TAS Wako, Lox, Swamphen Trip -- Jan. 25

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: About a dozen birders joined the TAS trip to Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Loxahatchee NWR and the Pembrooke Pines mitigation area. : Those of who met at the Doc Thomas House got to Wakodahatchee at about 8am, and joined some birders who were already there. The most interesting bird on the way up was a Short-tailed Hawk seen downtown from I-95. We got the usual waders (except BC Night-Heron), an incredible 14 Soras, point-blank looks at 1 Virginia Rail, Tree & Northern Rough-winged Swallow (usual on this trip), 1 Wilson's Snipe, and the usual collection of other birds. Robins were frequently seen overhead. Duck numbers were low. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing one of the bobcats sitting in a ditch, with 3 River Otters visible in the background. There were no Marsh Rabbits and I suspect the bobcats have something to do with this. : We left Wakodahatchee sometime before 10, and drove over to Loxahatchee. As usual, bird diversity on the boardwalk was low. We did see some Pine Warblers. In the end, we didn't care about the lack of diversity because an Eastern Screech-Owl responded to Brennan Mulrooney's owl call. After some searching, it was found sitting on a bromeliad high up in a cypress, partially hidden by spanish moss. We admired the gray morph owl through the scope, noting that its color almost perfectly matched the spanish moss. : We followed the trail out of the parking lot and looped back around, finding a Waterthrush and a very cooperative Limpkin. : I decided to follow a bit different strategy at Loxahatchee. Rather than looping one or two of the ponds, the idea was to go straight out the trail and look more for passerines than marsh birds. Besides the hordes of Myrtles, we found a couple of other warblers and Painted Bunting. A pair of Pileated Woodpecker also drew our attention. We finally picked Black-crowned Night-Heron near the first trail intersection (1 adult and 1 immature). While walking along, we spotted a light-morph Short-tailed Hawk. It put on a show by stooping on one of the Robins that kept flying by. The Robin escaped! : During a picnic lunch we noticed a woodpecker fly into a nearby tree. It turned out to be the first of a pair of Sapsuckers. We then scanned the flats for shorebirds, finding both Yellowlegs, BB Plover, 4 Snipe, Killdeer, and a Solitary Sandpiper. This is the second trip I've led this month, and both have featured Solitary Sandpiper! : We decided to check out the area that Matt Reid has been birding at the south end of Loxahatchee. To get there, follow Loxahatchee Rd. west from US-441 until you get to the end. The intersection of 441 and Lox Rd. is right at the Palm Beach/Broward county line. Like the main part of Loxahatchee, it is a fee area, but we had already paid! : Bird activity was low due to the time of day, but a possible kingbird seen by some of the group provided excitement. While unsuccessfully searching the area to see where it went, we spotted a female Yellow Warbler. This is the second year in a row I've seen a female Yellow Warbler in Palm Beach county in January. Last year's was at the Belle Glade Campground & Marina on Tropical's Archbold/Old Venus trip. : We finished up by stopping at Pembrooke Pines to visit the Purple Swamphens. : A species list follows: : Pied-billed Grebe : Double-crested Cormorant : Anhinga : Least Bittern : Great Blue Heron : Great Egret : Snowy Egret : Little Blue Heron : Tricolored Heron : Cattle Egret : Green Heron : Black-crowned Night-Heron : White Ibis : Glossy Ibis : Wood Stork : Black Vulture : Turkey Vulture : Mottled Duck : Blue-winged Teal : Ring-necked Duck : Osprey : Northern Harrier : Red-shouldered Hawk : Short-tailed Hawk : American Kestrel : Merlin : Virginia Rail : Sora : Purple Swamphen : Purple Gallinule : Common Moorhen : American Coot : Limpkin : Black-bellied Plover : Killdeer : Greater Yellowlegs : Lesser Yellowlegs : Solitary Sandpiper : Wilson's Snipe : Laughing Gull : Ring-billed Gull : Caspian Tern : Forster's Tern : Rock Dove : Eurasian Collared-Dove : White-winged Dove : Mourning Dove : Common Ground-Dove : Monk Parakeet : Eastern Screech-Owl : Belted Kingfisher : Red-bellied Woodpecker : Yellow-bellied Sapsucker : Downy Woodpecker : Pileated Woodpecker : Eastern Phoebe : Kingbird sp. : Loggerhead Shrike : Blue Jay : White-eyed Vireo : Fish Crow : Tree Swallow : Northern Rough-winged Swallow : Carolina Wren : Blue-gray Gnatcatcher : American Robin : Gray Catbird : Northern Mockingbird : European Starling : Orange-crowned Warbler : Yellow Warbler : Myrtle Warbler : Pine Warbler : Prairie Warbler : Palm Warbler : Waterthrush sp. : Common Yellowthroat : Swamp Sparrow : Northern Cardinal : Painted Bunting : Red-winged Blackbird : Boat-tailed Grackle : American Goldfinch

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