Posted by Alex on July 06, 2003 at 22:38:10:
In Reply to: Re: Naples birds posted by Alex on July 06, 2003 at 11:42:26:
I meant to say I did not have Florida race Towhee, but I do have the Scrub Jays. I did not get to Tigertail as it was too out of the way. Instead we tried for Caracara near Corkscrew- no luck. We did get into the new Corkscrew visitor center, which i have not seen yet. There we got R.T. Hummingbird, Carolina Wren, even more Swallow-tailed Kite, and both vultures. I did not take the walk, but checked out the visitors center and found some Carolina Green Anoles. I am not used to the Carolina Greens and they were a special treat as the Green Anoles in Miami are around 95% Cuban Green Anole. I found a Carolina Wren nest too. It was a good trip with around 20 Swallow-tailed Kites and 68 bird species. One lifer- Rose-ringed Parakeet, and my little brother, 10 years old, got 7 lifers.
On the way back near Tamiami, we saw a 4-5 foot Florida Cottonmouth moving slowly farther away from the side of the oad. I am not sure if he was hit or not by a car but it is my first wild venemous snake I have ever seen. I also saw many Florida Green, Brown, and Florida Banded Watersnakes, aswell as both racer species dead on the road by the hundreds. It is so depressing to see all of these dead animals. In turn many vultures and mammals, mainly opossums and vultures are hit too when trying to take advantage of the road-kill. Oh well, if you see that many road-kill snakes, there must be much more in the area. It turned out to be a good trip. I almost forgot I saw Reddish Egrets, Dolphins, many Least Terns, Sandwich Terns, and many Common Ground Doves in Delnor Wiggens State
Park. I saw a healthy 15+ Ground-doves all together. One had me thinking Inca for a while because 2 or 3 of it tail feathers were lose and sticking out the back of the rest of the tail giving the bird another couple of inches to it's tail. Once I got a good view of the bird I realized it was a ground-dove. I ended the day in Miami with Yellow-crowned Night Heron and a Nighthawk. GREAT TRIP!!!!