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Posted by Carlos Sanchez on 09:18:44 02/20/15
Due to the mild winter climate, a wide variety of passerines, raptors, and shorebirds spend the winter in southeast Florida, inflating the species diversity to the extent that Miami-Dade can go toe-to-toe with counties in Texas and Arizona during this season.
The Great Miami Winter Bird Count, an event that transpired over the course of four days from February 13-16, set out to record this diversity for the first time in an organized manner as part of the overall Miami Birding Wave project. With the easy-to-use platform offered by the Great Backyard Bird Count, thirty-four birders in Miami-Dade county tallied an impressive 186 ABA-countable species over the course of four days in an overwhelming show of community enthusiasm and support.
The birds peformed well, too! Many sporadic and irruptive winter visitors from further north made an appearance this past weekend despite forecasts to the contrary, including flocks of American Robin, American Goldfinch, American Pipit, and Cedar Waxwing. On the other hand, numbers and diversity of waterfowl were way down from earlier, signaling that many have already begun pushing their way back north.
Shorebirds put on a good showing with a total of 18 species, despite the shrinking number and quality of sites offering adequate habitat. A Snowy Plover, a regional rarity, continued at Crandon Beach, while a Solitary Sandpiper in a lonely puddle at Lucky Hammock was a nice surprise.
It was a banner winter season for warblers in Miami-Dade, with a total of 22 species seen during the course of the event (and we missed a few!). Highlights included singles of Blue-winged, Swainson s, and Wilson s, although the sheer number of Northern Parula (194) was also pretty impressive in of itself.
With the amount of enthusiasm and support for this year s inaugural count, Miami Birding Wave is already considering how to make next year s event even better with more strategy, more involvement, and more fun. Can we hit 200 ABA-countable species in four days next year?
I would like to acknowledge the following people for their effort in this count:
Alvear, Elsa
Avello, Miriam
Barros, Jose Francisco
Batchelor, Dolora
Berney, Mark
Bithorn, Paul
Blithe, Jonathan
Boeringer, Bill
Bugallo, Ezequiel
Diaz, Rangel
Diaz, Robin
Doyle, Diana
Featherly, Roxanne
Feinstein, Daria
Golenja, Kreshimir
Harper, Alex
Juan, Smith
Kayser, Hans Gonzembach
King, Jim
Klumb, Jessica
Mitchell, Trey
Patterson, Judd
Paez, Alex
Paez, Stephen
Porcelli, Mario
Rapoza, Brian
Salino, Nico
Sanchez, Carlos
Schaffter, David
Shafer, Julie
Showler, Robert
Trentler, Brandon
Urgelles, Raul
Wallenstein, Walter
For a full species list, please click on the link below!:
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