Posted by John Boyd on September 30, 2001 at 06:42:17:
On Saturday, 8 birders braved heavy rain to join Brian Rapoza for the Tropical Audubon trip to Corkscrew Swamp and Marco Island. Some of us left the Doc Thomas house at about 6am. Heavy rain continued as we travelled across Alligator Alley, until we got to exit 14, where we met the rest of the group. We waited for some no-shows until 7:30, and then headed up Government Rd.At this point our bird total was zero! The rain had been so heavy that we had seen not a single egret on Alligator Alley.
Conditions started to improve as we headed up Government Rd. By the time we got to Corkscrew, we had seen the expected waders (except Glossy Ibis), and had picked up 3 Caracaras.
Corkscrew started slowy as we walked through the open pineland (Pileated, Towhee, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat), but an Ovenbird and a couple of Swainson's Thrushes proved a harbinger of things to come. We found a Catbird and a nice flock of warblers in the first section of cypress. From then on, we were kept pretty busy! We ended up with 19 warbler species at Corkscrew, including Golden-winged (2), Nashville (1), Chestnut-sided (2), Magnolia (1), Blackburnian (several), Hooded (1 male), Canada (1), plus plenty of the more common warblers, except Prairie. Swainson's Thrushes were all over! We also saw Veery. By the time we left Corkscrew (about 2pm), we had approx. 75 species.
From there we went straight to Tigertail Beach. Shorebirds included Marbled Godwit, Oystercatcher, and the expected 5 plovers. At one point a big flock of terns and shorebirds was put up, and we spotted the culprit--a Peregrine chasing a Ruddy Turnstone. As we followed the twists and turns of the chase, a second Peregrine joined in! Needless to say, the Turnstone's days were numbered, and it was soon seen in our scopes being plucked by one of the Peregrines. Some of us who were properly dressed for wading took a shortcut back, and searched around the parking lot for the elusive Prairie Warbler. We found more thrushes, but no Prairie!
We were up to 105 species when we left Tigertail Beach at a bit after 6pm. We suddenly realized that we had forgotten to note the Fish Crows (we had earlier had American, and were ignoring all crows). That made 106. A pair of Roseate Spoonbills from the bridge made 107. On the way home, we found a surpise Snail Kite S of Tamiami Trail, not too far E of the Big Cypress Bend boardwalk (I'd not seen Snail Kite in Collier before). That was our last new species (108). If AOU had the sense to consider it a separate species, the Great White Heron we saw shortly thereafter would have been 109.
We made one last futile try for Prairie at Kirby Storter Park as the sun set. In the end, we had to settle for 19 warbler species.