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Posted by Vince Lucas on 21:34:44 09/24/06
All:
5:30AM saw Alan Murray, Ruth Woodall, Roberta & Bill Marten and myself leaving Naples via our "regular" route of C.R. 846 (Immokalee Rd.) to C.R. 833 (Government Rd.) to C.R. 835 and then Blumberg Rd. and our final destination of STA-5. First light found us in Hendry County where we stopped to watch a Barred Owl hunting from its perch of the telephone lines along C.R. 846. Other birds seen along C.R. 846 in Hendry County were several Crested Caracaras, Sandhill Cranes, Limpkin, Roseate Spoonbill, both yellowlegs,Blue-winged Teal and one of the most amazing roosts harboring thousands of waders of all kinds that I have ever seen. Slash Pines, stretching the entire length of the immediate horizon, were the trees which held the roost. This roost is about 1.5 miles from where C.R. 846 intersects C.R. 833. For a picture that really doesn't do justice to this roost, go to:
http://www.caloosabirdclub.org/VPL/roost1.jpg
All of those white "specks" are Great & Snowy Egrets, White & Glossy Ibis, and other waders. it was awesome.
At STA-5, we joined about a dozen or more other individuals for a great day of birding. We managed to add four new species to the checklist for this locale. They were Black Tern (x2), Bank Swallow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Bobolink (seen along Blumberg Road). There were well over 500 Blue-winged Teal seen whereas last month there were none. Other highlights included:
Sharp-shinned Hawk (first one since 2004)
Peregrine Falcon (x1 on Blumberg Rd.)
Cooper's Hawk (x1)
Snail Kite (x1)
Northern Harrier (>6)
Sora (x1)
Least Bittern (x2)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (x5)
Limpkin (>3)
Roseate Spoonbill (x13)
Fulvous Whistling-Duck (x15)
Ring-necked Duck (>12)
Northern Shoveler (x1)
Wood Duck (x1)
Purple Gallinule (x2)
Purple Swamphen ( Black-necked Stilt (>20)
Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs (>200)
Wilson's Snipe (x8)
Dowitcher sp. (x6). Some birders thought these were Long-billed and some thought they were Short-billed. I'm in the former camp.
Palm Warbler (FOTS at STA-5)
If you would like a complete list of the species seen, contact me off-list. Also seen were four River Otters. There were some great odes and leps as usual but I won't list them here.
After leaving STA-5 seven of us went over to see what was shaking at the sod farms south of Belle Glade. The short answer is not much, at least in the way of shorebirds. On the Hoover Dike from S.R. 80 we saw two adult Bald Eagles. Roth Sod Farm Rd. held very little in the way of shorebirds save for Killdeer and one Solitary and one Spotted Sandpiper. The once water-filled field that supported scores of shorebirds, terns and waders from last month were pretty much dried up save for an irrigation canal that held hundreds of Great, Snowy & Cattle Egrets, Great Blue, Little Blue & Tricolored Herons and numbers of really cool Wood Storks including some juveniles.
A quick trip down Brown's Farm Road produced a pair(?) of Merlins sitting on the electrical wires. At one point, one of the Merlins began persuing either a Palm Warbler or possibly a Bobolink (couldn't tell) but then the Merlin was itself chased by a Cooper's Hawk! Pretty cool.
However, on our way over to the Miami Canal Barn Owl Roost (we saw five BTW), we stopped on C.R. 827 along the Bolles Canal about one mile west of U.S. Rte. 27 and witnessed an amazing spectacle of a conservative estimate of 7,500-10,000 Bobolinks migrating through the sugarcane fields. It was an awesome sight that none of us present will ever forget. See my separate post on this matter.
All along the Miami Canal we saw many Barn Swallows with a few Bank Swallows mixed in perched along electrical lines and "dipping" in the Miami Canal.
It was another awesome day of birding in the interior part of South Florida and I want to thank Margaret England and the others for making it an enjoyable and memorable one. If i have left out any significant sightings, the others in attendance can fill in the gaps I'm sure.
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