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Posted by Alex Harper on 20:57:48 08/02/06
In Reply to: Florida Trip 24-2 -Part One (just too lazy) posted by Alex Harper
After a good five hour nap, I am a little more refreshed and will hopefully make less typos. I should mention the platform I was jumping off of at Wakulla Springs was into the spring itself.
Well, first I should mention I got 299 at Andy and Julie Wraithmell's beautiful and birdy Tallashassee home. The bird flew down to a suet box. It was a White-breasted Nuthatch. Not a life bird, but a state bird. They were heading down to St. Marks later on that afternoon and invited me along. We hoped in the carand were at our first stop at St. Marks in no time.
The first stop was along the main road, known as the double bridges. An Acadian Flycatcher was seen immediatly and an Eastern Wood-pewee called a few times. Northern Parula, Prothonotary Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Kentucky Warblers all made appearances.
Further down, we stopped at one of the many marshy areas St. Marks has to offer. Many shorebirds were seen in a large group, which included Pectoral Sandpipers and three peep species. A male Yellow Warbler flew right by our faces just before we left.
One more stop at a very busy pond produced several Purple Gallinules, including some very yound birds. Black-crowned Night-herons could be seen in the shadows with little effort.
The last stop was at the lighthouse. A couple shorebirds (including Marbled Godwit) and larids were moving around, but two Great-horned Owls were keeping the smaller birds quiet at the salt marsh. We were expecting to see and hear plenty of Marsh Wrens and Seaside Sparrows. We would not find any evidence of the sparrows, but eventually we would hear and see Marsh Wrens.
But where was my life bird? Where was 300? It was expected that I would at least have seen a couple by then. It took nearly an hour in the late afternoon to see the bird: Clapper Rail. Three-hundred in Florida, a milestone that has taken me nearly four years to reach. I'll let all of you know when I reach four-hundred.
Well, we didn't see too much else exciting after the rail, but on the way out we found a beautiful Ground Skink and then a even better looking Florida Cottonmouth. It was the only snake of the trip I didn't get to photograph.
We visited Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna on our last night in the Panhandle. Not too much was happening in the cave, but outside I heard a couple wood-pewees.
I did not really bird in Orlando, as the UCF campus and Seaworld didn't have a lot of birds. There was a small park we visited briefly that was full of reptiles and amphibians. I caught a three racers and a fat Green Watersnakes. Along with those, I grabbed a couple Striped Mud Turtles, Southeastern Five-lined Skinks, and Green Treefrogs.
I got back to Miami just in time to hear four species of warblers in the neighborhood: Northern Parula, Yellow-throated Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, and American Redstart.
I saw or heard almost one-hundred-fifteen species on the trip, and I'm ready for the birds start coming to me as opposed to me going to the birds on their breeding grounds ;)
Alex
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