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Posted by Paul Bithorn on 22:28:12 11/20/04
I had the distinct pleasure of leading 14 birders on Tropical Audubon Society s annual "Exotics" fieldtrip on Saturday, November 20, 2004. We met at 1:00 p.m. in the emergency parking lot of Baptist Hospital on Kendall Drive. The weather was picture perfect making our adventure that much more pleasurable.
We proceeded to walk to the neighborhood directly across the street from Baptist Hospital (Pranty-pgs. 222 and 228) on Kendall Drive (S.W. 88 St.) and S.W. 87 Ave. We walked around several blocks across Kendall. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, no Red-whiskered Bulbuls could be located. Loggerhead Shrike and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker were in the area.
While walking the grounds of Baptist Hospital we located Muscovies, Rock Pigeons, Eurasian Collared Dove, European Starlings, House Sparrow, Monk Parakeets and a small flock of Yellow-chevroned Parakeets. Yellow-throated, Northern Parula and Palm Warbler were also seen.
We headed to the access road just west of SR 826 and south of Kendall Drive where we located a flock of 32 Mitred Parakeets in a Black Olive tree just north of the Snapper Creek Canal. A Cooper s Hawk flew by and an adult Bald Eagle soared overhead with a kettle of Turkey Vultures.
We headed to Miami Springs where we had scope views of Spot-breasted Oriole at Apache & Falcon. A flock of Mitred Parakeets were in the area, but a group of 8 Dusky-headed Parakeets on the power-lines in the alley on the south side of Wren Ave. and east of Apache St. was the highlight of our trip to the Springs. The nursing home was quiet except for the colony of Monk Parakeets nesting in the Malaleuca trees and a Red-tailed Hawk soaring overhead.
Our final destination was the old Miller Drive Parrot Roost (Pranty-pg. 222 (map) and pg. 227). We had scope views of Hill Mynas in the Australian Pines adjacent to the tennis courts as a White-crowned Pigeon flew overhead. We drove the neighborhood with the windows down and followed a flock of parrots to the corner of S.W. 64th Street and S.W. 62nd Avenue, where they landed on the power-lines and the adjacent Black Olive trees. We soon thereafter located a flock of White-fronted Parrots feeding within 15 feet of our group. We had seen another flock of Parrots split off to the southwest so we left the White-fronted Parrots and located the second flock in the Australian Pines east of a canal just north of Sunset Drive near the Orr s Pond development. We soon located more White-fronted Parrots along with Red-crowned, Blue-fronted, Lilac-crowned, and Yellow-Headed Parrot. Our exotics total finished at 16 species.
Life is good.......... still being above ground to share the spectacle of exotic birding with my fellow birders.
P.S. About 7:30 a.m., earlier in the day, Juan Villamil and I located three Lark Sparrows, previously reported by David Simpson, feeding on the ground at the base of the small Oak trees just east of the playground adjacent to a weedy area at Larry and Penny Thompson Park. Park at either picnic shelter 2 or 4 for easy access. A Ruddy duck was in the large lake behind picnic shelter 4 and several Northern Flickers were seen in the dead pines. Lucky Hammock was deader than a doornail but we did locate a dark Short-tailed Hawk as we entered Everglades National Park and a juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at the end of Research Rd. Pine Warblers, Eastern Bluebirds and Downy Woodpeckers were seen in the pinelands. The male Vermillion Flycatcher was again located at its winter home. Alas, no Broad-tailed Hawks were seen!
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