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Posted by Paul Bithorn on 21:13:43 08/28/11
The Tropical Audubon Society field trip on Saturday, August 27, 2011, to the sod farms and agricultural areas in Palm Beach County, offered twenty-nine birders a mixture of lifebirds, yearbirds and beerbirds. The temperatures were in the mid 90 s, but a light breeze made the heat somewhat bearable.
Our first stop, the Holey Land W.M.A., produced a nice mix of species. On the drive to the water control structure west of the Chinese Fan Palm nursery, we got great looks at Eastern Kingbirds, Yellow and Prairie Warblers, Belted Kingfisher and a beautiful light morph Short-tailed Hawk. I also briefly saw a male Summer Tanager. We noticed that much of the foliage was brown and discovered from the wildlife officer at the Hunter s Checkpoint that the State had aerial sprayed the area in an attempt to eradicate the exotic species, Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius). We soon discovered that the water control structure had been removed and that the palms had been killed by the aerial spraying, part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Two members of the group saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo on the drive in and luckily we were able to relocate it, but not much else, accept for the Black Vultures standing sentinel on a large rock pile. White-eyed Vireo and Common Yellowthroat were both heard. Receiving a tip from Rock Jetty about a large group of birds near a large tower on US 27, we headed out.
We soon discovered that there are three cell towers and had trouble finding the flooded field but picked up several Pectoral Sandpipers on sod farms along the way. Phone calls from Rock and Toe alerted us to a flooded field 1.2 miles east of Duda Farm Road on SR 880, where they both had located Wilson and Red-necked Phalaropes, the latter being a rarity this far inland and was probably related to the passing of Hurricane Irene off the coast of Florida. We soon located the Wilson s and American Avocets here, but no Red-necked. A large group of Roseate Spoonbills were feeding in the next pond to the east.
We moved on to Brown s Farm Road, where we crossed the first bridge across the canal and found the area full of shorebirds and waders, the highlight being a Willet, another inland rarity.
After a quick lunch at Wendy s in Belle Glade we headed to the sod farms, just east of the Brown's Farm turnoff (6-mile bend) on SR 880, and found seventeen Upland Sandpipers.
The fields on Sam Center Road were fallow, so we headed east to Gladeview Road where many Gull-billed and Black Terns, along with many shorebirds,hundreds of Wood Storks and other waders were seen.
We returned to the phalarope fields and after a couple hours of slowly scoping the field our tenacious birders located two Red-necked Phalaropes a basic plumaged adult and a juvenile, a lifebird for most of our group. A Cliff Swallow flew over our heads as we scoped the rarities. Many thanks to Rock and Toe s groups for the tip. We called it a day with 71 total species, 18 shorebird species. We went our separate ways, satisfied that our persistence had paid off.
On the trip back to the Doc Thomas House, Gary and Jocelyn Robinson and I, along with Steve Siegel, renowned cinematographer and consultant for the film, Big Year drove back to do some urban birding in Miami Springs and South Miami . We added seventeen species in two hours including Muscovy, White-winged Dove, American Coot, American Redstart, Blue Jay, Red-masked, Mitred, Scarlet-fronted, Crimson-fronted, White-eyed, Green and Monk Parakeets in Miami Springs and Orange-winged and White-fronted Parrots, Hill Mynas and Common Peafowl in South Miami.
Life is good............ as my dear friend of 28 years, Steve Siegel, and I finished off a great day of birding with dinner at Woody s West End Tavern in Miami Springs, where we hoisted our celebratory libation of Magic Hat #9, a beer cloaked in secrecy. An ale whose mysterious and unusual palate will swirl across your tongue and ask more questions than it answers. A sort of dry, crisp, refreshing, not-quite pale ale, #9 is really impossible to describe because there's never been anything else quite like it.
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