Day 106: April 15th – The Beginning of “Warbler Week”

Warm 76 degrees, sunny, and light winds

       Well, it you were expecting to see warblers on today’s blog, you’re gonna be disappointed.  I know I was.  It’s the middle of April, and normally I am finding plenty of the colorful little gems throughout Volusia County here in Florida.  But this has been a strange year.  It has been the warmest and one of the driest winters since Sharon and I started coming down for these three months some ten years ago.  The Yellowrumps and Palm warblers which were so prevalent all winter are now all but gone.  The Northern parulas which we saw and heard last month have also all but disappeared.  We’ve had a few Prairie warblers……precious few.  Throw in one Prothonotory, one or two Black-throated blues and you pretty much have our warbler count for the year.  Today, I birded our Tuesday morning tract, Indian River Lagoon Preserve, where in previous Aprils we’ve had 7 or 8 species of warblers all in the same Live Oak tree at the same time.  This morning was dismally dead, not a warbler and hardly any bird other than the omnipresent Carolina wrens and Northern cardinals.

       Butterflies were abundant.  There were Great Southern Whites and Cabbage whites with a few Buckeyes thrown into the mix as well as one gorgeous Zebra swallowtail. Buttterflies were everywhere you looked. 

       When I went down to the lagoon to see if the waders were around, the tide was almost all the way out, perfect for seeing sandpipers, egrets, and herons of all kinds.  Today, nothing.  The one bright spot was a handsome American bald eagle emerging from behind a point of mangroves.  

     He flew low, close to the water, and then slowly climbed until almost out of sight.  At last!  Something to write about!

       Well, I’m not giving up on my Florida Warbler Week, not just yet.  We are heading across the state to Fort DeSoto Park, one of the most famous Florida migrant traps.  Birds flying north from their wintering grounds in Central and South America often find this point of land sticking out into the Gulf of Mexico as the first land-fall following their arduous trans-Gulf flight.  The bird list for Fort DeSoto numbers over 300, and we are anticipating some good warbler counts when we visit beginning Tuesday.  Three full days on Fort DeSoto just has to bolster the Year-list, but this not a typical year weatherwise and we can only hope for the best.  When we find anything, you’ll be the first to know!