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Posted by Carlos Sanchez on 23:11:26 05/12/08
Walter, Sue, and I were in charge of counting the birds in the abandoned Chekika Unit campgrounds of Everglades National Park. We met at the entrance to the park at around 5:30am. It was an amazing experience, as within 30 minutes there was quite the dawn chorus in the surrounding fields. There were very few migrant songbirds. Here are the birds we spotted during the first half of the day at Chekika:
Cattle Egret-4
Little Blue Heron-1 (white phase)
Green Heron-7
Black Vulture-31
Turkey Vulture-2
Osprey-1
White-tailed Kite-1
Northern Harrier-1
Red-shouldered Hawk-9
Merlin-1
King Rail-2
White-crowned Pigeon-1
Mourning Dove-9
Eastern Screech-owl-2
Common Nighthawk-10
Chuck-will's-widow-2
Red-bellied Woodpecker-4
Downy Woodpecker-1
Northern Flicker-1
Eastern Kingbird-1
Blue Jay-4
American Crow-6
Carolina Wren-1
Northern Mockingbird-5
Loggerhead Shrike-3
European Starling-2
White-eyed Vireo-8
Common Yellowthroat-5
Northern Cardinal-14
Red-winged Blackbird-37
Eastern Meadowlark-16
Boat-tailed Grackle-6
Common Grackle-2
We arrived at Shark Valley at around noon to do the second half of the count, but there was almost zero bird activity there:
Anhinga-1
Double-crested Cormorant-1
Great Blue Heron-1
Green Heron-2
Turkey Vulture-1
Red-shouldered Hawk-1
King Rail-2
Red-bellied Woodpecker-1
American Crow-2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher-1
White-eyed Vireo-5
Common Yellowthroat-1
Northern Cardinal-1
Red-winged Blackbird-2
Boat-tailed Grackle-2
...it was incredibly hot (even the occassional breeze was hot and steamy) and the birds seemed to have other ideas rather be out in the open in the heat. Between about 3-5pm, we stayed at Sweetwater Strand in the Big Cypress Preserve where we saw a Barred Owl, Great Crested Flycatchers, Wood Stork, Swallow-tailed Kite, among others. We also saw a wild otter.
Carlos
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