Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

2 brave, kayaking birders, Joel and Charles, joined me on an epic birding adventure from Flamingo to Snake Bight to view many wading and shore birds. The 1.5 mile trip to Snake Bight was delightful, and we saw some of our common wading birds and some Belted Kingfishers. As we approached the SW entrance of Snake Bight, the NE wind picked up and made our paddle up the Snake Bight Channel, an upper body workout worthy of a day at the gym. Along the way, we observed Bald Eagles, Reddish Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills and many other waders. Once we reached the spoil island at the north end of the channel, we paddled up the west side to avoid the strong wind and outgoing tide.
At the north end of the island, we paddled through the cut that leads back to the channel. There we saw Pied-billed Grebe, Blue-winged Teal, and about 50 Red-breasted Mergansers. Back in the channel, we paddled with the tidal current, back to the south end of the spoil island. From there we paddled west to Gibby Point, hoping to locate the two Flamingos that were seen a week or two before. No luck! . By this time, the tide was falling faster than anticipated due to the strong NE winds, making our original plans of returning along the west side of Snake Bight, questionable. It can get pretty shallow at low tides, even for kayaks. Been there and done that! We observed about 200-300 American White Pelicans along the distant shoreline we couldn't approach. We returned to the Snake Bight Channel and picked up the outgoing current with the winds to our back to return home. By this time, many mudflats were exposed along sides of the deep water, so we could beach the kayaks and observe the hundreds of shorebirds feeding, at a close range. One mudflat had 400-500 Black Skimmers, which would occasionally all take off at once, only to land on another part of the flat. After visiting several mudflats, we were almost at the end of the channel when our trip was rudely interrupted by a large, unknown sea creature flipping me out of my kayak when I was along the edge of the channel. Luckily, I was in about 3-4 feet of water and could right the boat and bail it out, with help from Joel & Charles. Unluckily, I lost my glasses and my waterproof box wasn't so waterproof. From that point on, the rest of the way back to Flamingo was pretty uneventful. A total of 38 species were seen, as follows:
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
Reddish Egret
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron-white morph
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Blue-wing Teal
Red-breasted Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Lesser Black-back Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Belted Kingfisher
American Crow