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Posted by Vince Lucas on 17:38:01 12/03/07
Today I lead 14 Caloosa Bird Club members and two guests on a fieldtrip to two locales in Collier County: Oil Pad Road in the Ten Thousand Islands N.W.R. (not in B. Rapoza's book? and the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Fakahatchee Strand State Park Preserve. The weather was hot (87 degrees) with few clouds to help cool the air. We gathered outside of Collier-Seminole State Park before carpooling to the other destinations and while waiting for some folks to arrive we saw a flock of 25 or so American Robins and a Yellow-throated Warbler. The highlights of Oil Pad Road in the Ten Thousand Islands were an unexpected Reddish Egret, three Swamp Sparrows, a Yellow Warbler and 8 Sandhill Cranes. Nice numbers of Roseate Spoonbills, Blue-winged Teal and Black-crowned Night-Herons were also seen.
Afterward, we drove to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk where a very cooperative Eastern Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) awaited us and posed for pictures. I rarely see this darker relative of our more common paler South Florida "extimus" race so that was a treat. However, another bird was a lifer for some -- a light morph Short-tailed Hawk which was rifing the thermals in a kettle of vultures. Nothing of note was seen along the The Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Fakahatchee Strand. Here's our day list:
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk (including one Eastern race)
Short-tailed Hawk (Light Morph)
American Kestrel
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Sandhill Crane (8)
Lesser Yellowlegs
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
American Crow
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin (25)
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Swamp Sparrow (3)
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch
Butterflies abounded along Oil Pad Road including many expected Mangrove Buckeyes, Salt Marsh Skippers, Barred Yellows, Gulf Fritillaries, Queens and White Peacocks. At the Big Cypress bend Boardwalk we saw a few Ruddy Daggerwings and Brazilian Skippers. Other butterflies seen today were Cassius Blues, Cloudless Sulphurs, Dorantes Longtails and Fiery Skippers. Odonates included Rambur's Forktail, Black Saddlebags, Eastern Amberwing, Four-spotted Skimmer, Needham's Skimmer, Common Green Darner, Blue-faced Darner and Roseate Skimmer.
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