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Posted by Bill Boeringer on 23:03:52 12/26/09
After leaving Cutler Wetlands, I went to start my area at Thompson Park. I was relieved to pick up a Towhee on the drive in, as this is the only place to get the bird in the circle.
The lake was quiet, but the pavilion/playground area had a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-headed Vireo, and lots of Yellow-rupmed (Myrtle) Warblers. I also picked up a second Towhee and House Wren.
Tamiami airport area is increasingly difficult to bird due to building and traffic. The south side road yielded 1 Burrowing Owl and several Meadowlarks--a good thing since I could find neither on the airport roads. There was also a Harrier in the southwest corner.
The lakes in the area are now mostly inaccessible due to gated communities with guards. I did find one accessible area and picked up 15 Ring-necked Ducks.
Metrozoo was fairly birdy, even beyond the waders (esp. Black-crowned Night Herons) that i targeted. I had 6 sp. of warblers (Palm, Prairie, Parula, Redstart, Magnolia, and Ovenbird, plus 2 Blue-headed Vireos and a light form Short-tailed Hawk.
Most time was spent simply driving neighborhoods such as Country Walk, looking for lakes, trees, and birds. And canals--lots of canal birds including a range of oddball geese. The best bird of the afternoon was late, as I swung by Miami-Dade CC and found a female Hooded Merganser in one of the ponds. The day ended with a peacock roundup in a neighborhood near mine; I tallied 28 and I'm sure there are more...
The day's tally:
Muscovy Duck - 120
Mallard - 1
Ring-necked Duck - 15
Hooded Merganser - 1
Pied-billed Grebe - 7
Double-crested Cormorant - 6
Great Blue Heron - 3
Great Egret - 18
Snowy Egret - 5
Little Blue Heron - 2
Tricolored Heron - 2
Cattle Egret - 22
Green Heron - 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 10
White Ibis - 335
Wood Stork - 8
Black Vulture - 12
Turkey Vulture - 79
Northern Harrier - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Short-tailed Hawk - 1 - light
American Kestrel - 11
Common Moorhen - 22
American Coot - 89
Killdeer - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 80
Rock Pigeon - 162
Eurasian Collared-Dove - 276
White-winged Dove - 1
Mourning Dove - 62
Monk Parakeet - 56
Black-hooded Parakeet - 5
Burrowing Owl - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 5
Northern Flicker - 1
Loggerhead Shrike - 18
Blue-headed Vireo - 3
Blue Jay - 20
House Wren - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 12
Northern Mockingbird - 29
European Starling - 141
Common Myna - 2
Northern Parula - 2
Magnolia Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 23
Prairie Warbler - 1
Palm Warbler - 27
American Redstart - 2
Ovenbird - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Eastern Towhee - 2
Northern Cardinal - 5
Red-winged Blackbird - 3
Eastern Meadowlark - 3
Common Grackle - 33
Boat-tailed Grackle - 75
House Sparrow - 3
Peafowl- 28
domesticated/hybridized geese - 11
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