Posted by Paul on December 28, 2003 at 12:32:51:
The Everglades trip of 12/27/03 was about 6 on a scale of 1-10. The weather was outstanding (68) light wind, but the birds are still dispersed because of high water. The Anhinga trail featured a Great blue Heron nest building and several anhingas already are sitting on eggs. An American bittern was along the trail path but indistinguishable in the tall grass.
Palm warblers were common and catbirds noticeably absent. A red shouldered hawk did a close up display by sitting in a tree about 7 feet from the bridge on the trail. All the good photo positions went quickly. The trail was very crowded and except for a few most people were oriental, or Indian/Pakistani. The Royal Palm ranger station had about 500 people crowded around it. A good number carried cruise line material so there must have been a junket in Miami port.
Eco-pond showed poorly. The cane has been sprayed and is dead but the debris still prevents good viewing. It will be some time before anybody ever again sees the glory that used to be Eco-pond. Cudjo is everywhere and with the clearing of Brazilian pepper is now the number one exotic. A White-morph was present and the usual characters (white ibis)
The eastern half of the campground is closed. No data on why or for how long. The Mexican population has the shore line littered with poles and debris. We counted 32 fishing poles (all but two unattended). They are set aboout 20 feet apart so there is no hope of viewing bird life along the shore.
The tide was full out and the mud flats had a good population. We saw flamingos and roseattes eastward near snake bight and reddish egrets were on the bar off the Mezzanine. Osprey are sitting eggs at several sites. Crocidiles were sleeping on the bank by the canoe rentals. (Don't think that didn't slow down rentals).
Mzarek pond still features many ducks most interesting of which are the pintails. One in particular held everyones' attention; because of its position under the mangrove branches and the light, and who knows what else, the head showed distinctly blue in color. Only when it emerged from the shade did it appear the normal pintail head. An unusal event.
Paurotis, West Lake and Nine mile were all absent wildlife. Large flocks of glossy ibis displayed along the road at the usual site south of the Pahayokee. It was road side viewing and they flushed and flew often. A great display. About 70-110 birds.
Research road was quiet also. Shrike, cardinals, mockingbirds were present and we were also treated to a 5 foot minimum rattlesnake. It was three fings wide at the midpoint and the head was about the side of a silver dollar. One of the biggest ones I have seen in the Park in 50 years.
The Vermilion flycatcher is still showing daily at the Park entrance We caught the early riser view and then the matinee as we left. Lucky Hammock, well, we didn't go there. Hunting season was open for dove and the "boys of autumn" and their weapons were all along the road. We did scope a light-phase short tail hawk in the field southeast of the hammock.
At Flamingo we also saw either grasshopper sparrow or savannah sparrow. Couldn't quite distinguish and they were deep buried in the unmown grass. Perky little guys, it was fun watchng them pull weed seeds.
The road side in and out of the park was dotted with all egrets and herons common thereto....Common, little blue, snowy, Wood Storks, Great Blue, cattle. A few hawks were present in the area of the dwarf cypress. Green back herons were abundant at paurotis.
A pleasant day, good viewing, short on photo-ops, but considering I had family with me, great company.