Posted by Bryant Roberts on February 27, 2002 at 21:53:13:
I got out today for a day primarily devoted to birding, first spending a little over an hour at the
west end of Rowdy Bend Road. The most interesting birds there were the Least Flycatcher that
has been there since late December and my FOS Swallow-tailed Kites. There were also Gray
Catbirds and Yellow-rumped Warblers in abundance as well as a couple of Painted Buntings, a
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and several Brown Thrashers, one of which was singing.
After a stop for breakfast I went up to Bear Lake Trail, spotting a dark morph Short-tailed Hawk
soaring near the marina. A few hours spent on the trail yielded the following tally.
Anhinga - 2
Snowy Egret - 1
Tricolored Heron - 2
White Ibis - 3
Turkey Vulture - 3
Swallow-tailed Kite - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
White-crowned Pigeon - 2
Belted Kingfisher - 1
White-eyed Vireo - 4 (singing)
American Crow - 1 (heard only)
Carolina Wren - 2 (singing, heard only)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1 (heard only)
Gray Catbird - 25
Northern Parula - 2 (singing, heard only)
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 40
Prairie Warbler - 5 (singing)
Black-and-white Warbler - 3
American Redstart - 5
Worm-eating Warbler - 1
Ovenbird - 3
Northern Waterthrush - 2
Northern Cardinal - 3 (singing)
The only surprise was the Worm-eating Warbler. One of the White-crowned Pigeons was
in the top of a fruiting Gumbo Limbo tree and the other was flying over.
It had gotten windy and a little bit chilly so it seemed likely that the Lesser Nighthawks
might be flying early over Eco Pond so that was my last stop. Sure enough shortly after
sunset an adult male Lesser Nighthawk appeared over the pond followed shortly by two
birds with buffy wing spots, providing what was by far my best looks at these birds so far.