Posted by Susan Schneider on November 30, 2003 at 21:19:59:
I spent Thanksgiving at the main Everglades, exploring the area for the first time. Had so much fun I went back this morning! Nice to see these locations I've heard so much about, and nice that they're so close.
Thanks to Felipe for last-minute directions to the Vermilion Flycatcher. What a cooperative bird! Just like those amazing denizens of the Anhinga Trail that practically let you scratch their heads (what is it with the Black Vultures??). I can see why this trail is world-famous. So cool also to be able to see a
DC Cormorant swimming underwater.
Before getting to the V. flycatcher, I checked out the next-north canal and had a hedgerow bird too big for a bunting and with the wrong call notes, but otherwise similar to female Indigo. Right size for Brown-headed Cowbird, but the call notes were still wrong, and the color was a warmer brown. I'm guessing a possible female Shiny Cowbird (?), but I have no experience with this species. Comments welcome.
The Lucky Hammock highlights were four Sandhill Cranes on Thursday, and a dozen Common Ground-Doves plus over 100 Killdeer and a Cooper's Hawk this morning. I tried hard for a good look at numerous sparrows but got only unsatisfactory in-flight glimpses. Savannahs or Grasshoppers, I presume.
I found mainly birds that have already been reported for the various Everglades sites, so let me just add a few new ones. I had one American Robin somewhere along 9336 N. of Aerojet Road. One Magnolia Warbler along Research Road. One Sora whinnying at Eco Pond. Two Barred Owls duetting or dueling at dusk at Mahogany Hammock. I imagine everyone knows about the hundreds of White Pelicans flying over Flamingo as the tide rises (or falls), but it was such a breathtaking spectacle, let me mention it again.
What a great little loop trail from the Long Pine Key picnic area! I got mobbed by one probable Pine Warbler flyby, one Common Yellowthroat, one House Wren, and two Catbirds.
Parenthetical thought - I had more luck with warblers the previous week on the FIU campus! And despite the presence of thousands of Tree Swallows in the park, I felt lucky to get one glimpse of one swallow, and I'm not even sure it was a Tree. The Everglades are *large*, aren't they, and the birds dispersed. I only got Brown Thrasher at the very end of my morning today - a secretive bird that stared at me with its golden eye through a thick tangle, while I stared back.
But I was pleased with 75 species for the two trips, and lots more flora and fauna. Wow, got to see a Faithful Beauty day-flying moth, lovely name for a lovely creature. A lone Tree Snail at the top of a very short and skimpy tree--adaptation gone awry, if this is supposed to get it safely through the dry season. And interesting bird behaviors, including a Peregrine scattering the Florida Bay shorebirds at low tide, and an Anhinga pair entwining in what looked rather like courtship.
Good birding,
Susan
Susan Schneider