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Posted by Rock Jetty on 08:13:28 10/17/10
In Reply to: TAS South Dade Trip posted by John Boyd
After a brief report from trip pseudo-leader Toe, I decided to visit Luck Hammock for a birding fix. About a dozen Northern Harriers patrolled the area immediately south of Lucky Hammock, just north of it, the fields east of Aerojet Road, and those north of SR9336. Two Scissor-tailed Flycatchers loitered the southeast corner of the Aerojet Road/SR9336 intersection - the same area where the TAS group had seen one in the morning. No sign of the Crested Caracara. Several Indigo Buntings frequented the grassy area on the east side of the hammock proper.
My attention was drawn to a flock of shorebirds that took off from the fields directly south of Luck Hammock. It was a good-sized flock that contained different-sized birds and called as a Northern Harrier made several passes over the field. The birds eventually settled back where there were several good-sized puddles in the field. Most of the birds were Pectoral sandpipers, two Wilson's Snipe, one Least Sandpiper, one Solitary Sandpiper, and one...Baird's Sandpiper??? Long story short, I never got a confirmed ID on the bird. Toe even came over to help me relocate it (raptors - Cooper's Hawks and Northern Harriers - continued to make passes at the birds) but to no avail. Sorry Toe but thanks a bunch for helping.
It IS possible I was seeing things - maybe, highly unlikely, but maybe. After all, it's Rock Jetty we're talking about. I'm going down to Everglades now with the family, let's see if anything interesting pops up. Also, it was nice to meet and chat with a couple of nice folks out there - one fella Smith and another by the name of Tim (I think), who was driving a red pickup.
Bird On!
-RJ
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