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Posted by Vince Lucas on 21:28:11 02/10/07
This morning, Alan Murray and I started out before dawn to try to add Whippoorwill to our Collier County Big Year list, following a technique told to me by Ron Smith. Bottom line Ron, it didn't work for us despite being in the "right" habitat along Shell Island Road where the old Brigg's Nature Center (now a FWCC law enforcement office) is located. We did manage to find a nice Great Horned Owl perched in a distant slash pine that we both needed for our Collier Big Year list. Our next stop was Oil Pad Road in the Ten Thousand Islands N.W.R. to try for King Rail. Again, we bombed. Nor did we find the Wilson's Warbler that I had there earlier in the week. However, it is always a pleasure to bird and butterfly this very pristine area and we did see a lot of nice birds. On our way to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk from Oil Pad Rd., Alan spotted a distant soaring hawk that made us get out of the car to get a better view. The raptor turned out to be a light morph Short-tailed Hawk which was another new bird for each of our county year lists. Across US Rte 41 from the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, we managed to find a Brown Thrasher which was Collier County bird #150 for me for 2007. The Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk always holds some interesting birds and today was no exception. We managed to find a Black-throated Green Warbler (new for the year for Alan) along with the Northern Waterthrush that has been present for a few weeks (at least) along with the "usuals": Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Common Yellowthroat, Blue-throated Vireo etc. The Magnolia Warbler I saw earlier in the week was a no-show as was the Hooded Warbler Alan found there last weekend. It seems that the winter warblers change at the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk from week-to-week! For those of you who own a Birdpod (or whatever name it goes by now), you'll be thrilled to know that it can survive up to a minute totally immersed in water! Alan accidently dropped his off the railing at the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk into a small pool of water. We immediately took out the batteries and dried off as much of it as possible. Putting the assembly back together, it wouldn't play despite our best efforts. Alan charged it for about ten minutes when he got home and now it works fine! Wonders never cease. . . . Now that I have the "easy" first 150 bird species out of the way for my Collier County Big Year list, I wonder how long it will take to reach the 200 mark? I predict November at the earliest!
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