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Posted by Vince Lucas on 15:54:56 08/01/10
Yesterday, July 31, 2010, Pete Thayer and I birded Dinner Island Ranch WMA in Hendry County and the Palm beach County sod farms south of South bay and Belle Glade. We left Naples at about 5:45AM and arrived at Dinner Island Ranch shortly after sunrise. On our way out CR846, east of Immokalee, just over the Collier County/Hendry County line, we had a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck flyby. Further east on CR846 before the junction of CR833, he had three different Snail Kites and 8-10 Limpkins in various places. In one small wetland field alone, there were six Limpkins all feeding communally. Dinner Island Ranch was great as usual. We saw many of the expected waders but the highlights had to be the three King Rails that came out of the wetland pass the hunter's check-in kiosk and which walked in front of us on the road, not twenty feet from where we stood. Thanks to Don MacKrell for some pointers on where to find these birds at dinner island Ranch. There were many Eastern Meadowlarks, mostly juveniles, everywhere. Northern Bobwhites were calling as were Sandhill Cranes. An unexpected Barred owl in a distant tree was a nice find. Red-shouldered Hawks and at least one Belted Kingfisher and several Green Herons all stood sentinel on the various powerlines. Crested Caracara were present as usual, too. White-tailed Deer were fairly common as well. A pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks was also nice to see. We next went north to Clewiston and easily found the Common Mynas at the Burger King on route 80. At the Walmart in town, numerous Barn Swallows were hawing insects in and around the box store. On the way out, a family of four Gray Kingbirds were perched on the telephone line as we exited back to route 80.
Along the Miami Canal, we found two Barn Owls in the champion Red Cedars but the views of these birds were fleeting. Many swallows, mostly Barns (ubiquitous everywhere we went throughout the day) and some Cliff swallows, were sitting on the powerlines along the canal or hawking insects. Try as we might, we could not find one Bank Swallow at this site nor anywhere else all day long. Note: there were literally thousands of Wandering Gliders (Globe Skimmers) everywhere we went. Some of the swarms in in the high hundreds for sure. Migration for that Odonate, at least, is in full swing south of Lake Okeechobee. A pair of Eastern Kingbirds was present as was an unidentified "yellowish" warbler that did not give us satisfactory looks.
We next tried to find suitable habitat i.e. sod farms along US Rte. 27 south of he microwave tower south of Okeelanta Sugar Refinery and found the former sod fields but it seems this year, sugarcane is a much more profitable crop to grow. Pete speculated that with the bust in the building economy in places like Ft. Myers and naples, there isn't as much as a demand for sod so farmers are utilizing the land to grow more sugarcane. Good theory. We did find some sod fields along US Rte. 27 namely at the King Ranch and a few other properties. However, none of them held any water, not even a puddle, so the only shorebirds we could find there were Killdeer. On the other hand, we did find some fields that had been freshly flooded (to combat nematodes) and in these fields along US Rte. 27, we did find many Black-necked Stilts, Lesser Yellowlegs, a few Pectoral Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers. Several Black Terns made a pass through the flooded field as well.
Our best birding this day would come as we made our way to Browns Farm Road at Six Mile Bend. In another plowed field we had hundreds of Glossy Ibis, well over 25 Gull-billed Terns, 15 or so Least Terns, 3 Caspian Terns, a few Forsters Terns and a half-dozen or so Black Terns. There were 22 Roseate Spoonbills feeding together as well as hundreds of the usual waders including many Wood Storks. Shorebirds included on Spotted Sandpiper, both yellowlegs, many Least Sandpipers, one Black-bellied Plover, many Pectoral Sandpipers, hundreds of Black-necked Stilts, Killdeer and one American Avocet still in breeding plumage. There were several dozen Laughing Gulls in various stages of molt plus one lone Black Skimmer.
A few Belted Kingfishers were also seen somewhere during the day but I did not take note of where since I saw my FOTS a couple of weeks ago at STA-5.
Further afield, we made our way over to Gladeview Rd (former Roth Sod Farm property) further east off of CR-880. Here we hit the mother lode of flooded fields/muck fields. The number of Glossy Ibis and other waders was astonishing. Best birds here were five more American Avocets along with more of the various tern species and shorebirds. Many, many Common Nighthawks were flying everywhere but the most interesting behaviors observed were one CONI plucking some sort of insect out of the water along the canal/ditch that parallels this road. No, it was not "drinking" water. Lots of other CONIs were sitting on little mounds of the black loam in the flooded field. If you didn't know to look at these mounds, one would never see them as they blend in very well. There were hundreds of Laughing Gulls, many of them juveniles, in various plumages too.
We didn't have any of the better shorebirds (other than perhaps the American Avocets) but it was a great day anyway. Those pesky dowitchers out there avoided certain identification because they were too distant and the heat shimmer didn't allow for close scrutiny. If i had to guess, i'd say most if not all were Short-billed dowitchers due to their coloration and "jizz". We counted well over 300 Fulvous Whistling Ducks at this location. One set of parents was chaperoning over thirty ducklings in a line. Too cute. The only other ducks here were Mottled Ducks. Did I mention that it was wicked hot out there? I'll definitely be back though in the coming weeks, perhaps hooking up with TAS on their fieldtrip on August 28th.
Lastly, we went back to Naples via Snake Rd./Government Rd/CR 833 or whatever this road is properly called via I-75 (Alligator Alley). We looked in vain for the White-tailed Kite that Paul Bithorn reported from this location a week ago but could not find it. He had to settle for a consolation prize of Swallow-tailed Kite instead. Such a graceful bird.
Good birding to all.
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