Posted by Rock Jetty on September 21, 2003 at 23:12:24:
A busy morning kept me from participating in today's TAS walk over at A.D. Barnes. No worries I said, I still had some morning and the entire afternoon left to go on a birding expedition. After talking to LaPuma over the phone, birding the middle keys in search of raptors was an option...the windy conditions made it promising. A call from Stefan informing me of the Nashville Warbler and all the other goodies found at Barnes brought tears to my eyes (it was probably dust). Oh well, again no worries, I was set on having a good birding day but the question was...where do I bird?
Finally, I decided I would try my luck with the Pluvialis plovers Stefan found yesterday as he was doing the count. Upon reaching the exact location Stefan described in his posting I found what I believe to be the same flock (minus one, or maybe I just missed one) he saw on Saturday. Careful examination of this flock yielded 28 Black-bellied Plovers and 1 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. Nice.
Afterwards, a trip to Lucky Hammock rewarded me with great looks at a PEREGRINE FALCON! The bird was on the ground in the field immediately to the north of the hammock. A FOS AMERICAN KESTREL made an appearance on the powerlines along SR9336 as I was leaving Lucky Hammock. Always a pleasure to see the kestrels again.
The last stop of the day was A.D. Barnes (why not?) My hopes of locating the Nashville Warbler soon faded as I entered Barnes and realized there were about 1 billion people (give or take a few thousand) spread throughout the park. Amidst the noise and chaos, I was able to spot five species of warbler (all previously identified by the TAS participants this morning) by the nature trail. Also seen were Blue-gray Gnatties, a Chuck-will's-widow, and a Veery. No Nashville. Tomorrow morning I'll try my luck once again. I just hope this doesn't turn into another Bithorn vs. the Grassquit fiasco.
Just kidding Paul.
Cheers,
Raul...ahem, I mean Rock Jetty