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Posted by Jeff Weber on 09:39:00 05/18/08
Fourteen birders joined me for the end-of-season TAS Big Cypress walk yesterday morning at the incredibly early hour of 6:00 a.m. (yawn!). What looked like fog on the way out to the Snail Kite site on Rt. 41 turned out to be smoke from the Everglades fires to the south, but the smoke cleared somewhat as we moved west. There were no Snail Kites obvious from that vantage point, but we did see a raptor drop in the very far distance, which may have been a kite.
Entering Loop Road at the east end, we stopped at the first wide spot in the road west of the houses, which at first looked unpromising. As we stood around wishing we had some coffee (I was, anyway), things picked up a bit. The highlight here was a King Rail that skulked around behind some "banana-looking" leaves (alligator flags). We were satisfied with that partial look, but it got better when the rail strode across the road, seemingly in no hurry to reach cover. OK, why did the rail cross the road? The answer soon became obvious when its loud ked-kek-kek call was answered by another rail on that side. The two rails continued calling and then met up and started preening with studied nonchalance. Pretty soon, they were bathing side-by-side in full view and good light at a distance of only about 25 yards from our group.
As we headed west in five cars, the clouds of dust hid our view of nearly everything except the thousands of horseflies and deerflies that chased our vehicles and hitched rides. This intimidating display of menacing Diptera made me hesitant to exit the car, but we soon came across a snake in the road that I had to check out. It was a young cottonmouth that held its ground, as they will, and gaped at me as with erect fangs as I approached. When I tried to coax it off the road with a stick, the snake struck repeatedly, but it headed for the water quickly when it reached the grassy edge. It's always fun to see a healthy snake.
We found another snake that was less healthy, writhing around in agony as it was being eaten on top of a power pole by an immature Red-shouldered Hawk. It appeared to be a red rat or possibly a corn snake.
As our group reached Sweetwater Strand, the biting flies remained bad, but we soon forgot about them as birds showed up. Two BG Gnatcatchers put on a show as they attacked a perched Red-shouldered Hawk. The hawk tried to look unfazed as they dive bombed its head, but soon its crown feathers were sticking up goofily from the many blows it took. Next, a Barred Owl flew in and sat in a tree just about 20 feet from us on the side of the road. We saw a couple of Parulas and kept hearing faint bits of Pronthonotary song, but couldn't find the bird, except for a quick glimpse as one zoomed across the road. After much searching, including a swamp slog by John Boyd and others, a Prothonotary Warbler tired of playing cat-and-mouse and perched in full sunlit view - a real treat.
Next, we headed to Gator Hook Trail and hiked in a ways until it became too muddy to proceed. It was hot by this time and the birds were pretty inactive but the wet prairie wildflowers were the real attraction. Top flowers of the day were numerous 2.5-in-diameter, bright pink Bartram's Rosegentians, putting the similar Marsh Pinks (same genus) to shame.
Next stop was the Kirby Storter Boardwalk, which was resplendent with newly leafed out cypress. It was approaching 90 degrees by this time, so we didn't see too many birds, but we did see an enormous gator track in the mud with a tail drag the width of a truck tire. Water was low in the cypress dome at the end, but there were lots of frogs croaking from the residual pools. Top insects of the day were the dragonflies, including Needham's Skimmer and Blue Corporal, seen throughout the trip. From the boardwalk, we also saw the floppy, weak flight of a large (4-in.-wingspan) yellow-green insect that looked like a giant lacewing. Don't know what it was for sure, but possibly an Owlfly.
At this point, some of the group headed west to Turner River Road and some headed back toward Miami, as it was too hot to do much but complain. In all, it was a great walk with excellent views of some rarely seen creatures. And, since the flies discouraged other, more casual visitors, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.
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