Posted by Paul Bithorn on December 22, 2002 at 20:43:57:
Still wounded by the fact that a planned 2:00 tee time to play golf with friends got canceled at the last minute, I received a rather serendipitous phone call from Larry Manfredi and another soon thereafter from Robin-another member of the thrush family- Diaz that a Mountain Bluebird was found on Research Center Road in Everglades National Park.
With wheels a chirping, I arrived at 3:30 p.m. and within five minutes saw the bird hawking for insects along the tops of the mounds of debris. It eventually flew to and landed on top of a fifteen foot length of 1 1/2" Schedule 40 galvanized pipe on the west side of the road. A characteristic of the bird not mentioned in the previous posts was the constant tail-flicking (it looked slightly agitated), while perched atop the pipe. It soon began to pick up Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) berries along the side of the road, when Davis LaPuma and Rafael Galvez pulled up. As they piled ot of David's truck, the bird landed back on the pipe and then returned to the piles hawking for insects. At one point it hovered 20 feet off of the ground, before swooping down to catch an insect.The bird disappeared about 4:30 p.m.
My money says it is a gray adult female. If the bird has been here since the 18th, it should stick around long enough for Wes, and others to see the bird. The celebratory libation of choice was a Pilsener Urquel, the pilsener that made Pilsen, Czechoslovakia famous.Life is good..............when seeing Florida lifers (393), not on your short list.