On Sept. 3rd, 2019 South Florida started to feel the effects of Hurricane Dorian. We had about a week to prepare, buying water, supplies, and gas, as the slow moving storm headed toward Florida. The day it was closest to Florida, and was starting to hit the state, I went to the beach, in hopes of possibly seeing rare seabirds blown in with the winds. I suppose I should have been more specific in my wish, because of getting a rare Tern, Storm-Petrel, or Shearwater, I got another "sea"bird.
Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park on Sept 3, 2019
during Hurricane Dorrian. As you can see it was quite calm with
a few bands of rainclouds passing by. A pretty nice beach day for bird watching,
especially with the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport closed for the storm.
Usually its very noisy here as the planes take off over the ocean.
A band of rain from Hurricane Dorian. While walking down the beach
a band of rain came and I took shelter underneath a Cabbage Palm. While standing
watching the rain I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small bird emerge from a stunted seagrape tree right on the edge of the dunes. The bird popped out and fed in the sand. I took some photos of it, knowing it was a sparrow, and to help with later identification.
This is the exact area I saw the bird. It appeared right behind the sea turtle nest, and it used the seagrape as a sort of walkway for it to get further out onto the beach, but still remained covered. When the waves came up to the dunes the bird would come out and peck around at the sand. I suppose eating all the little amphipods that were abundant on the sand. When I crouched down I brushed the sand gently and many of the clear shrimp-like amphipods started jumping around and fleeing. They about the size of a grain of rice, so prefect for a small bird.
And here is the bird. Its a Seaside Sparrow! I originally thought it must be a Savannah Sparrow because that was the only sparrow eBird did not deem rare for this time and location. Its quite rare here, and had only been seen 3 other times in Broward County. I did see another one on eBird that one was spotted here almost exactly 4 years ago, and of a similar plumage, and also photographed on a seagrape tree. It was found and photographed by Steve Kaplan and Bruce Pickholtz. Both of whom I'd meet the following day when I returned to look for this Seaside Sparrow again.
This is when the Seaside Sparrow was out feeding on the exposed beach where the waves would come up too. I never expected to see this "sea" bird, and that is what I mean by be careful what you wish for, even with bird watching! But I am thankful I saw it! So after this whole event I had to make a carving of this bird. Luckily Bruce and Steve, and other eBirders took much better photographs and posted to their eBird checklist, which helped so I could get the plumage right.
Seaside Sparrow - Ammospiza maritima,carving 123, at the spot I found this individual bird.
I tried to get the plumage as close to the actual bird as possible, and made a sand base to match the sand at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park, in Dania Beach, Florida.
Another shot of my Seaside Sparrow - Ammospiza maritima. This time close to some seagrass, I believe Sea Oats, and with a coconut in the background. As you can see in this photo the bird looks quite dark, and in my photos it looks quite dark too, especially because the real sparrow was a little wet, but in other eBird photos of the same bird the next day it appears lighter. Here I photographed the bird on the same day with different lighting, and it almost looks like 2 differently painted birds. This is one thing that makes bird watching very challenging, is that: what the mind thinks it sees, might not be exactly what it appears. It can make identification very difficult, and mind boggling sometimes.
And a final close up.
I do wonder a few things about this Seaside Sparrow:
-Was it was related to the one spotted 4 years ago at the same spot?
-Which subspecies of Seaside Sparrow is this? Florida does have a resident Seaside Sparrow subspecies, the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow (which I don't think this is) and an extinct subspecies, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow, that was once found a few counties north of Broward County, FL. There is also a few Gulf Coast subspecies and a few Atlantic Coast subspecies. I suppose it could be one of the Atlantic subspecies that migrated south after the breeding season, or if it is a juvenile bird, dispersed south to Florida, as the one spotted four years ago may have did.
-Where is it now? The bird hasn't been spotted since Hurricane Dorian, and its been two months. I wonder if it migrated further, or it's just living its secretive (seacretive ? ) Seaside Sparrow style.
Thanks for reading and I hope you'll keep in touch, there's many excited projects coming soon, including a trip to Asia and a very special project.
