Posted by Paul Bithorn on March 22, 2003 at 22:54:20:
Now that the Vernal Equinox has passed, I thought it would be a good time to ferret out some spring migrants. After my son Joshua’s ballgame I headed over to A.D. Barnes Park, which at first conjured images of the “Silent Spring.” My luck changed when I ran into Naples Birder, Alan Murray, who recently discovered a singing Dicksissel in Naples.
We drummed up an American Redstart, Northern Parula, Prairie Warbler and Blue-headed Vireo. I asked Alan, who was fresh off of seeing his life Red-whiskered Bulbul and Spot-breasted Oriole near Baptist Hospital, if he had any other target birds. He promptly replied that White-crowned Pigeon would be a lifer. No problem. We took the five-minute drive to the Miller Roost and located several White-crowned’s on the wires. Blue-crowned and Red-masked Parakeets gave us scope views while in the area.
Feeling lucky, I headed over to the Krome Railroad Tracks/Black Creek, in search of my year Blue Grosbeak. After walking three-hundred yards north along the tracks, with no success, I decided to check the Burma Reed to the south of the dirt road, where a little road cuts in to a fallow farmfield west of the tracks, which was out of the wind. I heard a bunting and within minutes a beautiful male Blue Grosbeak dropped into a large puddle and began to bathe as a female Indigo Bunting looked on. The “Odd Couple?”
As far as the announcement that I finally hit number 400 in Florida, the Eurasian Kestrel was hypothetical 399 and the Calliope Hummingbird Pam & I saw at Fran Rutkowky's feeders in Tallahassee on March 5th was hypothetical 400. I decided to hold it in abeyance, due to the confusion regarding Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, which inexplicably has been accepted by the ABA, but not by the FOS Records Committee. Wes Biggs, who I ran into at Ft. Desoto Park recently, reminded me that ticking it off would not be within the rules. So stay tuned. I guess that makes me an honest politician, an oxymoron to some people, but I have been told that I am half ox and half moron. Life is good............Can you say Cuban Emerald or Bahama Woodstar? The TAS gang is on Grand Bahama right now. Would be quaffing celebratory Kalik's if I was with them.
Paul "Patiently Waiting" Bithorn