Belle Glade trip Sun July 29: UPLAND SANDPIPER & DICKCISSEL

Subject:

Comments:
: Mad-Dog Davis, Golden-Boy Galvez and D-La-P took a little trip to the Belle Glade area on Sunday (29 Jul 01) and found the following avifauna sprinkled atop several sod farms, sugar cane fields, radio towers, canals, and sand pits. : We started at the radio tower on Rte. 27 south of Belle Glade, where after ½ hour of scanning we turned up three beautiful UPLAND SANDPIPERS (thanks to Paul B. and Mort C. for the introduction to this place two years ago!). The birds were at the far end of the fields making viewing difficult, so we took some of the dirt roads and caught up with them. It seemed like every time we got close, they’d disappear.... very discouraging at first. While on the far side of the fields we had one fly over us and let out about ½ of it’s ::really cool!:: call. We would return in the afternoon when the clouds had eliminated the heat distortion and find one bird within really nice scoping distance...we all now agree that we’re in love with Upland’s! : : We surveyed the flooded fields on the westerly road about ¼ mile south of the tower, as well as those along Rte. 27 from that point through Belle Glade on Rte. 80 and onto the UF research station on Rte. 880. This is a really good time to get brushed up on the peeps, as there were many Westerns with rufous showing, making them quite distinguishable from the Semipalms. The full list follows below, but fist another little ditty: : : Just as we were about to call it a day we decided to hit the Holey Land WMA just north of the Broward Co. / Palm Beach Co. line. This place never seemed appealing to me, nor did the local flavor of hunters and thrill seekers tearing up and down the road make for a pleasant experience. What I didn’t know is that this place is a great migrant trap! Some of the “regulars” were seen (Smooth-billed Ani) yet some were not (Limpkin, White-tailed Kite), but the coolest sighting was a beautiful male DICKSISSEL perched on one of the leafless trees along the far side of the canal (3.3 miles from entrance on main road, just after two consecutive “pull off” areas). The bird was not singing a full song, but was uttering some guttural “clicks” while lightly pumping its tail.... weird! The bird hung around for the ½ hour that we watched it and was there when we left. It didn’t seem to be associating with any other birds (unlike the group of DICK’s, BLGR’s, and INBU’s in Kendall last winter/spring). Also present at various points along the canal were: Prairie Warbler, Am. Redstart, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Carolina Wren, Great-crested Flycatcher, and Brown Thrasher. : : All in all, a good trip, but the area could use a little more water and a little less sugarcane. Duda farms is mostly planted right now, and the puddles that are in there are emptier than those more easily accessed from Rte. 27 (there’s one at King Ranch that’s “rockin’!”), besides, the areas that had birds were covered with nuclear looking sludge and full of flies.... poor birds, they know not what they eat. : : : : cheers : : The Underground Holistic Birding Movement : Miami, FL : : “Enjoy the wonder of birds, and use a checklist only as a reference” : : The List (in no particular order) : Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs : Black-necked Stilt : The Peeps: Semipalmated, Western, and Least Sandpipers : The Peeping Toms: Pectoral, Stilt, and Upland Sandpipers : Short-billed Dowitcher : Semipalmated Plover : Black Bellied Plover : Killdeer : Bank Swallow (the sandpits southwest of the radio tower on Rte. 27...dirt road is 1/4mi south of tower) : Barn Swallow : Double-crested Cormorant : Anhinga : Mottled Duck (Flooded field at King Ranch, Rte. 27) : Fulvous Whistling Duck (Flooded field at King Ranch, Rte. 27) : Gull-billed Tern (Flooded field at King Ranch, Rte. 27) : Black Tern (Flooded field at King Ranch, Rte. 27) : Least Tern : Glossy Ibis : White Ibis : Wood Stork (UF Research Center, aka X-Files, just east of Duda Road on S.R. 880) : Roseate Spoonbill (UF Research Center, aka X-Files, just east of Duda Road on S.R. 880; Flooded field at King Ranch, Rte. 27) : Tricolored Heron : Great Blue Heron : Black-crowned Night-Heron : Yellow-crowned Night-Heron : Green Heron : Great Egret : Snowy Egret : Cattle Egret (both aberrant forms shown in the Sibley guide were present in the fields by the radio tower!) : Common Moorhen : Red-shouldered Hawk : Turkey Vulture : Black Vulture : Osprey : Yellow-billed Cuckoo : Smooth-billed Ani (Holey Land WMA, just north of the Broward Co. / Palm Beach Co. line, birds were seen appx. 2mi down main road from entrance, on the canal side) : Carolina Wren : Great-crested Flycatcher : Gray Kingbird : Eastern Kingbird : Loggerhead Shrike : White-eyed Vireo : Prairie Warbler : Common Yellowthroat : Blue-gray Gnatcatcher : American Redstart : Dickcissel (see beginning of post for directions) : Belted Kingfisher : Boat-tailed Grackle : Common Grackle : Red-winged Blackbird : Eastern Meadowlark : Bobwhite : Common Nighthawk : Northern Mockingbird : Brown Thrasher : Northern Cardinal : Eastern Towhee : Common Ground Dove : Mourning Dove : Eurasian Collared Dove : Rock Dove : European Starling : House sparrow :

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: