Date: 6/28/26 8:10 am From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] Mid-Summer at SMNWR
The cabbage palms are beginning to bloom at St. Marks NWR and pine hibiscus
blossoms now dot the low wetlands. In the predawn darkness, frogs are
calling in the marshes, but up in the flatwoods, where fireflies are
flashing in the night, the Chuck-wills-widows have mostly gone quiet. It’s
mid-summer at the refuge and sometimes already eighty degrees at sunrise.
It won’t be getting cooler anytime soon.
We are at a tipping point in the refuge year. It is a gray area between
the tail end of Spring migration and the first slow start to Fall
migration. In truth, the two sometimes overlap. It is also the annual low
point for bird diversity when there may only be 120 species on the refuge
and without large flocks of wintering birds, it’s also the annual low point
for bird numbers. However, things are about to change.
Our summer resident species are generally single-brooded and are finishing
up their breeding cycle. Everywhere you look you can see evidence of this.
Morning bird song has diminished. Parula warblers are feeding young at the
Double Bridges. Territorial behavior is breaking down as species finish
nesting and disperse. Chimney Swifts and Purple Martins are showing up in
the refuge skies as they fatten up before migrating. I have already seen
one large post-breeding flock of Mississippi & Swallow-tailed Kites at the
refuge. The temperature may not reflect it, but Fall migration is beginning.
The refuge’s shorebird population also hits its low point in late June.
There are five breeding species found at the refuge: Willet, Wilson’s
Plover, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt and Killdeer. Most have
finished nesting. The Killdeer started early and are already flocked up on
the edge of Stony Bayou near Lighthouse Road. There are still, however, a
few stilt nests on Mounds Pool 3, where newly fledged Wilson’s Plovers are
running across the sand flats.
Yearling birds of some shorebird species don’t migrate and the refuge has
had a good number of Short-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs,
Black-bellied Plovers and Semipalmated Plovers oversummering here this
year. These birds stay in their first winter plumage until their second
Spring, when they molt into breeding plumage and begin their first
northbound migration.
The first few Fall migrant shorebirds have arrived at the refuge. I’ve
seen small flocks of Marbled Godwits and Whimbrels, two species that often
show up in late June. Among the Short-billed Dowitchers and Black-bellied
Plovers I’ve seen single birds in breeding plumage, indicating that they
have returned from their breeding grounds. I also recently found a Wilson’s
Phalarope feeding with stilts and yellowlegs.
There’s a lot of summer left to go, but as the weeks progress, the refuge
will see an increasing number of migrant birds. More shorebird species will
appear; Least Sandpipers, western Willets and Ruddy Turnstones. By the end
of July, we’ll start seeing the first migrant warblers. I always watch for
Yellow Warblers in cabbage palms. Then, sometime in August, the first Bald
Eagles and Blue-winged Teal will arrive.
There is no denying that it is miserably hot. However, if you get up early
and come down to the refuge, there’s a lot going on.
