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Posted by Bryant Roberts on 18:07:59 06/13/11
I spent last weekend camping at Long Pine Key at Everglades National Park. The weather was hot and the Deerflies outnumbered the Mosquitoes in most places but there were a few interesting birds around and plenty of other critters and wildflowers to keep me occupied. On Saturday morning there were a couple of Cape Sable Seaside Sparrows singing in the usual area east of the main park road south of the Mahogany Hammock turnoff. There was a young Turkey Vulture that still had still had quite a bit of down on its head and upperparts at the base of the canoe dock at the end of Bear Lake Road.
A couple of male Shiny Cowbirds were with the Brown-headed Cowbirds along the roadside at Flamingo and along with the usual mix at the visitor center sandbar there was a Lesser Black-backed Gull, an alternate plumage Gull-billed Tern, and a couple of Red Knots.
There were plenty of birds in the Long Pine Key area but nothing surprising, the dawn chorus began well before dawn with Chuck-wills-widows and Common Nighthawks followed by Northern Cardinals, Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Mockingbirds, Brown Thrashers, Brown-headed Nuthatches, and Northern Bobwhites. Most of Sunday was spent on a long hike along the trail system west of the campground where the most interesting bird seen was a Great Horned Owl but the most exiting sighting was a Bartram s Scrub-Hairstreak which I was able to photograph. I have attached a link to some pictures from this weekend.
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