Flamingo, ENP 10/23 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers etc.

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: I spent a couple of hours this morning looking around Eco Pond : and the campground areas. Recent heavy rains have raised the : water level on the coastal prairie and flooded many of the areas : cleared of Brazilian Pepper, attracting large numbers of waders as : well as a few shorebirds. A check of the wet area between Eco : Pond and the Trailer Loop turned up an American Avocet feeding : among the many White Ibis and Snowy Egrets. The next surprise : was a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, probably a female, hunting : Halloween Pennant dragonflies from a small dead tree on the north : edge of the trail around the pond. On the north edge of C-Loop I : saw a stunning male Scissor-tailed Flycatcher with very long tail : feathers and bright salmon belly and flanks as well as traces of : salmon on the lower back. Feeding below him among the flooded : woodchips were three Pectoral Sandpipers. A surprise on my way : home from work late in the afternoon was a White-winged Dove, not : unusual in South Florida but my first ever in Flamingo. : Here are the birds I recorded this morning around Eco Pond and : the camping areas: : Double-crested Cormorant - 2 : Anhinga - 2 : Great Blue Heron - 2 : Great Blue Heron (white morph) - 1 : Great Egret - 65 : Snowy Egret - 375 : Little Blue Heron - 10 : Tricolored Heron - 2 : Cattle Egret - 60 : Green Heron - 14 : White Ibis - 300 : Glossy Ibis - 2 : Turkey Vulture - 15 : Osprey - 3 : Bald Eagle - 1 (immature) : Cooper’s Hawk - 1 (flying over Eco Pond) : Red-shouldered Hawk - 3 : Peregrine Falcon - 1 (flying west of Eco Pond) : King Rail - 1 (heard) : Sora - 1 : Common Moorhen - 13 : American Coot - 1 : Black-bellied Plover - 1 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : American Avocet - 1 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : Greater Yellowlegs - 5 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : Lesser Yellowlegs - 4 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : Willet - 1 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : Least Sandpiper - 1 (north side of C-Loop) : Pectoral Sandpiper - 3 (north side of C-Loop) : Common Snipe - 1 (between Eco Pond and the Trailer Loop) : Belted Kingfisher - 2 : Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 : Great-crested Flycatcher - 1 : Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - 2 : American Crow - 3 : House Wren - 3 : Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 10 : Gray Catbird - 7 : Northern Mockingbird - 6 : Brown Thrasher - 3 : European Starling - 5 : Prairie Warbler - 2 : Palm Warbler - 100 (all along the roadsides) : Black-and-white Warbler - 1 : Ovenbird - 1 : Northern Waterthrush - 1 : Common Yellowthroat - 10 : Northern Cardinal - 3 : Indigo Bunting - 1 (north side of Eco Pond) : Painted Bunting - 8 (north side of Eco Pond)

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