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Posted by tricia on 09:10:48 12/01/08
What a weekend!
4 new Life birds,old friends and new friends made this Thanksgiving a week to remember.
I started off with neat encounter with the Yellowheaded Blackbird and its cowbird cohorts on Friday morning.Once again that pesky cowbird was being overly demanding and this time a male Brown Headed Cowibird intervened on the YHB's behalf by grabbing the pest by the tail and hanging it upside down from the wires until it cried uncle.I got the whole procedure in pics but I wish Steve S was there to capture it on video.
Saturday I ran down to Mrazak Pond to check out the pintails and ran into Paul -the-other . Carol and Ellie were out looking for Flamingos and the ever gracious Paul invited me to accompany him on the next trip out.As it turned out, I went for my first ever boat trip to the Snake Bight area with none other Mr Sonny Bass himself! It was great to finally put a face to the name,but finding and watching a LONG BILLED CURLEW put the whole adventure over the top. We watched it probe the muck with that incredibly long bill and even catching and juggling a crab before eating it.To top it off, the bird was feeding directly in front of us with not a care in the world.
Sunday, Eagle eye and I headed up to Pelican Island for the Fork Tailed FLycatcher.Arriving at 730, we were greeted by a quick deluge of rain that did clear but left VERY windy and overcast skies in its wake. Despite the rain and wind,the Forktail popped out and flew out to a small oak tree providing great views as it tried to hang on in the wind . It preened itself, hovered over the small pond and returned to another tree to hork up a bug ball and then was gone in the wind.
I turned round to find John and Chadda Shelley, some of my favorite birding folks from the Palm Beach area. It was really nice to meet up with them again.
We headed off to Merritt Island in search of the Ross' Geese.
At stop #2 we found Canvasbacks,American Wigeon (tons),Gadwall,Shovelers,Hooded Mergansers,Red Breasted Mergies, White Pelicans and Spoonies. Probably other cool things too but there was little light so we headed to stop #7 where we found 3 Snow Geese, a blue, a white and a juvie that looked like it wanted to turn blue. just up the road there was a car blocking the road so we walked up to see what the folks were looking at ("those pink birds"). I found the Ross' Geese behind a clump of bush just to the north of the "pink birds" and they came out in the open just as the Shelleys arrived with their scope.
Next stop was the home of the Cockerhams and their Buff breasted Hummingbird.The weather was really turning ugly but we had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mr Cockerham and seeing his beautiful Buff Bellied Hummer before the rains overtook us.
Mr Cockerham told us he had moved his hummingbird feeders to the front yard to better share this marvelous find with birders.If you run into him please be sure to thank him for his generous efforts.
Taking our leave, we headed over to Dixie Crossroads for some corn fritters and Rock Shrimp before we had to drive home in some really yucky weather.
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