Posted by Alex on May 08, 2004 at 22:42:11:
For the spring NAMC, I counted in Morningside Park, up Biscayne Boulavard to Miami Shores, and a small area of Biscayne Park, I set out with a pocket full of bus money, binoculars, a small not pad and pen, and a calculator.
I pushed off at a late 10:15 in Biscayne Park, and returned back to my house at 11:00 for a late breakfast. Yellow-chevroned and White-winged Parakeets were seen just over my house as I walked out heading toward the bus stop that would take me to Morningside Park at 1:05. While waiting at the bus stop, a Black Racer Snake kept me company nearby. Sixty-six Eurasian Collard-doves and a Gray Kingbird later, I jumped off the bus and noticed some big changes in the neighborhhod I used to live in called Morningside: House Sparrows were everywhere. Just a few months ago, when I lived in Morningside, I never once saw a House Sparrow anywhere in the neighborhood. I only saw them from the nearby Biscayne Boulavard.
I walked throughout the park and around the neighborhood and found many parakeets, Yellow-crowned Night-heron, a few White Ibis, and a couple warblers. I made my way back up Biscayne Boulavard to the Walgreens where I knew two Common Mynas hang out. I heard both of them before I even set my bins on them. I mainly concentrated on exotics in Miami Shores. I found an American Redstart, another Common Yellowthroat, over 25 White-winged Parakeets, almost 15 Monk Parakeets, over 10 White-winged Doves, and a Spot-breasted Oriole. I found a red morph Eastern Screech-owl close to my house, and grabbed some great tape of it hissing at me. Even though Elena was assigned to count Barry University, I checked it out anyway. The highlights at Barry were 5 Burrowing Owls. There used to be only 3 there, but now there are 2 more bouncing baby owls. I grabbed a few minutes of footage of them, too. I am very happy that I was able to get consecutive footage of all those owls. I now have footage of the screech-owl at Felipe's house, a screech-owl at my house, and 5 Burrowing Owls at Barry. I returned to Biscayne Park at about 7:00, and added Hill Myna and Great Blue Heron to the list. I ended the day with a nice ice-cold glass of Kennesaw Orange Juice.