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Posted by Bryant Roberts on 22:48:52 01/18/10
I visited Everglades National Park this weekend, camping at Long Pine Key and birding mostly in the Lucky Hammock area with a day trip to Flamingo. Some of the more interesting birds seen were: White-tailed Kite, Swainson s Hawks, Short-tailed Hawks, American Avocets, Least Flycatcher, Magnolia Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeak, Painted Buntings, Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel, and Lincoln s Sparrows.
On Saturday I went to Flamingo with unproductive stops at Mahogany Hammock and West Lake. Eco Pond had very few birds but there were about ten American Avocets in the small pond to the north. The gate at Bear Lake Road was locked so I hiked the road and trail; the best birds seen were a Magnolia Warbler along the road and a Worm-eating Warbler along the trail.
At Lucky Hammock on Sunday morning the songbird activity wasn t remarkable but later in the morning soaring raptors put on a good show with great looks at various ages and morphs of Swainson s and Short-tailed Hawks along with Red-shouldered, Red-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers.
After leaving Lucky Hammock I decided to walk north along the east bank of the canal between the road to Lucky Hammock and the entrance to Everglades National Park, it had always looked interesting but I d never had the time to check it out. As I headed north the sky got darker and the people fishing along the canal wisely hurried southward to their cars. After I walked the mile to the flood gate which was my destination brief showers began and I had to choose whether to take cover there or try to get back to my car, I decided to make a run for it. The sky to the west was getting more ominous and the two track road along the edge of the farm field east of the canal began looking like a better, more protected way back to my car so I found a way down to it and hurried south. Soon I noticed the calls of Grasshopper and Savannah Sparrows from the field and buntings from the bank edge and slowed down and gave the birds more attention. Ducking under some of the larger Saltbush during the brief showers I took shelter while I watched a White-tailed Kite hovering and kiting down at close range against a dark sky. Farther along between showers in a patch of cane I finally found something surprising; an adult female Dickcissel in the company of a few Painted buntings including an adult male. As the weather go worse I was delayed by a Lincoln s Sparrow and again by a Least Flycatcher. Finally within yards of my car another Lincoln s sparrow popped up and as I was watching it the rain started coming down in earnest and before I could take shelter I was soaked.
This area seemed worth a closer look so I began a more leisurely visit at sunrise Monday morning. I wasn t able to relocate the Dickcissel or the Least Flycatcher but soon had seen the first of at least six Lincoln s Sparrows, a Yellow-breasted Chat, along with three Painted and one Indigo Bunting. A little farther along I came upon a perched juvenile dark morph Swainson s Hawk which looked a lot like one that was soaring over Lucky Hammock the day before. Palm Warblers were abundant and I was able to pick out two of the yellow eastern race from the crowd. In the cane at the northwestern corner of the field I found a Blue Grosbeak. A White-tailed Kite was hunting over the fields later in the morning and I saw fifteen Grasshopper and many Savannah Sparrows and heard many more as I retraced my path to the parking area.
During my birding Monday morning I came upon the several day old carcass of an eight foot long Burmese Python with no obvious signs of trauma, which leads me to believe that it was a victim of the recent cold spell. The cold has also caused a large kill of exotic fish at Anhinga Trail.
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