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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kibet" data-source="post: 3538882" data-attributes="member: 126488">Day 8 Saturday 11th MarchJay B Starkey Wilderness ParkI had a choice at this point. Do I go to the Audubon Society walks of Lake Seminole (St Pete’s) or Honeymoon Island (Clearwater)? Or do I go for the Brown-Headed Nuthatch at Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park that a couple of birders mentioned at Brooker Creek. I had no nuthatches here, and so as you can guess from the subtitle, I went for the latter. One of the problems though was that when I checked Ebird for the Brown-Headed Nuthatch, all it said was the “Usual Spot” and I also had not asked the recommenders where the best place to see them was.  With the low activity of the BF for this area, I did not bother asking here. In hindsight, I probably should have checked with the Clearwater FB group, despite it being in Pasco County. The park is also very big and we never saw any other people birdwatching, for help to be pointed in the right direction.We walked a little nature trail loop (marked on their maps), and it was all under cover. We could hear some birds singing, but right at the top of the trees, allowing very little chance to see through the dense cover. The only sign of bird life was when we reached a little creek, with a Pileated and a Black-and-White. We headed around to the hiking trail, stopping at a small amount of activity of a Gray Catbird, Carolina Chickadee and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Doing a loop of the hiking trail, we saw from the track map that there was a promise of a bit of water, and considering the Ebird lists seemed to have the usual herons, there was a little hope. That hope though was a disappointment, with the only sign of water coming from a Double Crested Cormorant on a distant bush. Other than a Carolina Chickadee and a Palm Warbler, nothing more came out of the walk. There was one bird with a distinct song, with a high weet, low boop, high weet, ending in a zzzzzt. I have not worked out what this was, although did check it against the “Wills” though and was nothing like them. So a rather disappointing end to the week, although clearly I was in the wrong place in the park. With my flight out in the evening, I did not have a chance to give it a proper check on the map later. Or rather I thought I would not have time to go out again, as flight was fully-booked and they were offering a sizeable compensation to move to the next day. Unfortunately, as I never checked my work email, I did not know whether I would be essential on my first day back. So I flew back and other than yourselves being thankful as it meant not another day report, I also stopped someone falling off a train.Photographed New Species – 45/60</blockquote>

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