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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 11:42:13 11/30/09
Thursday 9/26 morning we headed out to Lucky Hammock and the park where we were in search of Sparrows and anything else that crossed our binocs. We started off the day at LH where there were hundreds of sparrows around, mostly Savannah and Grasshopper but we managed to find a Vesper Sparrow that gave us great looks in the scope. We followed Brian's advice to watch the sparrows from the edges of the fields with a scope instead of walking the fields, this allowed for us to have awesome views at plenty of birds giving us plenty of time to watch and observe each one. We also had a White-tailed Kite that flew 20 feet over our head which was incredible; it perched in the field which allowed us to watch in the scope while it preened for 10 minutes or so. Around 9 a.m. the sparrows really started to move around and that is when we had looks at a bird that Toe and Trey had in view that was a possible Le Conte's, the bird was seen with the sun behind it which sucked but pictures later proved the bird to be a Florida race Grasshopper Sparrow. We were running out of time but before we left we checked the hammock proper where we have N. Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Prairie, Palm, Cape May and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Painted Buntings, Great Crested Flycatchers (4), Gnatcatchers, Catbirds, Cardinals and a Rubythroated Hummingbird were also present. A calling Least Flycatcher was heard form the road and a flyover Pipit was a treat as well. Before heading out we took a look at the huge numbers of Vultures above and found one Swainson's Hawk, our first of the season!
We decided to head into the park as we wanted to check out Mahogany Hammock, we stopped at the visitor center where we had a Rufous Hummingbird in the firebush next to the restrooms. The bird flew in from the south and hovered over the bush but seemed not to be happy with the menu; we had quick looks at the bird then it quickly darted off north to be never seen again; we spent twenty minutes waiting for it to return but no dice. A White-eyed Vireo was doing it's thing nearby which was nice; plenty of Gnatcatchers, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers were here as well as a young Bald Eagle which soared above us. Mahogany Hammock was next on the agenda; it was pretty quite besides a Northern Parula, Prairie, BG Gnatcatcher, Yellow-rumps, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Belted Kingfisher, and a very photogenic Brown Thrasher that was thrashing around in the leaf litter. Since the birding was slow we decided to check out what fish were present as the water levels were pretty decent for this time of year, we saw plenty of Sailfin mollies including some breeding males displaying their blue tails, awesome! There were also lots Eastern mosquitofish, Marsh killifish, Golden topminnow, Least killifish and Florida flagfish and one Warmouth; no exotics, woo hoo! On our drive back we saved a Florida Softshell Turtle from certain death as it was sunning on the road, we also had several Red-shouldered Hawks one light morph Short-tailed Hawk and plenty of Vultures along with big numbers of Snowy Egret and Great Egrets. Most of the waders were represented in lesser numbers than the latter; we did enjoy the show a Tri-colored Heron that was putting on at a small covert where a 4 foot gator was hanging with it. The Tri-colored was dancing while trying to create shade in order to better see its prey below, what an amazing show! An Everglades Racer was also a nice find on the side of the road, it was acting as a grass blade in order for us not to notice it but it did not fool us as we were on it like a hawk. We headed out of the park and had a nice surprise in the form of three Scissor-tailed Flycatchers perched up on the wires at the entrance to Aero Jet Rd. the flycatchers were hawking so we decided to enjoy their show for a little while before heading out to Robert's for an awesome Pineapple/Strawberry shake. Nature is awesome and as always gives us hope for the next day. Two wonderful dinners with friends and family were to follow, left overs in the fridge, and plenty of sweets enjoyed this weekend made the Thanksgiving weekend great!
Last night as the sun set on a quick drive down the road to Chekika we spotted one Barn Owl, American Bittern, Yellow and Black-crowned Herons, Great Blue Heron, Wood Stork and a couple of other waders as well as a beautiful sunset. We were hopping to find a Short-eared Owl here but it would not be our day, there may be one but we did not see any =(
Nature is Awesome
Angel & Mariel
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