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Posted by Brian Rapoza on 20:17:23 05/10/08
For today's NAMC, I spent the day covering what has now become my traditional area: Everglades National Park from Coe Visitor Center to Flamingo. While I wasn't expecting anything close to last year's remarkable numbers, I also wasn't expecting the other end of the spectrum: exactly zero migrant songbirds!
My most interesting sighting was a recently hatched Chuck-will's-widow, seen on the Long Pine Key Nature Trail. The parent flushed from trailside understory; the hatchling scurried out a split-second later, stopping inches from my feet! I quickly snapped a couple of photos of the hatchling with my camera phone. The parent landed on the trail a few yards ahead and began a broken-wing display, similar to that of a Killdeer. When that didn't distract me sufficiently, it then made several passes over my head. Not wanting to disturb them further, I continued down the trail.
Here's how the rest of my day went:
Blue-winged Teal-1
Red-breasted Merganser-1
American White Pelican-31
Double-crested Cormorant-8
Anhinga-7
Great Blue Heron-7
Great White Heron-1
Great Egret-6
Snowy Egret-4
Tricolored Heron-1
Cattle Egret-10
Green Heron-6
Black-crowned Night-Heron-1
White Ibis-17
Glossy Ibis-3
Roseate Spoonbill-2
Black Vulture-27
Turkey Vulture-11
Osprey-7
Swallow-tailed Kite-3
Red-shouldered Hawk-7
King Rail-1
Black-bellied Plover-4
Semipalmated Plover-3
Killdeer-6
Black-necked Stilt-24
American Avocet-4
Greater Yellowlegs-14
Lesser Yellowlegs-3
Solitary Sandpiper-2
Willet-3
Ruddy Turnstone-2
Semipalmated Sandpiper-24
Least Sandpiper-2
Dunlin-10
Stilt Sandpiper-2
Long-billed Dowitcher-1
Laughing Gull-2
Royal Tern-4
Forster s Tern-6
Least Tern-2
Mourning Dove-1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo-2
Common Nighthawk-12
Chuck-will s-widow-21 (17 of these were heard pre-dawn)
Red-bellied Woodpecker-15
Downy Woodpecker-3
Northern Flicker-3
Great Crested Flycatcher-8
Eastern Kingbird-5
White-eyed Vireo-17
Black-whiskered Vireo-5
American Crow-28
Brown-headed Nuthatch-5
Carolina Wren-2
Northern Mockingbird-2
European Starling-5
Pine Warbler-8
Prairie Warbler-7
Common Yellowthroat-5
Northern Cardinal-35
Eastern Towhee-5
Red-winged Blackbird-28
Eastern Meadowlark-18
Boat-tailed Grackle-14
Brown-headed Cowbird-25
Shiny Cowbird-3 (one on Ingraham Hwy, beyond Gumbo Limbo Trail; two at Flamingo Visitor Center)
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