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Posted by Vince Lucas on 13:08:41 01/16/09
Although visiting Alachua County birders Mary Landsman and Ellen Chen brought some nastily cold weather with them from "Up North", they apparently also brought some good luck with them as well. I say that because I have never seen three Short-tailed Hawks in Collier County in one day. However, this morning that is exactly what occurred. First, we saw a pair about one mile west of S.R. 29 on Oil Well Rd. (aka CR 858) and it was a pair containing one light morph and one dark morph! I've never seen a "mixed" pair before anywhere in Florida, although I have seen both light and dark morphs in the same day -- but separately. Next, we saw another dark morph STHA mixed in with a group of Black Vultures about another mile west on Oil Well Rd., west of where we had seen the first pair. All three of these birds seemed to "hover" right above us as they ascended on thermals. Way cool. We were delighted. The morning started out from my house in Naples at 8:30AM so that the birds could have a chance to "warm up". Our plan was to visit my friend's feeders in Immokalee for Painted & Indigo Buntings, White-winged Dove, Chipping Sparrow and whatever else was around. Before we reached Immokalee though, we found a banded Crested Caracara. (See my other post about this specific bird.) We had plenty of the buntings, sparrows and doves at my friend's feeders. Obviously, these birds were HUNGRY from spending the night in the cold. I counted about 6-7 Painted Buntings (at least three males), a dozen or more Indigo Buntings, two White-winged Doves and 15 or so Chipping Sparrows present at the feeders. We only spent about 45 minutes watching the feeders before we moved on. Needless to say, the ladies were very happy to see all of these birds so "easily". In a farm pond east of Immokalee, there were quite a few Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs affording a nice side-by-side comparison. On CR 858 on the Collier/Hendry County line, we could not locate any Western Kingbirds nor Scissor-tailed Flycatchers probably because it was so windy and "cool". However, when we made the turn west on Oil Well Rd. by the Hendry County Correctional Facility, we did see two Western Kingbirds about 1/2 mile west after the right turn in the road. I saw two more WEKIs about 1/4 mile further west as well. A mile or so from Sunniland on Oil Well Rd., we stopped in the weedy field on the south side of the road to try for Grasshopper Sparrows. Although at least three were inquisitive when they heard their song via my iPod, none would show themselves well. The new town of Ave Maria didn't afford any new birds for the morning's list, but the ladies got to see this town and the "nouveau" Gothic-style oratory and college campus that seemingly "sprung-up" from the surrounding agricultural fields by the hands of billionaire Domino's Pizza King Tom Monaghan. Other nice birds this morning were Northern Harrier, Black-crowned Night-Heron and several of our pale Red-shouldered Hawks. Both Mary and Ellen visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary after we went our separate ways so they may have other birds to report.
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