Re: Palm Beach Sod Farms

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: Brian, Raul & Stefan: : Here's my recent post to the "other" listserves regarding the two Vince's birding trip to the Palm Beach Sod Farms today, 07/24/03. BTW, nice meeting you Raul & Stefan! : Vince Lucas : Naples : All: : The two Vinces decided to do some birding today to look for migrants as well as some year birds etc. Before I list what birds we saw, I want to relate the route we took because it is confusing and most maps depicting these areas are wrong. If you have a DeLorme Gazatteer, you might want to look at it and follow along. We started out from Naples this morning at 6:00AM and took C.R. 846 (Immokalee Rd.) all the way to where it connects with C.R. 833 in Hendry County. Instead of taking C.R. 833 north (DeLorme page 113, A-0 in crease of page), to where it comes out on S.R. 80 to the west of Clewiston, we took C.R. 833 east to where it connects with C.R. 835. The DeLorme Gazetteer has this wrong at this point. On page 113, it calls this road C.R. 846 (DeLorme A-1). This is actually C.R. 835 and it is signed as such. We birded C.R. 835 to where it comes out on U.S. Rte. 27/S.R. 80 to the east of Clewiston. We then took U.S. Rte. 27 southeast to the road that parallels the Miami Canal. The road is unmarked and can be accessed almost directly across from John Stretch Park (not named in the DeLorme Gazetteer) near Lake Harbor (DeLorme page 113, C-3). We birded the Miami canal to where it hooks up with the road that parallels the Bolles Canal. This is C.R. 827 I believe. (Cf. DeLorme page 107, D-3). We then took C.R. 827 east to where it hooks back up to U.S. 27 (DeLorme page 108, C-1). After birding the surrounding sod farms, we headed south on U.S. Rte. 27 for a brief stop at the Everglades Wonder Gardens (Broward County) for Monk Parakeets. Next we stopped at the mitigation wetlands along S.W. 196th in Pembroke Pines to look for any White-tailed Kites. We didn't find any :>( From there we went to the Southwest Regional Library Mitigation Ponds off of Sheridan Rd. in Pembroke Pines for Purple Swamphens etc. We then took S.R. 997 to U.S. Rte. 41 and headed west birding Loop Rd. in the Big Cypress National Preserve and afterward, we finished our day together at the Fritchey Road Wetlands in Naples. : If you're still reading this, we had a total of 84 species. Here is a list of our best sightings in the order we saw them. : Crested Caracara -- x4 in a dead tree on C.R. 846 to the east of Immokalee (Collier Co.). Also, x6 at various locations along C.R. 835 in Hendry County. : Bald Eagle -- x1 along C.R. 846 near Immokalee (Collier County) : Northern Bobwhite -- x6 at the junction of C.R. 835 and the L-1 Canal (Hendry County) : Burrowing Owl -- x4 at the junction of C.R. 835 and the L-1 Canal (Hendry County) : Brown Thrasher -- x1 at the junction of C.R. 835 and the L-1 Canal (Hendry County) : Gray Kingbird -- x1 at the junction of C.R. 835 and the L-1 Canal (Hendry County) : Barred Owl -- x1 (found dead along C.R. 835 in Hendry County) : Eastern Towhee -- x1 at the junction of C.R. 835 and the L-1 Canal (Hendry County) and x1 along Loop Rd. in Monroe County. : Barn Owl -- x2 along the Miami Canal (Palm Beach County) and x3 along the Bolles Canal (C.R. 827 in Palm Beach County) : Spotted Sandpiper -- x1 along the Miami Canal (Palm Beach County) : Chimney Swift -- x2 along the Miami Canal (Palm Beach County) : Fulvous Whistling-Duck -- x4 along the Bolles Canal (C.R. 827 in Palm Beach County) : Smooth-billed Ani -- x6 along the Bolles Canal (C.R. 827 in Palm Beach County) : Purple Gallinule (adult + young) along the Bolles Canal (C.R. 827 in Palm Beach County) and x1 at the Southwest Regional Library Mitigation Ponds off of Sheridan Rd. (Broward County) : Great White Heron -- x1 along the Bolles Canal (C.R. 827 in Palm Beach County) : American White Pelican -- x100+ at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Roseate Spoonbill -- x15 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : King Rail -- x1 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Western Sandpiper -- x1 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Least Sandpiper -- x50+ at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Pectoral Sandpiper -- x2 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Stilt Sandpiper -- x1 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Wood Stork -- x200+ at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Gull-billed Tern -- x1 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Black Tern -- x4 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Least Tern -- x1 at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County) : Monk Parakeet -- colony at Everglades Wonder Park (Broward County) : Least Bittern -- x1 at the mitigation wetlands along S.W. 196th in Pembroke Pines (Broward County) : Purple Swamphen -- x1 at the Southwest Regional Library Mitigation Ponds off of Sheridan Rd. (Broward County) : Eastern Kingbird -- x3 along Loop Rd. in Monroe County : Eastern Bluebird -- x1 along Loop Rd. in Monroe County : Yellow-throated Warbler -- x1 along Loop Rd. in Monroe County : Black-and-white Warbler -- x1 along Loop Rd. in Collier County : Ruby-throated Hummingbird -- x1 (female) feeding at Firebush (Hamelia patens) along Loop Road in Collier County : Northern Flicker -- x1 along Loop Rd. in Monroe County and x1 along Loop Rd. in Collier County : Snail Kite -- x2 at Fritchey Road Wetlands in Collier County : Limpkin -- x1 at Fritchey Road Wetlands in Collier County : There were also scores of the usual Black-necked Stilts, Killdeer and Lesser Yellowlegs at the King Ranch Sod Farms off of U.S. Rte. 27 (Palm Beach County). We could not locate any Upland or Solitary Sandpipers nor American Golden-Plovers or Wilson's Phalaropes at this or any other locale. We were probably too early. . . . : Lastly, we were unable to locate any other migrant passerines, especially warblers. We had hoped to find the resident Prothonotary Warblers as well as the recently seen Tricolored Munias along Loop Road but to no avail. Nor did we see the "usual" Tufted Titmice or Pine Warblers. No Loggerhead Shrikes were seen on Loop Road as well. : Vince Lucas

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