a Greg Miller footnote/Zellwood

Lydia Schindler (paulydia@erols.com)
Mon, 07 Dec 1998 17:53:40 -0500


So, there I was, midst the muck fields of Zellwood,
checking out shorebirds (yellowlegs, stilt sandpipers,
dunlin, dowitchers, leasts, avocets, plovers) and trying
to relocate a Franklin's Gull, and the fellow nearby
said, "I met a guy from Maryland last week.  Greg
Miller.  Went down the Snake Bight trail with him,
looking for flamingos."  

Zellwood, for those of you Marylanders drifting south to
Florida this year, is a happening place.  Described in
Bill Pranty's ABA guide as a spot to visit July-Sept,
Zellwood (NW of Orlando) is in the process of being
transformed into a National Wildlife Refuge/reclaimed
and treated by Superfund money?/run by the local water
district.  This is the first year it has not been
planted with winter vegetables, and it is alive with
birds.  On 11/30, Harry x, who is doing counts for Fish
& Wildlife, had 117 species--up one from the week
before--and estimates some 20,000 individuals. 

The fields are littered with all sorts of herons and
egrets, ibises, storks and sandhills, great clots of
white pelicans.  On the ponds, anhingas and cormorants,
coots and moorhens, Am Bittern, bushels of snipe, lots
of waterfowl (including the first Fulvous Whistling
Ducks I'd seen in several years).  In past weeks there
have been, in addition to two Franklin's Gulls, a
Cinnamon Teal, Horned and Eared Grebes, Buff-breasteds,
a Ruff (I managed to locate it and get, as H. Wierenga
would say, "killer looks")--and, great for Floridians,
Snow and Canada Geese.  The erstwhile celery and carrot
fields have sprouted into great habitat for
sparrows.      

In four half-days, I saw six other birder-vehicles and
even fewer bugs. (True summer is no doubt a different
matter.) Caveats:  surrounding fields are still planted,
and some roads are off limits; no one wants to offend
the farmers (specifics should be sought from Florida
birders).  It is open M-F, and the gates clang shut at 6
pm. 

Lydia Schindler
Darnestown