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Posted by John Boyd on 14:57:43 04/04/09
About 20 birders joined me for today's TAS birdwalk at Cape Florida. Birding at this time of year is highly unpredictable. A given day can bring feast or famine. Given last night's radar, I was somewhat concerned that the birders might outnumber the birds. This seemed a distinct possibility after we failed to find any warblers on the bike path. A couple of looks at the bay gave us Great Egret, DC Cormorant, Royal Tern, and a few others, so we weren't completely skunked...but close.
We continued down to the tip. After failing to discern any Brown Boobies on the Fowey Rocks light, we headed back to the parking lot. At this point our luck got better. A Merlin flew over. Then a warbler crossed our path. A search for it turned up Prairie Warbler and Redstart. I'm not sure we ever saw the original bird, but these made us a bit happier. Then we heard a Gray Kingbird call, which we quickly found. It was an FOY bird for most of us (none of this wimpy FOS stuff).
A Common Yellowthroat was found by the entrance to the lighthouse area (we found several before the day was over). As we started down the path to the lighthouse, we spotted another small bird...Blue-headed Vireo, and then a Palm Warbler in the same area (warbler #4).
A flock of 16 Black-necked Stilts flying by the lighthouse were a pleasant surprise. We did the loop trail, with a Chuck-will's-widow being the only bird of note.
After leaving the lighthouse area, we encountered several birds (BH Vireo, Palm, Kingbird) that we had likely seen before. We then started our return to the No Name parking lot via the nature trail. We were quite surprised to hear a probable LOS Eastern Phoebe calling. It quickly came into view as we walked the trail. This is a new late spring record for me, beating a 2001 bird by 1 day.
A number of Gray Catbirds were heard along the trail. We got some decent looks at Ground-Doves, which were surprisingly common. A distant perched raptor was likely a Merlin. Eventually, we found a tree with a few birds: Catbird, Parula, and one that got away. A Frigatebird cruised by overhead, and at some point a Cooper's Hawk flew by.
A few of us stayed for lunch. A vulture kettle seen during lunch included a Frigatebird and 2 Broad-winged Hawks.
And yes, we ended up with more bird species (30) than birders.
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