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Posted by Steve Pagliughi on 03:20:29 07/16/04
I have a question to ask many of you FL birders about the differences between juv mangrove vs yellow billed cuckoos. But first a quick summary of my trip.
Overall, birding was difficult. Once again, my travels coincided with the post fledling lull in "forest" chorus making targets difficult to locate. However, the birding gods smiled upon me, and I got very lucky.
For example, a juv BWVI was practicing a barely audible song in the Key Largo botanical site, and I was lucky to pish it in. Very washed out looking, malars nothing special (man that bill is long). The Key West airport turned up nothing but two common nighthawks. On my way to pick my father up, I saw a dirt lot on the east side of the airport off the main road, and had many antilleans. Searched the wrong area for shinys, then sort of stumbled into what felt like the right area on 17th terrace and flagler, nw corner. At least 2 males, no brainer. Spent two days on the west coast after wilsons plover. I was convinced that, much to my horror, they had become extinct. The very last spot I checked was Honeymoon Island SRA, my last hope. Leaving the island depressed, I decided to pull off on the very last pullout on the causeway before hitting the mainland, south side. 4 wilsons plovers greeted me, talk about lucky. I was very surprised at the numbers of gray kingbirds on Honeymoon island, by far the greatest concenrtation of anywhere on my trip (just seemed a little too far north).
So here is my dilemma. I was in perfect mangrove cuckoo habitat on north Key Largo. I approached a gap in the mangroves right on the waters edge, I heard something move in the vegetation. As I turned and pished, much to my surprise a cuckoo flew into the open and directly across me at 10 feet. As so often happens, I was in shock and not ready, and it was happening so quickly I knew better than to try to get my bins on it, so I watched it fly into the veg after about a 5 second flight, noticing as many field marks as I could. I really only had a view of its back as it flew, and heres what I noticed. First, I saw no pattern in its face, although I only got that view briefly, and not enough to be confident of what I saw. The individuals backside was dull brown everywhere, I did not detect any tail spots (but that dont mean nothing, the tail stayed closed). There absolutely was no rufous on the upper surface of the flight feathers. My knee jerk reaction was black billed, but lets face it, thats a long shot. So the question becomes, do juvenile yellow billeds have rufous in their flight feathers, and if so, should it be as obvious as in adults. I have no experience with mangroves, and its been a long time since Ive dealt with yellow billeds, so Im rusty on characterstics of juv yb. So I ask all of you, what do you think I saw?
I feel 95 percent confident I had a mangrove based solely on the lack of rufous. This is somewhat important to me since if I conclude I had a mangrove, then Ive got all the Florida specialties (other than the dry tortugas). It aint all about ticking, but Id like to think a return trip to FL is a lesser priority. So, all comments are welcome and appreciated.
One final note. On Key West, I had a fly by swallow type species. It was rather high up and back lit. My initial reaction was a merlin type bird, but as it flew overhead, it was obviously some type of martin. If I wasnt on Key West, I would have concluded purple, but range maps and detection data say that is a long shot. It was a large individual with a moderately forked tail, the breast and belly were "dirty". Flight was direct and strong, no fluttering, and it would flap then soar, flap then soar. I know nothing of the other martin potentials in Key West. This was not a swallow, not a merlin, and not a starling. Any suggestions?
Oh, I forgot to mention an interesting observation on the boardwalk trail through the mangroves in Little Hamaka City Park in Key West. I stumbled onto 2 individuals of the same sex in some sort of pre-copulatory behavior and decided this park was not for me. I may be scarred for quite some time from the trauma associated with the observation.
spagliughi@yahoo.com
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