Posted by John Boyd on March 11, 2004 at 09:59:43:
This trip did not go as planned! We had two rendezvous points, in Broward and Palm Beach. Brian Rapoza's car died (under mysterious circumstances) near the first rendezvous point. The remainder of the group headed on to the second rendezvous point, but got stuck in a construction traffic jam on I-95. Not surprisingly, no one was there when we finally arrived almost an hour late.
That left 6 of us. We headed up to Kissimmee Prairie State Park, stopping on the way for a big flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks about 5-6 miles west of the St. Lucie/Okeechobee county line on CR-68. We saw Caracaras on the way to the park, in the park, and in the Three Lakes area.
A walk along the closed off road yielded only waders on this windy day. We stopped where we had seen Bachman's Sparrow last year, but were unable to get any definitive looks this time. There was a likely candidate that flew across the road and into the grass, but were unable to relocate it. We noticed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker while talking with one of the rangers. We then walked the nature trail, where we turned up a Grasshopper Sparrow (probably northern), a Pileated Woodpecker, and lots of Parulas and White-eyed Vireos.
Part of our group left after lunch, the rest of us headed for Three Lakes. We searched for Whoopers in the usual places, but none were present. We did find a flock of Turkeys and plenty of Sandhill Cranes. White Pelicans could be seen on Lake Kissimmee and we found Lesser Yellowlegs and Wilson's Snipe in a wet area near the shore.
We spent a lot of time at the campground, but were unable to find any Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (Downy, Red-bellied, and Flicker were present) and heard but did not see the Brown-headed Nuthatches. We did admire the numerous Eastern Bluebirds and Meadowlarks while also finding a good number of Chipping Sparrows. Pine and Yellow-throated Warbler were also seen amidst the horde of Myrtles.
Here's one of the Bluebirds: