Posted by Bob Kelley on April 23, 2003 at 02:57:23:
In Reply to: Re: TAS Birdathon 2003 posted by Neal on April 21, 2003 at 10:44:05:
It is highly unlikely(although nothing is impossible in Florida) that you saw a juvenile
American Bittern at Baptist Hospital or anywhere else in south Florida. Your description sure fits the juvenile green herons that we saw at Anhinga Trail on Saturday, April 12th. We had three just out of the nest.
I would expect that a juvenile AB would be as big as its parents.
Bob Kelley
: Well you guys are going to be no push-over, but the team of "Birders without Borders" made our first foray into the Birdathon on Saturday and we knew the mark set last year was challenging. The team consisted of my son Harlan Kestrel Pocquette, my friend from New Jersey, Robert Downs Wilson (who happened to be the team authority) and me. First casualty was my 9 year-old son whom upon learning that we would head out at 4:30 am for Flamingo decided to sleep in. Although, he warm-up in the back yard awaiting our return. We made it back before 5 pm from our Everglades escapades, just in time for sunset at Matheson with a quick stop for some freebies at Baptist Hospital. There we saw a juvenile American Bittern that was very small with nearly irredecent green legs and mandible. He was neat and having no success looking inconspicuous! We got a few shore birds the next sunrise to end our 24 hour period. Two items of note, I did not allow the team to record any audible only birds after the first description from my expert was "I clearly heard that bird say, 'quick three beers'". If any of you out there accept this as a distinctive call I stand corrected. Next year we will have studied our CD's much more throughly. The other was Nashville Warbler and I posted that under separate cover.
: Next year our team will be fully staffed and ready, 150 is the mark! By the way we got 86.