TAS Birdathon 2003

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: On Saturday, April 19, 2003, Bruce Purdy Brian Rapoza and I, the “Life is good......” team pushed the limits of power-birdingathoning to a new extreme, while participating in the Tropical Audubon Society’s Birdathon 2003. After a dose of Cuban coffee and croquetas, we shoved off at 5:00 a.m., with our first bird being a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl in Bruce’s Driveway. Interestingly enough, our last bird of the day was a red morph Eastern Screech Owl. : We would do a 15-hour loop, which traversed Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier, Hendry and Broward Counties, but to give our itinerary would give an unfair advantage to our competition, being as the Bird-a-thon extends through midnight of Sunday, April 27. As defending champions, our goal was to top list last years’ total of 121 species. We blew that total out of the water with 142 species. With a decent fallout, 150 would certainly be within reach. : Here is the list of all species seen by the “Life is good………………” team during the Birdathon: : Pied-billed Grebe : White Pelican : Brown Pelican : Double-crested Cormorant : Anhinga : Magificent Frigatebird : Least Bittern : Great Blue Heron : Great Egret : Snowy Egret : Little Blue Heron : Tricolored Heron : Reddish Egret : Cattle Egret : Green Heron : Black-crowned Night Heron : Yellow-Crowned Night Heron : White Ibis : Glossy Ibis : Roseate Spoonbill : Wood Stork : Black Vulture : Turkey Vulture : Mallard (feral) : Mottled Duck : Blue-winged Teal : Muscovy : Osprey : Swallow-tailed Kite : Snail Kite : Bald Eagle : Northern Harrier : Cooper’s Hawk : Red-shouldered Hawk : Crested Caracara : King Rail (2 juveniles) : Purple Gallinule : Purple Swamphen : Common Moorhen : American Coot : Limpkin (five) : Sandhill Crane : Black-bellied Plover : Snowy Plover : Wilson’s Plover : Semipalmated Plover : Wilson’s Plover : Killdeer : Black-necked Stilt : Graeter Yellowlegs (50) : Lesser Yellowlegs : Solitary Sandpiper : Willet : Spotted Sandpiper : Marbled Dodwit : Ruddy Turnstone : Red Knot : Sanderling : Western Sandpiper : Least Sandpiper : Dunlin : Short-billed Dowitcher : Laughing Gull : Ring-billed Gull : Herring Gull : Lesser Black-backed Gull : Caspian Tern : Royal Tern : Least Tern : Black Skimmer : Rock Dove : White-crowned Pigeon : Eurasian Collared-Dove : White-winged Dove : Mourning Dove : Common Ground-Dove : Monk Parakeet : Yellow-Chevroned Parakeet : Green Parakeet : Mitred Parakeet : Red-masked Parakeet : White-eyed Parakeet : Red-fronted Parakeet : Dusky-headed Parakeet : Green-Cheeked Parakeet : Orange-winged Parrot : Red-crowned Parrot : Lilac-crowned Parrot : White-fronted Parrot : Blue-fronted Parakeet : Yellow-billed Cuckoo : Eastern Screech Owl (1-Gray, 1-Red) : Burrowing Owl : Barred Owl : Common Nighthawk : Chuck-will’s widow : Chimney Swift : Red-bellied Woodpecker : Downy Woodpecker : Hairy Woodpecker (100) : Northern Flicker : Pileated Woodpecker : Great Crested Flycatcher : Eastern Kingbird : Gray Kingbird : Loggerhead Shrike : White-eyed Vireo : Red-eyed Vireo : Blue Jay : Florida Scrub-jay : American Crow : Fish Crow : Purple Martin : Tree Swallow : Northern Rough-Winged Swallow : Barn Swallow : Tufted Titmouse : Carolina Wren : Blue-gray Gnatcatcher : Gray Catbird : Northern Mockingbird : European Starling : Common Myna : Blue-winged Warbler : Northern Parula : Black-throated Warbler : Prairie Warbler : Palm Warbler : Black-and-white Warbler : American Redstart : Common Yellowthroat : Eastern Towhee : Savannah Sparrow : Northern Cardinal : Indigo Bunting : Painted Bunting : Red-winged Blackbird : Eastern Meadowlark : Common Grackle : Boat-tailed Grackle : Brown-headed Cowbird : House Sparrow (142) : Life is good.........when utilizing your passion for birding in furthering the causes of the conservation movement. Let’s face it folks, no habitat-no birds. If you are interested in participating in this year’s Birdathon, go to the tropicalaudubon.org website.

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