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Posted by Vince Lucas on 14:21:55 11/30/08
I won't bore you with our "before" and "after" STA-5 unofficial tour birds seen on 11/29/2008. However, we did see plenty of our usual good birds on the way out to STA-5 including a Great White Heron on CR833 just north of its intersection with CR835. I photographed this bird and I'm attaching the photo here.
On the return trip back to Naples, there were a 8 or so Western Kingbirds and 3 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on the wires along CR835 in the vicinity of the Deer Fence Canal. Having said that, I need to get something off of my chest. If you read these reports I send out after every STA-5 trip, you will note that I always mention the vibrant Farm 8 Wetlands just north of the defunct Ocean Boy Organic Shrimp Farm on CR835. This healthy wetland houses up to a dozen Snail Kites, at least one of which is fitted with a transmitter for migration studies, 25+ Limpkins and all the other waders including Roseate Spoonbills. Shorebirds are usually not plentiful but we always see some, including one White-rumped Sandpiper seen earlier in the year and an American Avocet seen on 11/29/2008. So this message is for the person or persons responsible for the current draining of this precious wetland: I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY FOR DRAINING THIS VITAL AND BEAUTIFUL WETLAND!! I apologize if I have offended anyone but that's how I feel! It's a real ecological tragedy to see such a vital and vibrant resource for so many birds and other animals that need this wetland to survive being wasted (for agriculture?). It will all be gone soon I fear. Having said that, the drain-down has left some nice habitat for shorebirds and there were many of them at Farm 8 Wetlands yesterday. They included: one American Avocet (1 bird seen in the morning on the way to STA-5), Killdeer, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's Snipe, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs and Dunlin. I estimate there were well over 300 shorebirds present and that is a conservative estimate. After this wetland is completely dry, I have no idea if the Apple Snails and the Snail Kites and Limpkins that utilize them will somehow survive. Perhaps they will along the canal that parallels CR835 that the Farm 8 Wetlands is being drained into? I don't know. . . . OK, enough of this rant. We did manage to add another new species (#165) to the growing STA-5 checklist, which includes Blumberg Road from its intersection with CR835 as well as STA-5 proper: Barred Owl! It was found in the daytime (obviously) perched in a cypress tree by an African American birder LaQuise Bryant, who was on the tour with her mother. They are from down Miami way. It was good to see them as we've never had any African Americans on the tour -- at least I'm not aware of any. There are a couple of good articles on minorities and birding in recent birding publications that you may want to read:
"Birding For Everyone: A Comparative Analysis of Participation by Minorities in Birding" by John C. Robinson et al. in _Biridng_ Vol. 40, No. 6, November/December 2008, pp.53-58
and
"A More Colorful Spectrum" by Dudley Edmondson in _WildBird_ Vol. 22, No. 6, November/December 2008, pp. 44-47.
Lastly, beside the birds at STA-5 yesterday, we also saw a couple of other "unusual" critters/behaviors. The first was a River Otter taking a dirt bath in the middle of one of the cell roads at STA-5. We watched for a couple of minutes while the otter rolled over and over on its back and stomach trying to rid its fur of something foreign. Afterward, when Alan Murray and I got to the location where the otter had been, we noticed some black substance (probably scat) in the road. Perhaps this was what the otter was trying to dislodge from its fur? The other sighting was a first for many of us, including me. There were a pair of the endangered Indigo Snake (in copula?) that I think LaQuise Bryant found. We really couldn't make out how big these snakes were because they were 150 feet or so across a canal but they were big! Nice find LaQuise! Please come on more of our tours!
With no further ado, here is the list of birds seen on the November 29, 2008 tour. Highlights are in caps:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 300
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 400
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail 200
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Ruddy Duck 2
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American Bittern 4
Great Blue Heron
GREAT WHITE HERON 2
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill (less than 10)
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
SNAIL KITE 5
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara 3
American Kestrel 15
KING RAIL 1
Sora 5
PURPLE SWAMPHEN 6+
Purple Gallinule 1
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Limpkin 1
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt 50+
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
BARRED OWL (#165 for the STA-5 checklist)
Belted Kingfisher
Eastern Phoebe
CASSIN'S KINGBIRD (Probable. Too far away to make a definitive ID in my mind.) 1
Western Kingbird 5
SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 1
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
CAVE SWALLOW 2 (Excellent looks at these birds as they perched on wires in good light)
BARN SWALLOW 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Gray Catbird 4
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Savannah Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Boat-tailed Grackle
Thanks again to Margaret England and Stephen Buczynski of the Hendry-Glades Audubon Society for organizing the tours and thanks to all the great folks who come out on these tours. The full 2008-2009 STA-5 tour schedule can be found here:
http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/sta.html
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