Posted by Michelle Davis on September 13, 2001 at 09:34:18:
I did a sunset tour of the fields between the Homestead Motor Speedway & the air force base and saw a few flocks of black-bellied plovers and at least 15 Pectoral sandpipers- I was handicapped by the lack of a scope so there were others out there too far to see that were being occasionally stirred up by some hunting red-shouldered hawks.
As I was watching the shorebirds flock after flock of Bobolinks were passing over to the southeast, so I went driving off to see where they were going. They were dropping down into some cattails in between the road to Biscayne & the road to Turkey Pt; they then flew low across the street I was parked on to their final roost. I was treated to a spectacle of thousands of these guys skimming just over the tops of the brush and top of my car. Also, an Empid of the Acadian or Traill's variety was foraging in the shrubs bordering the road, picking off fruit like it thought it was a kingbird or something!
All in all a peaceful night; it felt good to just watch birds after the horrors of the last couple of days.
Peace