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Posted by tricia on 14:11:55 12/04/07
Yesterday, EagleEye and I decided to make a trip west.
In the early morning fog we boarded AirHonda flight 41West and proceeded to taxi down the runway known as Krome Avenue.
We soon spotted a crouching Loggerhead Shrike in the middle of Korme.It had that "what happened to me posture" but was sort of sitting up. As luck would have it , traffic was relatively light on Kroma and I was able to make a quick turn, pull over and run out and grab the bird before the oncoming truck made the both of us hood ornaments. The shrike was a bit dazed but flew off over the nearby sweet potato field hopefully to fully recover .
Heading west on 41, we stopped at the snail kite place but only saw a kingfisher and an unidentified raptor that flew in front of me and disappeared in a bush.
There were Ospreys about every half mile but otherwise it was pretty quiet until I saw what I thought was a crow in the road. I slowed down hoping it would move and the realized that it was no crow-It was a Fox Squirrel!! This is only the third one I have seen and all have been in different color forms. Needless to say there was another diversion of flight pattern and we stopped an refound this black beauty near the road.
Laughing at our good fortune, we discussed what else we should hope to see. I added Otter and Marbled Godwit to the list.
A bit further down the road who should pop up but a large Otter lurching across the road.
Other sightings were a lovely perched adult Bald Eagle and Two Harriers hunting .
We arrived at Tigertail Beach knowing that the tide was going to be high but with hopes of finding Snowy plover. Never did see one but we did find a banded Piping Plover and watched an odd dance between two Little Blue Herons.
Later that afternoon, timed to be there at low tide, we stopped at Bunche Beach. Target bird here was the Long Bill Curlew that winters here. I had never been to this beach before and was quite happy with what we found. As the tide went out there were lots and lots of shorebirds,skimmers, terns,redheaded mergansers and groups of pelicans dive bombing fish.
Further out there were about 10 marbled godwit. Unfortunately we were not prepared to cross the small but deep cut to get close enough to see if the Curlew was with them as we were told is it's habit. I did however have several obliging Godwits that posed very nicely for me :)
As a side note, we met a woman that works at Ding Darling who mentioned that there are about 100 spoonbills there now in ponds 1 and 2.
Ready for refueling ourselves, we stopped at the local Sweet Tomatoes which usually has a bird or two in the parking lot. Yesterday it was my first of the season Myrtle warblers .
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