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Posted by Rick Schofield on 20:08:11 03/18/12
This past Wednesday, we tallied 57 species including the all the standard Herons and Egrets; 4 -- count them, four! -- American Bitterns; Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks; Wood Ducks (one pair flew right over our heads with perfect views); our regular Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered Hawks (there appear to be two nesting pairs) and American Kestrels.
Larry had the Great Horned Owl early in the morning but the whole group was not privileged to see it. (I understand that the Eastern Screech Owl has abandoned it's nest box.)
For little birds, we had Blue-headed Vireo; Palm, Prairie, Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white Warblers; Northern Parula; and Common-Yellowthroat. Beth later added Savannah and Chipping Sparrows.
On the last leg of the walk back to the Marsh Trail parking lot, we stopped at the usual spot to see the Painted Buntings. Greg got the male before the rest of us got there but most people witnessed an unusual grouping of Northern Cardinal (male), House Wren, Common Yellowthroat (male), and Palm Warbler (male, breeding plumage) all in the same small snag (4 square feet) at the same time.
We we finish our walks, we create a day list that is filed at the Visitors Center for historical data gathering as well as to tell visitors what species have been seen recently. (This is the same list that I post here.)
But in "Jody's Rules of Birding", rule number 2 states "The best birds are in the parking lot!" We proved that this Wednesday.
No sooner had we finished the count when Beth announced "Wilson's Snipe" just to our west. Then a flock of American Robins flew overhead on their way to raid the Bedner's strawberry fields followed shortly by Sue announcing a dark hawk coming in from the south. It turned out to be a Dark Morph Short-tailed Hawk. Too bad for Rodney because that was the bird he wanted that day. But he shortly announced a Red-tailed Hawk was on the fly over the bus parking lot which may have spooked a pair of Nanday Parakeets near their suspected nesting hole. Finally a group of Cedar Waxwings brought the day to an end.
So we quickly went from 57 to 63 species with those 6 parking lot additions.
Rick
P.S. I'm sorry for the tardiness of this report. St. Patrick's Day festivities (and accompanying guests) delayed it.
Loxahatchee NWR--Marsh Trail, Palm Beach, US-FL
Mar 14, 2012 7:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.75 mile(s)
Comments: Weekly Wednesday morning birdwalk, Marsh Trail, Loxahatchee NWR, Boynton Beach, Florida. 22 birders. Fred Test, Bob & Janet Phillips, Jan & Dave Conley, leaders.
63 species
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 2
Wood Duck 3
Mottled Duck 6
Blue-winged Teal
Pied-billed Grebe
Wood Stork
Anhinga
American Bittern 4
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk (there appear to be two nesting pairs)
Short-tailed Hawk 1 (dark morph)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Killdeer
Wilson's Snipe
Mourning Dove
Nanday Parakeet
Great Horned Owl (heard)
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Blue Jay
Fish Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Wren (heard)
House Wren 1 (actually seen!)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Prairie Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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