Day 60: February 29 – Buschman Park, Port Orange

Sunny, 80’s, winds out of the south

       We continued to check out new territory for the year today with a trip north to Port Orange and Buschman Park.  It is a small but beautiful park consisting of 30 acres surrounding a small lake.  The three quarters of a mile walk and trails around the lake are heavily used by the canine crowd, and the number of shorebirds present seems to have declined.  Still, we did manage to find a Great blue heron, a Little blue, and Tri-color, and a Great egret.   The Little blue was most anxious to be a subject for us and actually walked along the rail of the boardwalk towards us as we aimed out cameras at the bird.  When ready to shoot, the heron held a very nice pose in quite good lighting.

       The reason we came here today, however, was in search of the leading front of the migrating warblers.  In late February and early March, the Northern parulas begin to make an appearance.  The first wave is probably that of those birds which will remain here in the south and they may well be on the nest by the time their more northerly cousins come migrating through.  We were not disappointed this morning as we heard quite a number of the upward buzzy songs being sung throughout the park.  We finally managed to get one brave individual down from the canopy to see what we were up to.  The first good shot at a parula has to be in the running for the “shot-of-the-day”.

Northern parula

       We did have a little flurry of activity as we eventually left the park as well.  Near the parking lot, we had Yellow-rumps, a few Mourning doves, a Tri-colored heron, and a nice (albeit distant) Pileated woodpecker.  One last shot before we bid Buschman adieu, and then it was off to visit several more Daytona “hot-spots”.  We will revisit those areas later and relate our findings to you then.

       An update regarding our Urban eagles.  One adult bird was on the nest today while the two juvenile birds were perched nearby.  There is still no evidence we can see that they have fledged, but they seem to be moving further and further away from the nest.  First flight can’t be too far off!

Our New Smyrna Beach "Urban eagles"