Posted by Bryant Roberts on October 05, 2001 at 21:25:36:
It was a rather routine morning here, the sunrise show of hundreds,
maybe thousands of White Ibis and other large waders flying inland
from Florida Bay and a gathering of waders and shorebirds on the
sandbar off the visitors center. At 10 AM birding got more
interesting when the first group of about 35 Broad-winged Hawks
passed over and in the next half hour were followed by over 70
more. The only other raptor species passing through during that
time besides the usual Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and Red-shouldered
Hawks was a lone Sharp-shinned Hawk. Early in the afternoon I
was able to get out to Bear Lake Road and Bear Lake Trail for a
few hours, here are the transients and warbler totals:
4 - Prairie Warblers (numbers way down since mid Sept.)
5 - Northern Waterthrushes
21-Ovenbirds
10-Painted Buntings (Bear Lake Road, all females and/or
immatures)
4 - Black-throated-blue Warblers
1 - Worm-eating Warbler (Bear Lake Road)
1 - Hooded Warbler
9 - Black-and-white Warblers
1 - Catbird
2 - Common Yellowthroats
1 - Northern Parula
1 - Empidonax sp. (It was on Bear lake Road and looked like one
of the "Traill's" type, but it was silent.)
Late in the afternoon I went back to see if the Western Kingbird
was still around. A check of the location where it was yesterday
turned up only a few Eastern Kingbirds, which took off towards the
rental cabin area, which was also my next planned stop. Once
there I found a couple of them in a rather bare Strangler Fig behind cabin
E along with a female Baltimore Oriole. A quick loop around the cabin
parking area was uneventful except for a Peregrine which passed high
overhead towards the east. When I completed the loop and returned to the
Fig tree I found the first Gray Kingbird that I've seen here for a few
weeks. I had been kicking myself for having missed recording my late date
for this bird. A few minutes later the Western Kingbird showed up in the
same tree and was there when I checked again about 45 minutes later. The
trail around Eco Pond is still closed for the Brazilian Pepper removal.