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Posted by Vincent Lucas on 14:32:40 03/06/11
I met Ruth Covill, her daughter & son-in-law and grandson at the Marsh Trail in the Ten Thousand Islands NWR dark and early this morning before 6:00AM in the hopes of luring one of the rail species that have been reported from near the observation tower at this site since January. I played King Rail, Virginia Rail & Black Rail on my iPod with no response and no success. On the other hand, we did hear several calling Chuck-will's-widows (FOTS) as well as answering Great Horned Owl and Eastern Screech-Owl. From there we drove to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Fakahatchee Strand State Park Preserve and got there at first light. Instead of walking the boardwalk, we decided to drive the old paved road across US Rte 41 from the boardwalk. While looking at two Northern Flickers on a telephone wire at the end of the paved road, we serendipitously flushed a Barn Owl that was perched in a Cabbage Palm some ten feet from us. We did not even know the owl was there. Sweet. On the trail leading to the boardwalk, we had decent looks at my third bird added for the day for my Collier County Big Year total -- White-crowned Pigeon. Yes! That brings my new total to 167 species. Yipee! Other birds seen at the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk were Pileated, Red-bellied & Downy Woodpeckers as well as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker making it a five woodpecker morning as well as Northern Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, Palm Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Tufted Titmouse, Great Crested Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Blue-headed and White-eyed Vireo and of course the Bald Eagle young on their nest. After a repast at Dunkin Donuts near Marco Island, I bid adios to the others and went over to Tigertail Beach looking for the reported Shiny Cowbird seen there Friday in the parking lot. (No luck). Before I arrived there, I stopped at the Jolly Bridge construction site and scanned the area around the ABC Islands hoping to turn up a Common Loon which has eluded me all winter. No love there but I did see a few Magnificent Frigatebirds flying around the islands. There is another Bald Eagle nest with young on Tigertail Ct. and it was nice to see several cars with folks out looking at the eagles and young in the nest with binoculars. I stopped at a reliable spot for Burrowing Owl and snapped a few photos. That was my 4th owl of the morning! One would have thought that Barred Owl would have been "easy" either at the Marsh Trail or the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk but that wasn't the case today. I didn't spend much time at Tigertail Beach and I didn't even take my scope out. However, I did see Piping Plover (one banded), Semipalmated, Black-bellied & Wilson's Plovers, Red Knot (2), Sanderling, Western Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone & Dunlin without much effort. On the way home, there were two Swallow-tailed Kites doing their thing near the Fiddlers Creek subdivision. An adult Bald Eagle was seen somewhere in Naples on US Rte 41. All in all, an exceptionally good morning!
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