Posted by David and Michelle on September 11, 2002 at 20:18:13:
Ugh.
The last thing we should be doing right now is posting a trip report, but as it is written in the great birdwatcher’s handbook, one must always alert the masses when great fallouts occur. Alas, last night there was one such fallout in Key West. Whether most of the birds came in overnight, or were already piled up as of Tuesday evening, will remain a mystery (to us, at least), but there were definitely some significantly high numbers of migrants found this morning on Bone Island!
Initially we had set out to find the Yellow-green Vireo at Indigenous Park, Tuesday evening. We arrived around 5pm to the small coastal park and were greeted with gusty winds from the South/Southwest. As for Vireos, there were many….I mean MANY. All of them, to our dismay, turned out to be Red-eyed, with the exception of one, which turned out to be Yellow-throated. :o(
There were a fair number of warblers present, including one im. fem. Blackburnian (are you sure I can’t call it an im. fem. Cerulean? MY NEMESIS WARBLER!). Most were sticking in a tight flock, either hiding out from the wind in the thickets (Prothonotary, N. Waterthrush, Ovenbird, Summer Tanager) or riding the wind from Buttonwood to Buttonwood (Northern Parula, Red-eyed Vireo). By the time darkness fell, we hadn’t seen any sign of the YG Vireo, but just before we left, we were graced by the presence of the Smooth-billed Ani perched in a buttonwood over the pond! A very cool “last bird” of the day.
The rest of the evening was spent at Turtle Krawls for dinner, then Irish Kevins (Paul, you gotta have their Black and Tan!) and Sloppy Joe’s (you know you’re getting old when there’s a cover band playing songs by people younger than you). I think it went something like this: Key West Sunset Ale x 3, Black and Tan x 2, KW Sunset Ale, Guinness Stout, Black and Tan x 2.
This morning brought with it more wind and intermittent rain, during which time many new warblers, both in numbers and species, seemed to appear like magic! We birded Indigenous Park from 7am to 10am, and then the 2 ficus trees behind the Harris School (see TAS archive: Key West Fallout 2001, Sept. 30) from 10:30am until 1:30pm. I’d love to go into full detail of all the day’s events, but being on borrowed sleep, I can’t even tell if I’m being coherent. Here’s the short and sweet:
IP = Indigenous Park
HS = Harris School
Species IP HS
Red-eyed Vireo 40 60
Yellow-throated Vireo 2 1
Black-whiskered Vireo 1 -
B&W Warbler 3 2
Yellow Warbler 4 -
B.T. Blue Warbler 3 2
Northern Parula 35 50
Prothonotary Warbler 2 2
Northern Waterthrush 6 1
Prairie Warbler 8 4
Hooded Warbler 3 3
Kentucky Warbler - 2
Worm-eating Warbler 2 1
Yellow-throated Warbler 2 -
Blackburnian Warbler 4 2
Chestnut Sided Warbler - 1
American Redstart 1 1
Tennessee Warbler - 2
Ovenbird 10 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 20 5
Bobolink 5 flyover -
Smooth-billed Ani 1 -
Summer Tanager 3 2
Scarlet Tanager - 2
Baltimore Oriole - 1
Eastern Kingbird 50 80
Gray Kingbird 1 -
Acadian Flycatcher 1 -
Empidonax sp. - 1
Eastern Pewee 2 -
Purple Martin 2 -
Barn Swallow 50 10
Common Nighthawk 100 30
Swallow-tailed Kite - 3
Other sighting of note: FOS Merlin at the Marathon Airport on the way home.
Directions to the Harris School
From Indigenous Park, take White St. north to Southard; go west on Southard about 2 blocks and the school is on your left. The Ficus is between the large school building, and the smaller MARC building behind it. It’s flanked on the other two sides by a small nursery run by the MARC members. If you use the stairways on either one of the buildings you can get onto the second floor and put yourself at eye level with the fruiting ficus trees. The contact person at MARC is Diana Flenard (she’s there Mon. – Fri.). Remember, if you visit the site, to respect the people who work and attend classes in the buildings. Many of them are aware of the significance of their trees, and welcome a view through your scope, binoculars, or a promise to email copies of digiscoped birds!
Good Birding!!
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