Posted by alex on February 02, 2003 at 16:48:04:
First, my dad and I went to Ft. Lauderdale Barrier Park, and found 4 anis. The ani is a lifer for me, and they are some cool birds. They were running through the weeds with their long tails, running and jumoing after grasshoppers. Also present at barrier park were yellowthroats, killdeer, sharp-shinned hawk, parula.
At my dad's house, I went into my hammock and lay in the sun, watching yellow-rumps, parulas, palm warblers and an ovenbird across the yard. Thats when I got an idea: I got out of the hammock, and brought some bird seed over and sprinkled it all around on the cement near the hammock. I curled myself in the hammock, so the birds would'nt know I was here. When in position, i lay face down near the seed pile. Then, I started pishing, and warblers, mockingbirds, cardinals gnatcatchers and jays came. I kept on pishing, and in close range, about 15 birds all together came. The closest the ovenbird came was about 6 feet from my face, and he had no idea I was there. About 3 minutes later, the warblers got fed-up and went back up into my oak trees. Only the pair of cardinals, and a blue jay stayed around, and ate almost all the seed 2 feet away from me, until one of the blue jays decided to do his famous hawk language, and everyone fled.
I'll try it again sometime.
At my moms house, I went for a walk in Morningside park, where spotted sandpiper, yellow-crowned nightherons, little blue herons, great egrets, royal tern, and a coopers hawk were present. I also saw 4 monk parakeets, and a high-flying flock of about 20 amazons flew south-bound. Probably red-crowns, as they made that loud REEOOO sound.
Now, mixed gulls are flying east towards the bay.
An escapee cocatiel called out for a while on a pine, until our resident monks came, and he joined them. Hopefully, they will let him stay with their flock.
Good everyday birding!