Sanibel 2

The Bailey Tract is part of the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The tract consists of several large ponds that are surrounded by marsh—perfect dragonfly habitat. We saw a few Odonata, the most interesting being these two saddlebacks. I believe they are different species. The first seems quite clearly to be a Red Saddlebags. I think the second is a Carolina Saddlebags. Differences between the two species are subtle, at least to humans. Look at the second to last abdominal segment. It should be red in a Red Saddlebags and black in a Carolina. I think this difference shows up in my photographs. I was surprised that Odonata Central concurred with my identifications.

Oddly, eBird questioned my identification of the following Bonaparte’s Gull. I am clearly correct. We saw three of them along the Sanibel beach. Perhaps in Florida this species is seldom seen except as single individuals. I am not sure. eMails questioning eBird identifications are generated automatically, so it is also possible that Bonaparte’s Gulls at Sanibel were mistakenly tagged as unexpected. I was glad to have photographs.

A common bird along the Sanibel beach—a Sandwich Tern. Note the yellow-tipped bill. You can see the oil gland on its rump that the bird uses for secretions to maintain its feathers. No problem with eBird with this report.

I reported the next tern as a Common. In this case eBird is probably correct in replying, “No, this bird, based on its head pattern, is a Forester’s Tern.” I thought that the black edges to the forewings are a classic field mark for Common Tern. On the other hand, winter-plumaged Common Terns should be black on the back of their head. So chalk up another advantage to using eBird—correcting mistaken identifications. Remember Pete Dunn’s adage that beginners occasionally misidentify birds; experts misidentify hundreds.

Finally, I was surprised that eBird did not flag my report of a pair of Wilson’s Plovers. I was expecting an email from them, so took this photograph. I thought these plovers showed up in Sanibel later the year. According to eBird, however, they are found all year in this region.