[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by Brian Rapoza on 15:23:51 04/30/11
Eight birders joined me for the TAS carpool trip to Big Cypress National Preserve; I was the substitute leader for today's trip. Since most of Loop Road is closed for construction for the next few months, our birding options within the preserve were limited. Stops made along the way included the abandoned airboat concession near Shark Valley, Oasis Visitor Center (our official starting point), Gator Hook Trail on Loop Road (the road beyond is closed), Kirby Storter Wayside and, in Fakahatchee Strand State Park, the Big Cypress Bend boardwalk. After lunch at a wayside picnic area near Big Cypress Bend, half of the group headed to the Everglades City area for celebratory libations (can you guess who was leading that group?), while my carload headed back to Oasis Visitor Center. Beginning a mile or so east of US 29 along Tamiami Trail, we began spotting numbers of Swallow-tailed Kites hunting for dragonflies over the surrounding marshes. We eventually pulled over to try to count them, then backtracked to get a closer look at a group that numbered close to 50 kites! It was amazing to see so many of these graceful raptors at once.
Here are the birds I noted during the day:
Wild Turkey-a hen, standing in the middle of Loop Road on our way to Gator Hook
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
Snail Kite
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Limpkin
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Solitary Sandpiper (flying overhead, heard while eating lunch by Patrick Dugan, a Connecticut birder and bird call imitator once featured on NPR; some of you may remember when he joined us last year on a walk at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park)
Least Sandpiper
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
American Crow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Winter Wren (heard . . . oops, my bad, that was Patrick)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Northern Mockingbird (including one at Oasis that was imitating a Yellow-billed Cuckoo . . . wait a minute, was that Patrick?)
European Starling
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler (at Kirby Storter)
Pine Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark (heard, unless of course . . .)
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]