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Posted by Rick Schofield on 17:18:50 03/02/15
Eighteen people, divided pretty much equally between Audubon Society of the Everglades (ASE) and South Florida Audubon Society (SFAS), joined the February 28th trip to STA-5 hosted by Hendry Glades Audubon with coordination by Margaret England. In all, there were 102 people in attendance!
The weather forecast was iffy but turned out to be pretty much fine (only a few brief passing light showers) until we finished up. Our group was composed of those coming from Alligator Alley to the south and those coming from US-80/US-27 from the north. The people coming from Alligator Alley had a short-lived downpour on the way home while the people coming from the north had to deal with blinding downpours all the way from South Bay to West Palm Beach and beyond. However, we had already compiled our day lists and were happy campers despite the rain.
We were the last group to leave the parking area and quickly bumped into the large group in front of us. While stuck behind them we had great views of a spectacular adult male Snail Kite (who flew while I was getting my digiscoping camera from the car) and the nearby resident Tropical Kingbird.
We departed from our anticipated route to avoid the throngs ahead of us and turned west to search for the Kingbirds that we have seen in years past. Along the east-west levee, we flushed at least a half dozen American Bitterns along with some Black-crowned Night-Herons. And, after turning north on the western-most levee of STA-5, we stopped to check for the Gray Kingbird. After a very short time, there he was perched -- not in the trees across the canal from us but -- on the wires right above our heads. He flew back-and-forth across the canal before deciding to stay on the far side. By then, though, we had a Red-shouldered Hawk munching on a very large snake in a snag on the other side of the canal. We may or may not have had a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher here as well -- one of the two we saw morphed into a Northern Mockingbird; the other flew.
I honestly did not know what to expect along our new route but, after turning back east, we came upon a mother-load of shorebirds. There were hundreds. Based on the enclosed photo of over 250 Long-billed Dowitchers, I estimate that we had at least 500 here plus both Yellowlegs, Western Sandpipers, several species of Duck, plus a fly-in of a dozen (or so) Roseate Spoonbills. Going back through our photos, we also had -- but didn't realize at the time -- several Dunlin.
Continuing east as far you can go, then turning south, we had a variety of duck -- Ring-necked, American Wigeon, Blue-wing Teal, Northern Shoveler, Mottled, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, and Lesser Scaup. Did I mention American Coot? Thousands! Some in the other group had Fulvous Whistling-Duck but we didn't see any.
At one point, we added another 100 or so Long-billed Dowitchers for an approximate total of 600!
I only got the group lost twice. It was a good thing that Susan in my car noticed the itsy-bitsy brown sign that said, "not open to the public". (In my defense, we were in an area that has not been open to us in the past.) And thanks to the person behind me that noted that another, similar itsy-bitsy brown sign said only "no fishing".
Because of our unintended detour, we ended up taking a 5-hour tour -- rather than the scheduled 4-hour one -- covering a total of 17 miles.
In addition to the species seen on-site, both the northern and southern route groups saw other great birds. Those seen by my northern group car are listed in the eBird description (but not counted in the eBird list). Those seen by one of the southern groups included: Smooth-billed Ani, Crested Caracara, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.
Species list follows.
Thanks to all of the great birders that joined our group!
Rick
Stormwater Treatment Area 5, Hendry, US-FL
Feb 28, 2015 8:45 AM - 1:45 PM
Protocol: Traveling
17.0 mile(s)
Comments: Audubon Society of the Everglades (hosted by Hendry Glades Audubon) field trip. 18 birders; 5 cars; Rick Schofield, leader; Margaret England, Hendry Glades coordinator.
Includes birds seen on Deer Fence Canal Rd.
Birds seen by some people on Blumberg Rd before trip began: Crested Caracara (7), Bald Eagle (1 adult), Swainson's Hawk (1), Peregrine Falcon (1), Red-tailed Hawk (1), Red-shouldered Hawk (1), Northern Harrier (1), American Kestrel (X), Black Vulture (X), Turkey Vulture (X), both Grackles (X), Red-winged Blackbirds (X)
80 species
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Pied-billed Grebe
Wood Stork
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American White Pelican
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Snail Kite
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Sora (heard multiple times)
Purple Swamphen
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher 600 (conservative count -- 500+ along the north levee of cell 1A and another 100+ along the east levee of cell 3B)
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern (one or two mixed in with Caspians and Black Skimmers)
Black Skimmer
Common Ground-Dove
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Tropical Kingbird 1 (on a fence post and on the wires at the 1st pump structure north of G343G -- don't remember the assigned label)
Gray Kingbird 1 (along the west levee of cell 1A crossing back and forth from the wires on our side to the trees on the other side of the canal)
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow (unmistakeable deeply forked tail; overall dark compared to the Trees and Northern Rough-wings)
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22112071
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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