Vilano Boat Ramp

Vilano boat ramp at sunset, St. Augustine, FL

I haven't posted in a bit, but life got interrupted by a week at Disney World. It was a fun week, and perhaps I will have to post about it.

I live in Clay County, and I certainly love my house here. But so many of my favorite birding spots are over in St. Johns County. I love to head over towards the ocean and the salt marshes when I have enough time to devote to birding other than at my house or the mall.

And one of my early discoveries was the Vilano Boat Ramp along A1A. It's a perfect stationary and car birding site. You have the water in front of you, salt marshes to the right and left, some trees and shrubbery. It's just a wonderful place to pull up in your car, or to sit at the picnic bench.

Being on the water you naturally have lots of water and shore birds, although the place is a haven indeed for the standard rock pigeon, or "city" pigeon.

royal tern, Vilano boat ramp

But after the pigeons, gulls and terns are the most common birds there, particularly the ring-billed and laughing gulls. Terns can be seen there too but not as common.

leucistic ring-billed gull, Vilano boat ramp

And sometimes amid the often dozens and hundreds of gulls you'll spot one that is just a little different, like the leucistic ring-billed gull who hung around Vilano for a few weeks. I love his blue eyes.

black skimmers, Vilano boat ramp

Sometimes you can come here and find hundreds and hundreds of black skimmers. Black skimmers are such odd looking birds. It does make them rather endearing. :-) 

osprey, Vilano boat ramp

You can almost always plan to see ospreys when you go to Vilano, perched on the poles, soaring overhead, perched on trees in the hammock across the marsh. They are such haughty-looking birds, proud and free. I love to see them swoop down into the water and come up with a fresh catch of fish! It's always an amazing performance.

roseate spoonbill, Vilano boat ramp

Roseate spoonbills have been seen nesting in the hammock also. They are another endearing bird - with a rather ugly head, truth be told. But their glorious pink color makes up for their other shortcomings, LOL.

cedar waxwings, Vilano boat ramp

But you never can be quite sure what you will see at Vilano. Sometimes you go there and there are hardly any birds at all, or just a few of the "usual suspects". But then you will see something amazing, like a flight of 100+ cedar waxings flying overhead.

lark sparrow, Vilano boat ramp

This bird, however, was my most amazing sighting, a lark sparrow, a very rare bird indeed for this area! Everyday birder that I am I hadn't the least clue what the bird was, though I was at least skilled enough to realize I was seeing something unusual. Fortunately I managed to get a fair number of photos, and got help from people more knowledgeable than I am in IDing the bird. Rarities do not come my way every day, that's for sure. I'm much more a pigeon and starling and house sparrow kind of gal.

black-crowned night heron, Camachee Cove, FL

After I had been going to Vilano for a while I learned from Audubon Society contacts that across the road from Vilano, by the marina at Camachee Cove, there is a colony of black-crowned night herons. Now whenever I make a trip to Vilano I also drive up the road at Camachee to check out the night herons. They are not always there, but I love seeing them when I can.

So far my Vilano boat ramp "patch" contains 67 species of birds seen. I'm sure it would be higher if Vilano was at close as the local mall. But since it's almost 40 miles from home I don't get there nearly as often as I would like!