There's no D in Wigeon!

There is a D in Pied-billed Grebe, in fact there are two. There's no D in New England especially in the closing minutes of the Superbowl! Ouch! Who cares? The NFL sucks!
Went to the refuge on Superbowl Sunday to count shorebirds and ducks. The former for this year's mid-winter shorebird survey and the latter just for the sheer heck of it. Winter? Not here mate, bloody spring more like it. Flowers blooming, birds nesting, it's all a bit weird really but hey it's Florida! Anyway there were lots of birds and even more bugs. My arms look like a second hard dart board and I've been popping benadryl all night to stop the bloody itching. At least there's no snow and ice like back home. It's been so cold in blighty that they've started feeding sprats to the Eurasian Bitterns so they don't starve to death! Poor bloody things can't get any food because all the wetlands are iced over. 75F here and low humidity. Perfect.

Almost 4,000 Dunlin on Stoney Bayou I at high tide. 5 American Avocets on Lighthouse Pond and 5 American Black Ducks on Mounds Pool 3. Mallard numbers are insane; almost 200 on Mounds Pool 3, easily my highest count this winter. Nice to see this many on the refuge. There seems to be a lot more dabblers than divers on the refuge probably due to the low water levels. We need rain badly, this drought is getting pretty serious now. I've never seen Mounds Pool 3 so low. 15 inches over the next 2 months would do nicely, just in time for spring shorebirds.