April 7th – 13th
Last week, I mentioned that it was a
pretty quiet time bird-wise and that we were looking forward to a major birding
trip this week down to the Miami area and the Everglades. It turned out to be more than we ever
expected. We missed only one major
target bird….the Mangrove cuckoo.
That truly would have been a major find, but it was not to be. Friends had located the bird just last
week and one of them, Joe from our New York birding club, was with us as our “guide” for the
three day tour. Nonetheless, we
had excellent weather (albeit pretty warm with highs in the 90s) right up until
our departure time on Saturday when we were hit with some powerful
thunderstorms.
We left New Smyrna, our winter
quarters, on Thursday bright and early.
Our first goal was to reach Wakodahatchee Wetlands in DelRay Beach by
around 8:30 in the morning.
Targets included Black-bellied whistling ducks, sora, Least terns, and
Purple gallinule. Although we scored
on the ducks and the gallinule, we missed the other two.
 |
| Black-bellied whistling duck |
 |
| Purple gallinule |
Not to worry as we did pick up the first-of-the-year terns
later in the trip. A bonus,
however, was the appearance of the Least bittern. I had heard this elusive bird several times during our
travels around the central part of Florida, but visual contact was never
made. Finally, as we walked the
boardwalk, Sharon almost jumped off the trail and into the impoundment as she
called out the bittern. We saw it
land in a mangrove close to the boardwalk (I mean REALLY close!). As we slowly approached, we could see
the bird peeking out to see who it was that made all that commotion as it flew
by. Joe and I quickly snapped off
a few shots before the bittern returned to its normal habits and disappeared
into the heavier cover. What
a great way to begin our three day trip!
After a couple of hours of
checking out the myriad of birds at Wakodahatchee, we headed south for Chapel
Hill Preserve just outside of Fort Lauderdale where our lone target bird was
the Purple swamphen. Without too
much exertion, we found the bird browsing among the grasses of the swamp. It preferred to keep its distance and
was nestled in the vegetation to such a degree that it was had to
photograph. I did get a couple of
“documentation” shots just to prove we saw it, but it was definitely not
“blog-worthy”, so you’ll just have to take my word for this one. From here, we traveled east to nearby
Cooper City and the Brian Piccolo County Park. Strange as it may sound, in among the ball fields, skate park, and velodrome are
found a good number of active Burrowing owl nests. Each nest is carefully marked off with “police tape” and the
local folks know enough to respect these nesting sites. We found a picnic table near one of the
burrows and proceeded to have lunch while keeping a vigil on the site. Sure enough, before long, we saw a
little brown tuft of brown sticking up above the ground. He watched us watch him for a while
before he ducked back underground.
We found quite a few of these including this one right next to yet
another ball field.
As we photographed this owl,
(actually one of a pair occupying this nest), we took notice of the sound of
monk parakeets flying overhead. We
followed a pair to a nearby tree and got some nice shots of these birds as
well. There may have been other
species of parrots present as they have been reported in the past, but we had a
schedule to keep and had to move on.
We continued south down Route 1 to Florida City, our headquarters for
the next two nights. We walked
across the street from our Ramada Inn in the hopes of finding White-winged
doves and Common mynas. The mynas
were present and added to the check-list, but all the doves were either
collared or mourning.
 |
| Monk parakeet |
The following day as we
returned from the glades, Sharon remembered getting the doves at another nearby
motel a couple of years ago.
What the heck. We figured
we give it a look. Bingo! There it was perched right out in the
open as we had hoped for.
 |
| Gray kingbird |
Another bonus! Joe spotted a kingbird in the trees
next to the inn. He was quick
enough to note that the tail was unmarked with the white banding of the Eastern
species and thought it might be a Gray kingbird. The bird eventually flew to a wire where I could get a
decent shot of the bird and sure enough it was the Gray…..another year bird!
But, I’ve jumped ahead of
myself. This day was spent
traveling through the Everglades National Park. As mentioned before, the Mangrove cuckoo was on our A-list
of birds to get. But you don’t
always get what you want, and the bird was not to be found. We did score some great birds here,
however, including my life Shiny cowbird and a quick look at the elusive
White-crowned pigeon.
Also of note were the good
numbers of birds in a mulberry tree near the marina. Cape May warblers, a Scarlet tanager, a dozen or so Cedar
waxwings, Orchard oriole, and a Black and white warbler.
As we scoped out the visitors
to the tree, several Swallow-tailed kites made an appearance at low altitude,
making for excellent subjects for my newest Nikon lens.
 |
| Swallow-tailed kite |
The final day was spent near
and in the city of Miami. We had
several targets, but the premier bird we wanted to find was the Thick-billed
vireo, a bird normally found in the Bahamas. There have been several occasions in the past when an
individual has strayed into southern Florida, and we were privileged to be able
to travel into Bill Baggs Park in Key Biscayne where such an loner has been
sighted for the past couple of weeks.
It took quite a while and quite a number of eyes as a dozen or so
birders from locations as far away as Texas, Washington DC and New York were on
hand to try and catch a glimpse of this life-bird. Not only did we finally get a look, but the bird strayed
into an opening in the vegetation where many of us got nice shots. It was definitely won the “Best Bird”
award for this trip.
 |
| Thick-billed vireo |
While we were waiting for the
vireo to appear, several Magnificent frigatebirds flew overhead. Yet another “year-bird”!
 |
| Spot-breasted oriole |
Our final stop before we had
to head back “north” to New Smyrna was the campus of the University of
Miami. The target here was the Spot-breasted
oriole, often seen on campus lately.
We no sooner got our of the car than we heard the distinctive oriole
whistles. Sure enough, high in a
tree-top, there was our quarry.
The bird eventually flew a bit lower to give us a better opportunity for
some good shooting.
The other species we had hoped
for (and got!) was the Yellow-chevroned parakeet. There are quite a few species of parrots and parakeets which
over the years have escaped from captivity and are now fairly well established
in south Florida. Sadly, this bird
remained distant enough that we could not get a decent shot. But , three days and 89 species later
(including three life-birds) we were ready for the long drive back home. It’s getting close to the time when we
will be heading to our “real” home in New York, and this trip was the perfect
way to start winding down this three month long birding adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment