton and Gary Davis achieving a total of 125 species. The entire group had fantastic tales of their birding exploits and celebrated with a picnic lunch coordinated by Audubon of Florida's Margaret Spontak, board member Ann Moore,  and local volunteers Fran Preston and Terry Jennings.  Board member Allen Milledge also attended the luncheon. Monique Borboen, Audubon's NE Florida Policy Associate graciously offered her office and grounds for the picnic event.  Prizes were donated by local businesses.

We ended up with a tally of 153 species seen!