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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 11:39:37 11/16/07
We hit the road yesterday to scout out Hattie Bauer park in Homestead before we lead our first walk ever. We will be leading a group of volunteers that will be removing evasive species at this location on Saturday. Thanks to Toe for thinking of us and giving us this awesome opportunity. While at the park we saw some cool birds as well lots of butterfly, dragonfly and plant species. The park is rather small but has good hammocks that surround the perimeter. After scouting the location for about 2 hours we headed out to Castellow to set up in the garden in hopes to get some nice shots of the Hummers with our new toy. We had a great time observing the Hummer wars that were in progress when we arrived.
First thing we heard as we got out of our car was the sounds of Hummers chattering and buzzing throughout the garden. We love to see the interaction between the Hummers as they fight to keep each other of their favorite perch and nectar bearing plants in the garden. Mariel shot this beautiful shot of the Hummer all ruffled up from a recent battle with the others trying to evict the Hummer from his spot. We saw a good number of warblers at the park including a Magnolia, a quick apperance from an Ovenbird that ran for cover upon sighting us which made us both laugh. After shooting over two hundred or so photos of the amazing Hummers we searched for warblers to photograph and had some good luck with a awesome Black-and-White Warbler.
We then decided to head towards the Wetlands, while in transit we received a phone call from Dan which asked us if we were working or birding. We told Dan that we were actually on the way to the Cutler Wetlands he answered with awesome I am headed that way right now and was calling to see if you guys would like to join me. I guess that birders think alike. We arrived shortly before we saw him pulling up right behind us as we were getting out of our car. Dan brought his new scope and we were able to scope out the wetlands, as we were looking around we noticed two other birders there that came to greet us. Birders Kevin and Liz were looking for the Eurasian Wigeon with no luck, we scoped the wetlands in hopes of finding the bird but no Wigeons were seen. We continued to check the wetlands for the Sacred Ibis but with the sun in our face and gleaming off the waters surface it was rather hard. We decided to check out the Dump Marsh before calling it a day where we picked up some cool birds including a awesome flyover by an immature Bald Eagle. A Merlin scoped us as we were on the way out which was pretty cool. As the sunset we were losing light quickly and decided to call it a day, we talked about birding Sunday again with Dan and headed out. All in all a wonderful day enjoying all the awesome things nature has to offer. Below is a list of what we saw yesterday:
Hattie Bauer:
White-eyed Vireo
RT Hummer
Eastern Phoebe
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black-and-white Warbler
Northern Mockingbird
Monk Parakeet
Various Butterflies & Dragonfiles
Castellow:
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Cardinal
Palm Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Northern Parula
Ovenbird
Tree Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Short-tailed Hawk (light morph)
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
White winged Dove
Cutler Wetlands & Dump Marsh:
Merlin
Northern Harrier
Bald Eagle (immature)
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Fish Crow
Belted Kingfisher
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron (both morphs)
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Greater Yellowlegs
Dowitcher
American Avocet
Killdeer
Pied-billed Grebe
American Coot (many)
Northern Shoveler
Mottled Duck
Ring-necked Duck
Green-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal
White Ibis (many!)
Glossy Ibis
Wood Stork
Roseate Spoonbill
Boat-tailed Grackle
Laughing Gull
Nature is Awesome!
Angel & Mariel
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