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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 21:40:57 11/11/08
Scott, Toe and us started off in the early morning at Dump Marsh and quickly spotted the Western and Tropical Kingbirds. Shortly afterwards we all got great looks at a Yellow Warbler. Nearby looking for a House Wren that was calling we located a Swamp Sparrow giving us killer looks. We checked the area around the second pond and flushed a Snipe and also found a White-crowned Sparrow that all four of us got amazing looks at. What an awesome bird!!
Afterwards we headed to Cutler Wetlands that had hundreds of gulls and scoped thru them in hopes of finding a Franklin's Gull or something better. We didn't find a Franklin's but it was nice to see a sprinkle of Lesser Black-backed Gulls mixed in with all the Laughing and Ring-billed. The lone Flamingo was still there along with several shorebird species including 4 American Avocets, Yellowlegs, Stilt Sandpipers and LB Dowitchers.
We then were off to Lucky Hammock and the surrounding areas. Shortly after we arrived we were treated to a calling Great Crested Flycatcher, which is always nice. We scoped out the Crested Caracara that was on a post in the distance towards the park boundary. The place was littered with Swainson's Hawks, which was AMAZING! At one point we had 30 in the air all at once!!! We enjoyed seeing a beautiful male Northern Harrier that hunted over the field and could hear the Sandhill Cranes calling in the distance. At Lucky we added Lincoln's Sparrow, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and RT Hummingbird to our day list. In the surrounding areas and sparrow spot we observed many Savannahs, several Grasshopper, 1 Vesper, 2 Clay-colored and great looks at a Le Conte's Sparrow! On the drive back we saw a beautiful dark morph Short-tailed Hawk.
We have to say any day you have 8 species of sparrow, 2 Tropical Kingbirds, a sky full of Swainson's Hawks and great company is an amazing day outdoors! We had a celebratory libation and talked about how awesome our over 100 species day in South Florida was today! In the words of Neil Diamond "Sweet caroline,
Good times never seemed so good!"
Above is a picture of a Grasshopper Sparrow and the day birds of interest are below:
Tropical Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Crested Caracara
Swainson's Hawk
Yellow Warbler
American Flamingo
American Avocet
Stilt Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Black-necked Stilt
Le Conte's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Nature is Awesome,
Angel & Mariel
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