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Posted by Paul Bithorn on 16:03:45 07/26/10
Kevin Sarsfield and I ventured out on Saturday, July 24, 2010, to the sod farms and surrounding environs in Palm Beach, Highlands and Glades Counties to search for yearbirds and beerbirds. The weather was hot and steamy with scattered showers.
Our first stop, the Holeyland/Rotenberger W.M.A., produced a nice mix of species. We stopped at the water control structure west of the Chinese Fan Palm nursery and found a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, White-eyed Vireos, Carolina Wren and a Red-shouldered Hawk. Eastern Kingbirds, Purple Martins,Barn Swallows and Common Yellowthroats were seen along the road.
Least Bittern was seen in the cattails around a rockpit west of US 27. The sod farms along US 27 produced several Mottled Ducks, five Black and two Gull-billed Terns and a few Kildeer.
We headed to Browns Farm Road to several flooded fields across the canal where we found two Solitary Sandpipers, one White-rumped Sandpiper, five Pectoral Sandpipers, two Spotted Sandpipers, forty Least Sandpipers, twenty Greater Yellowlegs, sixty Lesser Yellowlegs, twenty Killdeer,forty Short-billed Dowitchers and eighty Black-necked Stilts, many with chicks,along with fourteen Black-bellied Whistling Ducks,three Fulvous Whistling Ducks and both Black-crowned and Yellow Crowned Night Herons. Purple Martins, Barn Swallows, Bank Swallows and Cliff Swallows were seen on wires along the road.
The Cypress Stand on Miami Canal had two barn Owls and we heard a Yellow Warbler.
The road to Uncle Joe's Fish Camp near Moore Haven had a King Rail feeding unabashedly along the side of the road.
We headed to Snake Road for the drive home where at least a dozen Crested Caracara, several Swallow-tailed Kites and a White-tailed Kite were seen.
We called it a day as we celebrated the beginning of fall migration in anticipation of the TAS August 28th Sod Farms Field Trip. Life is good............ as two old friends hoisted Warsteiner Dunkels as our celebratory libation.
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