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Posted by Alex Harper on 10:12:01 02/19/07
Andy Bankert came down from Brevar County last Saturday in hopes of picking up a few year birds in south Florida. As some of you may know, he is running a "Big Year", and already in the 270's! After seeing the anis at the airport, he met up with me where we got White-winged Parakeet in about five minutes of road cruising. We had lunch at my place and then headed down to North Key Largo. We wanted (well, mostly Andy did) to do some exploring and come up with our own rare find. We were thinking spindalis, La Sagra's Flycatcher, Zenaida Dove, Thick-billed Vireo, etc. No luck in finding those birds in North Key Largo, despite birding some very birdy neighborhoods along Card Sound Roads. A Yellow-throated Vireo was probably the best bird along with Andy's year White-crowned Pigeons.
From the Keys we headed over to The Annex, hoping to get a Bell's Vireo with about an hour of daylight left. No Bell's this time around, and it was fairly quiet all around. We then drove up to the field between the Annex and Lucky Hammock, and scanned the western horizon for Lesser Nighthawks. This was another big target bird. From Lucky Hammock we could hear Great-horned Owls, but we were staying focused on the nighthawk-watching. We had to dip on this one too, since we ran out of daylight! A Chuck-will's-widow flew over the road just outside of the park, however. There was still a chance for Lesser Nighthawk though, and that was along Research Road. And so that is where we went. Another Chuck and two Whip-poor-will's were seen either along Royal Palm road or Research Road. I am happy to say that we were able to get on a Lesser Nighthawk sitting on the road. Back to my place...
At 4:40 Sunday morning, my alatrm went off. Ten minutes later, we were leaving my drive way and on our way to Everglades National Park. We did some night birding along Research Road, and then headed over to the Royal Palm parkinglot in hopes of spotting the Brown-crested Flycatcher spotted last weekend. There were a couple Great-crested Flycatchers south of the parkinglot in the large, and a very pale Myiarchus flycatcher flew up from a gumbo limbo and disappeared into the Gumbo Limbo Trail. I'm willing to bet that that was the bird, but we never heard a call and didn't get good enough looks. Sorting among the robins, waxwings, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, we managed to get some parulas, a Worm-eating Warbler, and Summer Tanager. A foy Purple Martin flew over among the Tree Swallows and Least Bittern and Barred Owl were heard from down Anhinga Trail.
Then it was back to the Annex. Magnolia Warbler and Yellow-breasted Chat were our only new editions to the trip list. A couple arrived who had birded Lucky Hammock a few minutes earlier, and they had a Bell's Vireo on the east side of Aerojet Road, towards the fields. We hopped in the car and got to Lucky Hammock just as heavy winds and rain rolled in. Couldn't get the bird this time either. So it was off to the Keys...
I think every neighborhodd in the Florida Keys have potential for some good vagrants. However, we could only find non-vagrants! Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere, along with Northern Parulas and Palm Warblers. A couple other warbler species were seen or heard in Key Largo and Tavernier, such as Cape May Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Ovenbird, and a couple female Amerian Redstarts. A couple Blue-headed and White-eayed Vireos and another Summer Tanager were seen in random neighborhoods that looked "good". Maybe we should have stayed in the park, but we still had a fun time given some nice birding, a lot of jokes, and some good music.
Back to Lucky Hammock we went...
No Bell's Vireo!
Yes on light morph Swainson's Hawk
Royal Palm was our next stop. More of the same birds were seen here, but this time there were two Short-tailed Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a Louisiana Waterthrush at a small limestone depression down Gumbo Limbo. No Brown-crested Flycatcher!
Went over to Gate 15, which is just past the stop sign at the beginning to Research Road. It was way to windy to find a Marsh Wren out there, and only gained Greater Yellowlegs and a Bald Eagle for the trip. Then we checked out theOld Missle site at the end of Research Road where Brown-crested Flycatcher had been seen fairly recently. No Brown-crested Flycatcher!
A couple Shiny Cowbirds in Homestead raised our spirits, however. We went back to Miami, still making jokes, and discussed teaming up to compete in the TAS Birdathon. How many birds can you get from Miami, Tallahasee, and Ft. DeSoto in 24 hours? How many coffees do you need to be able to do that? Answers to both questions in April...
P.S. Muahahahaha
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