DAY 1
Saturday, 4 April 2009
I left right after work on Friday afternoon with the idea of jetting out of Atlanta and being in South Florida at dawn the next day. Needless to say, the Friday before Spring Break for many metro school districts collided head on with regular afternoon rush hour to create the perfect traffic storm. I gassed up, got caffeinated, and hit the interstate at 5:30pm. I did not even make it to McDonough (about 45 miles) until nearly 7:30pm… my coffee buzz was all but gone at that point, replaced by a nervous head jerk and one eye blinking funny (just kidding, but kind of not kidding). It was epic, really – it became a battle just to make it out of Georgia as I would stop, rest, drive a little, repeat. This continued through Florida until I finally took a nice two hour nap in the Gainesville area. From there I finally made some good time, shifted southeast and crossed the peninsula on the turnpike, and arrived around 9:00am at Johnathan Dickinson State Park on Florida’s east coast. Finally!
The sandy, scrubby habitat was warm but welcome. The plant life was tough and desert-like: cactus, rosemary, thickets, scrubby pines – it was cool. The first bird I came upon was a beautiful MERLIN looking menacing in a dead snag. I walked the trails in the area, which were already really heating up, looking for Scrub-Jays. No luck with them here, but I got nice looks at PRAIRIE WARBLERS, PALM WARBLERS, WHITE-EYED VIREOS, and a drive through the pinewoods of the park yielded GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHERS and several woodpeckers. I did well with raptors, with a COOPER’S HAWK and a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK actually circling together and clashing talons briefly in mid-air! I also saw a single, elegant SWALLOW-TAILED KITE, both vultures, OSPREY, and AMERICAN KESTRELS. I headed across the street to the visitor center of the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and walked the trails there; a Gopher Tortoise munching on grass and another MERLIN were highlights.
Using some internet research a friend had sent me, I headed south on U.S. 1 to a small local property called Taquesta Park. I had just gotten out of the car and started down the trail when I saw a unquestionably Jay-like flight pattern coming across the scrub towards a little pishing I was doing at a hidden passerine. As the bird swooped up to a dead snag, I got binos on it and sure enough it was my first FLORIDA SCRUB-JAY! I got a few photos and, feeling very happy to have broken the ice on life birds, I headed to Publix to stock up the cooler with picnic supplies, made a sandwich, and started heading south towards Miami. I stopped in Ft. Lauderdale at a very urban canal area which had produced Smooth-billed Anis over the past couple months. No luck with that. It was now the middle of the day, sweltering hot, and there were people fishing on the canal, boaters going up and down, loud traffic, and I just wasn’t feeling it. I heard and briefly caught a glimpse of three greenish Psittacids with bluish-grey heads and bluish primaries but I am not sure what they were for certain. The habitat here was so scant that I am very impressed that the Anis are able to subsist – and I can understand how they are in such decline with hardly any scrubby, wet undeveloped areas for miles around. I did find a pair of GREEN HERONS building a nest along with a bunch of massive, feral iguanas which have this scary, creepy way of jerking their heads around when you spook them.
From there I made an afternoon stop at A.D. Barnes park in Miami, a known migrant trap. There were literally hundreds of people in this little park, winding down no fewer than five different massive group birthday parties, complete with those inflatable jumping thingies, people dressed up as cartoon characters, awesome Hispanic music blasting… it was a really unique spectacle to behold but not so good for the birding! I did manage to spot my first WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON perched on wires next to the park, which was cool. Life birds are always a good thing, no matter what the context! I did stumble onto one little migrant flock which contained several BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERS, PALM WARBLERS, and a stunning male NORTHERN PARULA. One of the Black-throated Greens was singing very quietly, in his throat… it was really weird, like he was working on a song that wasn’t quite ready yet but by the time he makes it up to the mountains maybe he’ll have the hormones and the final version of the song will be on full blast.
I was kind of ready to get away from the urban landscape, so I wound my way south on U.S. 1 all the way to Key Largo. Along the way I picked up COMMON MYNAS… and had to really convince myself of my own “life birds are always a good thing” policy in response to these urban nuisances. There was no room at the parks for camping, so I ended up coming back up to Florida City for a well-deserved hotel room for the night.
DAY 2
Sunday, April 5
Hot showers, hot breakfast, and hot coffee have such a rejuvenating effect! By 6:30am I was headed down Card Sound Rd towards Key Largo. I stopped just past the toll booth, and literally as soon as I opened my car door a “GOLDEN” YELLOW WARLBER belted out his sweet song right next to me in a mangrove! Also known as “CUBAN YELLOW WARBLER,” I found a total of three birds in the mangroves along the shoulder. The light was still too low for good photos, but I tried flash and it worked out OK. I pished once and immediately no fewer than three waterthrushes began smacking in response, two on my side of the road and another on the other side. Only one came into view, a pretty NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH.
I crossed the bridge onto the island and started birding along Route 905 through Key Largo Hammocks State Botanical Site. PRAIRIE WARBLERS and boisterous GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS were the birdsongs du jour, along with scores of NORTHERN CARDINALS and many feisty WHITE-EYED VIREOS. I slowly pulled up next to a group of six WHITE-CROWNED PIGEONS in the treetops along the road, very nice. The most productive spot was the old Port Bouganville trail area. I found AMERICAN REDSTARTS, BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, an OVENBIRD, and saw a BROAD-WINGED HAWK cruise by overhead. The best bird, however, remained unseen – I heard the unmistakable song of a Black-whiskered Vireo about 40 yards into the thick mangrove forest but it would not come into view! At John Pennekamp State Park I walked the Grove Trail and quickly found a nice, active flock with as many as six PALM WARBLERS, two PRAIRIE WARBLERS, NORTHERN PARULAS, a gorgeous male BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER who was singing just like the B-T Green yesterday, subdued and quiet, like he was still working out the kinks. And then amongst all the chatter and chip notes, there was another singing Black-whiskered Vireo which quickly fell silent. I camped out on the trail, waiting. It was about this time that a fellow with a backpack came along and asked if I was looking for a particular bird; I recognized his French accent right away. I explained myself a little, and found that he was a nature lover and photographer as well. When I asked where he was from just to confirm my suspicions, he was completely taken aback by the fact that a random American birdwatcher broke into semi-fluent French! He loved it, and he started chatting me up about his experiences in Everglades National Park, producing his camera from the backpack (all the memory cards were full) and showing me some nice images of Red-winged Blackbirds, Ospreys on the nest, and so on. But the whole time, he could tell I was a bit preoccupied and he would also glance up into the canopy as I was. I continued to do my best to remain polite and yet peg every single bird that moved with my binos – that vireo was up there somewhere, doggone it. Then it began to sing again from the opposite side of the trail, stronger this time, and closer! I strained for any sign of movement but saw nothing. I explained to him that this was it, this was the song. I asked him to watch for it, and I circled around until I outflanked the bird. Somehow, here was this bird singing between me and the Frenchman, and I couldn’t find it to save my life! Just as before, the bird fell utterly silent. No bail-out, no changing perches, nothing. It just vanished into thin air. “Eh bien, je suppose que ça fait partie du passe-temps,” I told him – guess that’s part of the hobby. We exchanged emails and wished each other “bonne continuation” and went our separate ways. About this time, the heat was again sweltering so I washed up in the clean park restroom and had a nice picnic lunch to the sounds of crazy GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS in the parking lot and the serenade of a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD who did a killer Greater Yellowlegs impression once and – just to get my goat no doubt – did two spot-on renditions of Black-whiskered Vireo…
The afternoon birding was slow and hot, as one would expect. No new exciting birds, just some low-key walks through the two vireo sighting areas before another night’s rest to prepare for the Everglades in the morning.
DAY 3
Monday, April 6
The sunrise over Everglades National Park was fantastic… a thin layer of mist over the expanses of marsh, pines, dwarf cypress, and palms made it even more dramatic. I parked at Snake Bight trail, coated myself with sunblock and twice the normal dose of bug repellant and started hiking down this famous birding trail; just two days earlier a La Sagra’s Flycatcher had been reported, but no one seemed concerned enough to follow up on it so I was quite skeptical but poised nonetheless.
For whatever reason, the birding was just dead at first. I walked for a good 20 minutes before the first GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHERS sounded off, followed over the next 20 minutes by a few SNOWY EGRETS, a WHITE-EYED VIREO, and calling Waterthrushes and COMMON YELLOWTHROATS. I heard a PAINTED BUNTING singing in an open, scrubby area but could not find its rainbow colors amid the brush. I finally happened upon a happy little group of birds with a gorgeous male AMERICAN REDSTART, a couple PALM WARBLERS, a BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, and a female BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. A pair of Florida RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS “keered” above while a few GRAY CATBIRDS feasted on some little black fruits. But it was just… slow. No mega-flocks. No really cool birds. But hey, a Monday morning wandering around Everglades National Park instead of working, well… enough said!
I was about to reach the boardwalk into Florida Bay at the very end of the trail when thin and faint, but unmistakable, was the song of a Black-whiskered Vireo. Again! But this time I didn’t want to go away empty-handed. I gingerly picked my way through the mangroves near the boardwalk towards the sound, a spider web splatting me square in the face and the water creeping up the side of my boots, threatening to spill over the top and negate the advantages of Gortex lining. Just like yesterday, I got to where I knew the bird was directly in front of me, singing right at me! But I just couldn’t see it. Out loud I asked, “Where are you? I know you’re right here.” “Chip phillip-phillip!” the vireo loudly replied, seeming to mock me by being even closer. Finally, I detected some movement a little lower than I had been scanning and low and behold I raised my specs to 20-foot away views of a pretty BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO! Photos were tricky, and I didn’t want to bother him anymore on his turf so I retreated from the edge of the woods to the boardwalk where I scanned for shorebirds with the vireo’s cheery song and the ascending trills of PRAIRIE WARBLERS keeping me company. Here were WESTERN SANDPIPERS, DUNLIN, BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS. At one point the birds exploded en masse off the mud flats all at once, and I instinctively swung my gaze to the sky to look for a hawk… instead, it was a powerful PEREGRINE FALCON, which broke over the edge of the mangroves, made a half-hearted pass at the shorebirds darting this way and that, and casually returned the way he came. Awesome. Out on the water, scores of GREAT WHITE and GREAT BLUE HERONS were lounging and foraging. What a neat spot! The 1.8 mile walk back was much hotter and now the mosquitoes were in greater numbers and ecstatic that my bug juice was wearing off. But who cares. An awesome experience with a life bird can work magic: the Black-legged Kittiwake that made my worst-ever case of seasickness go away for just a little while on a frigid pelagic trip, and the Black-whiskered Vireo that now gave me the strength to carry on despite donating a gallon of blood to insects against my will.
I drove down to the Flamingo visitor’s center and had an early picnic lunch. Small waves of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS cruised over, and I got some close-up views of the smaller, light-colored Florida RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. There were OSPREYS everywhere, including nests and young! Mrazek Pond held a GREATER YELLOWLEGS, six LESSER YELLOWLEGS, a busily foraging AMERICAN AVOCET, one female NORTHERN SHOVELER, and six BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Paurotis Pond quickly took its place right alongside Harris Neck N.W.R. back in Georgia for the impressive sights and sounds of its rookery teeming with WOOD STORKS and other waders. Along with these huge, prehistoric-looking birds I found GREAT EGRET, WHITE IBIS, TRICOLORED HERON, ANHINGA, and a pair of ROSEATE SPOONBILLS flew in and disappeared into the rookery as well. A happy, jittering pair of EASTERN KINGBIRDS was holding court over the parking lot, where a massive soft-shelled tortoise of some kind was digging a hole in which to lay its eggs near the mangrove edges! What a neat bonus. I missed the owls at Mahogany Hammock but the trees, air plants, and strangler figs were incredible.
I stopped by the main visitor’s center to check out the exhibits, and by now a slight breeze had transformed into a howling wind. At least it started cooling things off a bit. I rolled down all the windows of the car, propped my legs up and took a nice long nap. Birding in the afternoon was once again pretty slow and didn’t add anything new. Instead, I called it quits early and got a hotel room back in Florida City to update my plans and record some memories.
Tropical Audubon Society Post for 4/6/09:
I had a great time birding around the Everglades yesterday. I took a nap mid-day and kind of took it easy from that point on, as it was hot and the winds were really kicking which always makes birding difficult. I did finally get some nice looks (and mediocre photos) of a BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO in the mangroves at the end of Snake Bight trail. Here are the birds I encountered today:
Blue-winged Teal 6 (Mrazek pond)
Northern Shoveler 1f (same location)
American White Pelican 17 (waves passing overhead)
Anhinga, lots (including downy young, which I had never seen - cool!)
Great Blue Heron
Great White Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron 1
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill 2
Wood Stork, many, including amazing rookery (Paurotis pond)
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey, many, including active nests
Swallow-tailed Kite 2
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 1 (female/imm.)
Red-shouldered Hawk, Florida form, many
Peregrine Falcon 1
Clapper Rail 1
Black-bellied Plover 4
American Avocet 1 (Mrazek pond)
Greater Yellowlegs 1 (same location)
Lesser Yellowlegs 6 (same location)
Western Sandpiper 8
Dunlin 20
Short-billed Dowitcher 4
Laughing Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird 3
White-eyed Vireo, many
Black-whiskered Vireo 2 (another heard singing later but not seen)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling
Northern Parula 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1f
Prairie Warbler, many
Palm Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 1m, 1f
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 2
Waterthrush sp. 4
Common Yellowthroat 8
Northern Cardinal
Painted Bunting 1m
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark 2
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Ken Blankenship
Marietta, GA (Cobb County)
currently in Florida City, FL (Miami-Dade County)
DAY 4
Tuesday, April 7
The winds continued through the night, and I thought of possible fall-outs along the coast… that is, if the birds even left Cuba last night in the face of stiff NNW winds… I doubted it. Still, I planned on another morning on Key Largo to see if I could locate a Mangrove Cuckoo and some migrant flocks. I again stopped just before Card Sound Bridge and found a bobbing SPOTTED SANDPIPER, what was probably the same YELLOW WARBLER from Sunday chipping in the crepuscular light, and a little pishing brought what may have been the same NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH smacking his way down the canal. With two warbler species before the sun broke the horizon, I headed onto the island.
My strategy today was to find a cuckoo by stopping every quarter mile, getting out, listening for a few minutes, pishing, and moving on. This produced many agitated WHITE-EYED VIREOS and a few curious PRAIRIE WARBLERS but not much else. WHITE-CROWNED PIGEONS cruised over here and there. At one stop I happened upon a small flock which produced a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, a PRAIRIE WARBLER… and then I spotted four birds in a small spindly tree. Here were four warbler species in one tree! A handsome male BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER was joined by a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, a dingy PALM WARBLER, and a stunning male CAPE MAY WARBLER! You just gotta love eastern wood warbler migration. I also started to take note of the cool tree snails on various species of trees – most of which occur nowhere else in the United States!
After covering the road quite thoroughly, I took a quiet walk on the one access trail in the botanical preserve where I had heard my first Black-whiskered Vireo a couple days ago. It was quiet, indeed, but I met a couple birders from Arizona and during our conversation a pretty YELLOW-THROATED VIREO lit in the trees overhead. Very nice. Another walk on the Grove Trail at Pennekamp Park produced one very nice flock, with at least eight PALM WARBLERS, a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD drinking from a flowering tree and chasing everyone around, two GRAY CATBIRDS, two HOODED WARBLERS down low, and a Myarchus flycatcher that turned out to be a GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER though I took a ton of photos due to some factors pointing at Brown-crested. From there I headed back to the road through the preserve with plans to get a backcountry permit to do some more birding farther from the road, which is a real noise pollution nuisance once traffic picks up and you’re trying to hear birds singing or calling. But something told me to turn around and briefly park on a private drive I had just passed to listen… and low and behold, my heart leapt out of my chest when a MANGROVE CUCKOO let out its odd, froggy-sounding trill from the woods after a couple minutes of wandering the short drive. The bird came right to the edge of the woods after a couple pishes, and just hung out with me for a while, watching me, fluffing up, scratching its chin… it even hop-flopped from one tree to another as only a cuckoo can, in order to snag a huge green caterpillar, smack it around a little, and eat it! I watched it until he began to retreat into the woods, and said “Thanks, buddy” as I walked back to the car grinning ear to ear.
No sooner had I turned towards U.S. 1 than I heard the now-familiar “Chip phillip-phillip” of a BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO from the woods almost across the street from the cuckoo! I swung onto the shoulder carefully, hopped out, and found not one but two singing on the edge of the woods. A small battle ensued between these feisty birds, and I was lucky to catch one on film all fluffed up after a hot pursuit. Having had such a nice start to the day, I decided – why not get a little more enjoyment out of the $10 fee at Everglades and do some more birding? In fact, why not just go camp over there and have more fun in the morning?! I gassed up (you gotta be careful as the main road is 38 miles one-way!), got a large coffee at the McDonald’s as I am wont to do, and headed out to the campground at Flamingo.
It was actually surprising to me that they had any spots, let alone almost the whole campground to choose from! I guess winter is the high time for this area. I set up my tent in a nice open area, walked around Eco Pond where I found some pretty BLACK-NECKED STILTS, and then went to the Flamingo visitor’s center. A Shiny Cowbird and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had been reported two days earlier but I missed them yesterday. But upon entering the parking lot I immediately spotted a flock of cowbirds on the ground foraging! I got out, and had just enough time to scan them once before they flushed and flew far away, all BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS that I could see anyway. Doh! No flycatcher, either, but a nice consolation was a GRAY KINGBIRD and literally a dozen or more OSPREY including cute young ones testing out their powerful wings around the parking lot which had no fewer than three nests around it! The wind had been blowing all day, but was really getting wild in the afternoon hours so I took another quick nap in my tent and decided to check out Bear Lake Trail. The birding was quiet, but the wind was loud. I pished at another singing PAINTED BUNTING and two of them came out as well as a cute black-spattered immature male AMERICAN REDSTART and a PRAIRIE WARBLER.
On the way out, I ran into a group of folks with binoculars and the first thing they asked me upon seeing my own bins was “Are you a birder?” I love it when someone asks me that! “Yes indeed, sir, I am” I replied, quite happy to find some of my “own kind” in the field. But these weren’t just any birders – they were from Durham, North Carolina! Being the new North American Birds editor for the Carolinas and Georgia, I introduced myself and we had a laugh at the coincidence of running into each other at the end of the earth in beautiful South Florida. They were looking for the vireo, and the cuckoo as well, so I shared some intel with them. They traded me some good details about Miami’s urban specialties which I planned to hunt down the next day. As we were talking about what other stuff might be around and what I may have seen on the internet, I remembered the cowbirds! We made a b-line for the Flamingo visitor’s center parking lot. As expected, just EUROPEAN STARLINGS on the grounds, but they got to add GRAY KINGBIRD to their trip list as the same one was still hanging around. As we were watching it, I heard the signature popping sound of cowbirds passing by behind us! I wheeled around, yelled “Cowbirds!” and pished at the passing flock with all my might. They banked, and then lit in a tree completely backlit by the quickly setting sun… Doh! As I ran around to the other side of the light, they returned to the exact spot on the grass where I had seen them earlier in the day – must be some good eats over there. We all grabbed our scopes and started checking them out. Almost immediately I found an all-black, glossy bird! But twice I was certain I saw a yellowish eye… not a Shiny Cowbird. I found it again, and again I swore I saw a light eye. The group from North Carolina said there was an old entry in the log book at the visitor’s center of Brewer’s Blackbird. This had me wondering if this was the same, possibly wintering bird, and that the Shiny was not with the group today. We stared for a long time at tails. No, really, these birds were hunkered down hard foraging in the grass and it was hard to find the “mystery bird” at all. I snuck over to the median of the road to try for a photo and I got what may have been the bird in the frame but then they all flew to another spot to forage. As a couple of the other birders also felt they had seen a yellow eye on the bird (Brewer’s? Rusty?), we knew it was a very rare bird worth reporting, even if not a lifer. We said our goodbyes and good lucks, and I went over to the flock, still determined to get a photo of the mystery blackbird. The other folks continued to bird from their car and I lost sight of them.
As I snuck up on the group of cowbirds one more time, a very black individual became obvious even to the naked eye. I raised my binos, and I was looking right at a male SHINY COWBIRD. I couldn’t believe it. I fired off a bunch of photos, zoomed in on the camera’s LCD, and sure enough, it was for real. Noting one photo in particular, I now feel that we must have caught a glare in the bird’s eye and, though I am still not 100% certain, I think this led to my error of thinking it a Rusty/Brewer’s. I retreated and jumped in my car to go find the other birders as it was a lifer for all of them as well and the sun was getting low on the horizon. I passed them just moments later, and flailed my arm wildly at them. They pulled over, rolled down their window and looked at me funny and I sputtered out something like, “Shiny… not Brewer’s… there really is one… Shiny Cowbird!” We both parked by the flock, produced our scopes, and within minutes all of us were exchanging smiles and giddy life bird chatter over this very attractive and glossy, albeit parasitic nuisance, in the median of the main park road hanging out with his Brown-headed buddies.
As we were talking about other, less successful chases of this species they had participated in, I turned around and saw a huge AMERICAN CROW perched on the open lid of my trunk. I joked, “Man, they’re smart. They have learned… these big metal things have tasty stuff in them sometimes, if you can get into them!” No sooner had I made this cheesy attempt at a joke than the bird promptly hopped directly into the trunk, rummaged around, and reappeared seconds later with an entire pack of peanut butter crackers in his bill! I was a little embarrassed for having inadvertently fed the wildlife, but we all had a great laugh as his two buddies lined up in the trees over the car to be next at the easy pickings. Of course, I ended this impromptu buffet right away, putting away my scope and slamming the lid of the trunk – to the disappointment of the squawking would-be patrons in the trees over our heads. Just then, one of the birders spotted the original culprit, still flying around with the unopened pack in his mouth! Wanting not only to reclaim my snack, but more importantly to keep a plastic wrapper from finding its way into the environment via a crow’s messy dinner, I made a dash after the Cracker Bandit as soon as he landed. Of course, he waited until I was at a full sprint before he casually lifted up, booty in tow, and simply flew over me and then a hundred yards away. As I continued at a jog, I reached my hands up over my head towards the flying bird in mock desperation, yelling “My crackers! Nooooooo!” This produced laughter from all who bore witness to this ridiculous spectacle, including me and especially the crow – as soon as he landed he began pounding the package apart, cackling with delight, and was quickly joined by his hooligan buddies to share in the spoils of victory. With the joy of a new bird still glowing in our souls, and the orange Florida sunset glowing on the surrounding marsh, we all said goodbye once again and went our separate ways.
Birding rocks.
DAY 5
Wednesday, April 8
The camping experience last night was just… amazing. A nearly full moon cast bright, blue light nearly as luminous as daylight. The cool breeze, the fast-moving clouds passing overhead casting eerie shadows across the landscape, was surreal and beautiful. I kept the rain fly off the tent so I could lie down, tuck into my sleeping bag and absorb it all through the huge mesh windows as I drifted off to sleep. I awoke pre-dawn to a BARRED OWL inquiring about the campground’s chef, along with gentle barks from a group of BLACK-NECKED STILTS over at Eco Pond. I got up, made some campground coffee (Mmm, steep-in-the-bag goodness) and headed over to the Flamingo visitor’s center to watch the sunrise; I actually had to put on my fleece to stave off the morning chill, which justified for just a couple hours that I actually brought it to land’s end in South Florida in April.
To my surprise, directly in front of the concrete seawall of the visitor’s center (but really far out), a nice tidal mud bar had formed and it was covered with birds! As the tide continued to recede, the sand bar got larger and more and more birds kept coming in from all directions. There were easily several thousand shorebirds, terns, skimmers, and pelicans out there. Next, I made a few stops along the main road including another visit to Snake Bight trail. The whole morning at Everglades was just… different than the previous two. It seemed like more diversity of birds, greater numbers, new species, lots of action everywhere. Migration and the impending nesting season were both palpable. It was awesome. As I watched a few BARN SWALLOWS cruising around the visitor’s center, first a NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW and then the trip’s only BANK SWALLOW appeared as well. Oddly, a single cowbird arrived over the water of Florida Bay, perched, and let out a piercing call note – the same male SHINY COWBIRD from the day before. A walk around Eco Pond produced a “binking” BLUE GROSBEAK and several INDIGO BUNTINGS, two COMMON GROUND-DOVES, and a few LINCOLN’S SPARROWS. Mrazek Pond held similar birds as the other visit but with the addition of a pretty female BALTIMORE ORIOLE. Everglades produced more interesting migrants like a stunning male MAGNOLIA WARBLER, BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, AMERICAN REDSTART, BLACK-WHISKERED VIREOS, and even a PINE WARBLER near the check-in station which range maps seemed to suggest was rare. I also stopped by the Anhinga Trail for great looks at its namesake bird as well as a cool sign that had me hoping I’d catch a glimpse of a panther but I doubted it. I reluctantly left mid-day to pick up some coffee and head over to Miami for some urban life birds.
I parked at the Kendall / Baptist Hospital area which has become famous for its local breeding populations of introduced exotic birds. Almost immediately I heard the raucous calls of parakeets, and sure enough two WHITE-WINGED PARAKEETS turned up in the huge trees right on the hospital grounds. They hung around the entire time I was there, flying from tree to tree on a couple occasions offering excellent diagnostic views of all field marks – which was important to me, anyway, because they sure looked similar to other species in the field guides when perched. The always stayed hidden in dense foliage, though, and did not pose for photos.
As I walked through the neighborhoods near the hospital, I was surprised to find LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES just hanging out in this urban environment. Back home we almost exclusively associate them with open agricultural habitat. The heat was brutal now that it was midday, but an improved look at a close-range WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON offered some relief. Having only found one of three target introduced birds, I was headed back to the car for a cold drink from the cooler when I heard the scold of a Blue-headed/Yellow-throated Vireo coming from a towering dense tree in a yard. I pished briefly, producing a flash of 3-4 birds making an odd metallic “tink, tink, tink” sound and darting out of the tree and across the road. For just a moment, two of them perched in an adjacent yard and revealed themselves as RED-WHISKERED BULBULS! Two down, one to go. Now… though it may sound like too much to be true, the next sound I heard was the telltale chatter of an oriole above my head. I lifted my bins to some movement at the apex of the same original “vireo tree,” and landed squarely on an incredible adult SPOT-BREASTED ORIOLE. I didn’t get any photos of the parakeets, and both the oriole and bulbul shots were laughable… but I didn’t care. I was simply amazed, after seeing posts of so many birders seeing one or two or NONE of the infamous “ABA countable” Miami exotic birds, that within an hour and a half I had stumbled onto three. Again, birding can be so rewarding when it all comes together!
With plenty of daylight left, I decided to venture over to the Micosukee Native American reservation to wrap up the day looking for Snail Kites. Though I did not find any, I really enjoyed just hanging out on the wetlands watching waders and raptors cruising around. A quick trip to the nature trail at Shark Valley produced the trip’s only PURPLE GALLINULES, LIMPKIN (surprisingly), and a nice look at a skulking KING RAIL. I ended the day very tired and found a hotel outside Ft. Lauderdale for the next day’s adventures. I had encountered 105 species of birds today, which may be the most I have ever had the luck to come across in a single day without “officially trying” such as on a survey or big day, etc.
Tropical Audubon Post 4/8/09
Here’s the list of birds I encountered today, some with notes/numbers:
Mallard, a few on pond at Kendall/Baptist Hospital area (K/BH)
Blue-winged Teal 7, Mrazek Pond, Everglades
Northern Shoveler 3f, same location
Brown Pelican, several at Everglades National Park (ENP)
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron 8, Micosukee area (MA)
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill 7, Paurotis Pond, Everglades
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey – how cool is it to have 4 families going at once around Flamingo?
Swallow-tailed Kite 2, ENP; 1, MA
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1, MA
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk, just one, along Turnpike
American Kestrel 1, wires outside ENP
King Rail 1, Shark Valley (actually got to SEE it – cool!)
Purple Gallinule 2, Shark Valley
Common Moorhen 1, Mrazek Pond, ENP
American Coot, several, pond at K/BH
Limpkin 1, Shark Valley
Black-bellied Plover many, ENP
Semipalmated Plover, only able to pick out one, ENP
Killdeer 2, MA
Black-necked Stilt 17, Eco Pond, ENP
Greater Yellowlegs 2, Eco Pond; 1, Mrazek Pond, ENP
Willet, scads, ENP
Lesser Yellowlegs 3, Eco Pond; 5, Mrazek Pond, ENP
Marbled Godwit 13, ENP
Dunlin, scads, ENP
Short-billed Dowitcher 20+, ENP
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern, at least 3, ENP
Royal Tern, several, ENP
Black Skimmer, 100’s, ENP
Rock Pigeon
White-crowned Pigeon 3, ENP; 2, K/BH
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove 3, ENP
White-winged Parakeet 2, K/BH
Barred Owl 1, ENP
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1, K/BH
Northern Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird 2, Anhinga Trail, ENP
Loggerhead Shrike, 5, all in urban areas!
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo 1, ENP; 1, K/BH
Red-eyed Vireo 1, ENP
Black-whiskered Vireo 1, near Mrazek Pond, ENP
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow, several, K/BH
Purple Martin
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1, ENP; 2, MA
Bank Swallow 1, ENP
Barn Swallow
Carolina Wren 2, ENP
House Wren 1, ENP
Red-whiskered Bulbul 3, K/BH
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2, Shark Valley
Eastern Bluebird 2, ENP
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher 1, ENP
European Starling
Common Myna
Cedar Waxwing 16, ENP
Northern Parula 2m, 1f, ENP
Magnolia Warbler 1m, ENP
Pine Warbler 1 imm. female, ENP, pines near check station. Range maps indicate rare?
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler 2, ENP
American Redstart 1m, 1f, ENP
Northern Waterthrush 1, ENP
Waterthrush sp. 3, ENP
Common Yellowthroat
Savannah Sparrow 1, ENP
Lincoln’s Sparrow 2, ENP
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak 1m, Eco Pond
Indigo Bunting, several heard zreeting, and seen at ENP
Painted Bunting 1m, 2f, ENP
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Shiny Cowbird 1m, again at Flamingo visitor’s center
Spot-breasted Oriole 1, K/BH
Baltimore Oriole 1f, Mrazek Pond, ENP
House Sparrow
Ken Blankenship
Marietta, GA (Cobb County)
currently on I-595
DAY 5
Thursday, April 9
Tropical Audubon Post about 4/9/09
Yesterday I made a second attempt at the Ft. Lauderdale Anis. After a thorough walk up and down the canal, I drove over the bridge and across the street to the entrance to a large botanical farm. I called 411 and got their number and called to try to get permission to bird over there. The gentleman was very nice, but said it's an insurance risk so no way. But he also told me that a day use area on US 27 was great for Snail Kite, so I was glad I called! Something made me want to make another try for the Anis. I parked again, got out, and started scanning the scrubby lot across the canal to see if I could find them sunning. I could not. Just then, the signature raspy sound of Ani came from behind me! I wheeled around just in time to see a train of one, two, three, then four SMOOTH-BILLED ANIS come flop-flying across the road and perched literally next to my car in some exposed bare branches!!! They fluffed up, looking around and blinking like good little Anis should - I love Anis! One hopped over to get a little grooming from his/her buddy... and all the while my shutter release was snapping as fast as it could. In less than three minutes, one by one, they moved 30 yards down through the scrubby edge and disappeared. If I had not been standing right there, right then, I would have missed them. Incredible experience.
I headed over to U.S. 27 and found at least four SNAIL KITES cruising around over the marsh! Also seen here were many COMMON GROUND-DOVES, a NORTHERN HARRIER, a juvenile BALD EAGLE, GLOSSY IBIS, and other more common marsh birds.
From there, I headed north in search of my last major quarry - Short-tailed Hawk, I drove US 27, always keeping my eyes on the skys, hoping to get lucky. I did spot tons of vultures (whoo-hoo!), a few RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS, a RED-TAILED HAWK, many OSPREY, and even a soaring CRESTED CARACARA north of Clewiston. Ended up searching in the state forest where they are known to nest east of Avon Park, but I never found one. Hey - you gotta have a few misses on birding trips so you'll come back :) Lounging SANDHILL CRANES in various pastures and a cute group of NORTHERN BOBWHITES crossing the road on my way to visit family in Seminole were a nice way to end the day.
Ken Blankenship
Marietta, GA (Cobb County)
currently in Seminole, FL (Pinellas County)
p.s. - If anyone knows of a reliable Short-tailed Hawk between St. Pete and Ocala, or anywhere within 45 minutes of there, please give me a call, thanks!
