Recent Trip to Florida (1/5-1/8)

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Posted by Jonathan DeBalko on 23:20:27 01/13/05

Hello,
Just got back from an excellent 8-day trip to Florida. Somehow leaving 80 degrees and sun doesn t make sense when you re coming back to 30 degrees and ice, but I guess it had to happen. I would first like to thank everyone who made suggestions on where to look for different birds, it was all very helpful. We finished the trip off with 131 birds (128 countable, 3 non-countable), 16 of them were lifers for me (lifers in CAPS). Unfortunately only four of the days could be used for birding, so we weren t able to stop everywhere we wanted to, but we were close.
Jan 5th
We flew into Orlando and began our trip southward, but first we made a quick stop to the west in Hernando County. On the way we saw Sandhill Cranes in the roadside fields. We stopped at a spot in Hernando Beach and were lucky enough to spot on solitary BUDGERIGAR just before leaving. Also at this spot we saw our life EURASIAN-COLLARED DOVE (hard to believe, but they are just starting to be seen in PA), and we learned that Palm Warblers were everywhere. We ran out of daylight and could not stop at Babcock Webb like we had planned. We saw 2 or 3 Bald Eagles on the trip down to Fort Myers.
Jan 6th
We stayed at the Fort Myers Beach Holiday Inn and the next morning woke up with the sun to walk around the lagoon and beach area. Some of the birds we found around the lagoon were Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish Egret, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Peregrine Falcon perched on a hotel, and WILSON S PLOVER. On the beach, there was a large group of Royal Terns roosting and as we watched them, a Sandwich Tern flew in. After this, we made our way to Cape Coral. At the very end of town, as described in Pranty, we found 2 BURROWING OWLS half-hidden in the grass, but still very visible. Across the street, a Loggerhead Shrike sat on the powerline. Our next stop was Tigertail Beach. We managed to find 2 SNOWY PLOVERS in the more common Piping Plovers and Wilsons Plovers. Others birds observed here included Red Knot and Magnificent Frigatebird. This was our last stop on the Gulf Coast and now it was time to drive across the state. Our first stop on the way across was at the boardwalk at Big Cypress Bend where we saw Great Crested Flycatcher, Pileated Woodpecker, and Black-and-white Warbler among others. Just after leaving we saw Glossy Ibis and Bald Eagle. In the area of the Miccosukee Restaurant, we had a bried look at a flyover LIMPKIN, and a longer but distant look at a female SNAIL KITE, and also Purple Gallinule, with other more common waders. The rest of the night after dark was used for driving to Key West.
Jan 7th
We woke up bright and early and made the short drive from our hotel to Indiginous Park. We walked to the right hand (south?) side of the park and after only about five minutes or so of searching heard a constant, high, thin call note. After a few moments of searching, my mom picked out some movement in the top of a tree. Putting my binoculars on the birds revealed it was the WESTERN SPINDALIS. We were all elated, so it was an added to bonus to find Prairie Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Northern Parula, and Cooper s Hawk at the park among others. Other birds we observed before leaving Key West were Magnificent Frigatebird and a flyover Sciccor-tailed Flycatcher. We drove back up the Keys to the entrance to the Everglades. Midway between the Homestead entrance and Flamingo we had a dark phase SHORT-TAILED HAWK fly over the road. We decided to brave the mosquitoes at Snake Bight and try for the flamingos. Unfortunately, no flamingos were present at the end of Snake Bight, but we did see a shark near the shore that seemed as if it was close to beaching itself. The hike back produced White-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, and quick glimpses of WHITE-CROWNED PIGEONS. I was lucky enough to see the bird perched and get decent looks, my parents and girlfriend only got in-flight looks. A trip to Flamingo and Eco Pond produced little of note. We had no luck with nocturnal species inside the park, but as soon as we exited, I caught eyeshine in my head lights on the right side of the road. Closer inspection revealed the bird to be a WHIP-POOR-WHIL. An excellent end to a day that started with the spindalis.
Jan 8th
That night we stayed next to the Baptist Hospital in Kendall. The next morning I woke up and looked outside the hotel parking lot and saw 2 SPOT-BREASTED ORIOLE in a tree in a yard across the street. We found several orioles throughout the neighborhood. We also found White-winged Doves, Merlin, Broad-winged Hawk, and several MONK PARAKEETS at feeders and 3 on a nest. We were curious as to why there were three birds on the nest, as all of them appeared to be adults. We left the area of the Baptist hospital and went to the Tennis Courts (72nd Ave. and 98th St.). Here, two RED-WHISKERED BULBULS flew over and then landed on an antenna a short distance away. Also, at a feeder we saw around 10 MITRED PARAKEETS. Then we went to Matheson Hammock Park. Right where the park runs into Fairchild Gardens we saw about 30 YELLOW-CHEVRONED PARAKEETS, 5 BLUE-AND-GOLD MACAWS, and a light phase Short-tailed Hawk circling overhead with vultures. After this, we stopped at Miami Beach with the intention of just sightseeing. However, we heard loud sqwaking in the top of the tree next to where we parked. We searched through the tree and found 2 BLUE-CROWNED PARAKEETS, an excellent surprise. After sightseeing, we made our way to Miami Shores, but it was still too early for the parakeets, so we headed to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Having no success in searching for a the anis on the perimeter road, we decided to head back to Miami Shores. When we arrived we found 3 Monk Parakeets and 4 or 5 WHITE-WINGED PARAKEETS. That was about the end of the birding for our trip. We had a great time and we all want to move to the Miami area now. We loved it. I guess the Mitred Parakeet, Blue-and-Gold Macaw, and Blue-crowned Parakeets are non-countable. Is there any possibility that these birds may become countable in the near future?

Thanks again for all your help,
Jonathan DeBalko
McAdoo, PA

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Comments:	: Hello, : Just got back from an excellent 8-day trip to Florida. Somehow leaving 80 degrees and sun doesn t make sense when you re coming back to 30 degrees and ice, but I guess it had to happen. I would first like to thank everyone who made suggestions on where to look for different birds, it was all very helpful. We finished the trip off with 131 birds (128 countable, 3 non-countable), 16 of them were lifers for me (lifers in CAPS). Unfortunately only four of the days could be used for birding, so we weren t able to stop everywhere we wanted to, but we were close. : Jan 5th : We flew into Orlando and began our trip southward, but first we made a quick stop to the west in Hernando County. On the way we saw Sandhill Cranes in the roadside fields. We stopped at a spot in Hernando Beach and were lucky enough to spot on solitary BUDGERIGAR just before leaving. Also at this spot we saw our life EURASIAN-COLLARED DOVE (hard to believe, but they are just starting to be seen in PA), and we learned that Palm Warblers were everywhere. We ran out of daylight and could not stop at Babcock Webb like we had planned. We saw 2 or 3 Bald Eagles on the trip down to Fort Myers. : Jan 6th : We stayed at the Fort Myers Beach Holiday Inn and the next morning woke up with the sun to walk around the lagoon and beach area. Some of the birds we found around the lagoon were Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish Egret, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Peregrine Falcon perched on a hotel, and WILSON S PLOVER. On the beach, there was a large group of Royal Terns roosting and as we watched them, a Sandwich Tern flew in. After this, we made our way to Cape Coral. At the very end of town, as described in Pranty, we found 2 BURROWING OWLS half-hidden in the grass, but still very visible. Across the street, a Loggerhead Shrike sat on the powerline. Our next stop was Tigertail Beach. We managed to find 2 SNOWY PLOVERS in the more common Piping Plovers and Wilsons Plovers. Others birds observed here included Red Knot and Magnificent Frigatebird. This was our last stop on the Gulf Coast and now it was time to drive across the state. Our first stop on the way across was at the boardwalk at Big Cypress Bend where we saw Great Crested Flycatcher, Pileated Woodpecker, and Black-and-white Warbler among others. Just after leaving we saw Glossy Ibis and Bald Eagle. In the area of the Miccosukee Restaurant, we had a bried look at a flyover LIMPKIN, and a longer but distant look at a female SNAIL KITE, and also Purple Gallinule, with other more common waders. The rest of the night after dark was used for driving to Key West. : Jan 7th : We woke up bright and early and made the short drive from our hotel to Indiginous Park. We walked to the right hand (south?) side of the park and after only about five minutes or so of searching heard a constant, high, thin call note. After a few moments of searching, my mom picked out some movement in the top of a tree. Putting my binoculars on the birds revealed it was the WESTERN SPINDALIS. We were all elated, so it was an added to bonus to find Prairie Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Northern Parula, and Cooper s Hawk at the park among others. Other birds we observed before leaving Key West were Magnificent Frigatebird and a flyover Sciccor-tailed Flycatcher. We drove back up the Keys to the entrance to the Everglades. Midway between the Homestead entrance and Flamingo we had a dark phase SHORT-TAILED HAWK fly over the road. We decided to brave the mosquitoes at Snake Bight and try for the flamingos. Unfortunately, no flamingos were present at the end of Snake Bight, but we did see a shark near the shore that seemed as if it was close to beaching itself. The hike back produced White-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, and quick glimpses of WHITE-CROWNED PIGEONS. I was lucky enough to see the bird perched and get decent looks, my parents and girlfriend only got in-flight looks. A trip to Flamingo and Eco Pond produced little of note. We had no luck with nocturnal species inside the park, but as soon as we exited, I caught eyeshine in my head lights on the right side of the road. Closer inspection revealed the bird to be a WHIP-POOR-WHIL. An excellent end to a day that started with the spindalis. : Jan 8th : That night we stayed next to the Baptist Hospital in Kendall. The next morning I woke up and looked outside the hotel parking lot and saw 2 SPOT-BREASTED ORIOLE in a tree in a yard across the street. We found several orioles throughout the neighborhood. We also found White-winged Doves, Merlin, Broad-winged Hawk, and several MONK PARAKEETS at feeders and 3 on a nest. We were curious as to why there were three birds on the nest, as all of them appeared to be adults. We left the area of the Baptist hospital and went to the Tennis Courts (72nd Ave. and 98th St.). Here, two RED-WHISKERED BULBULS flew over and then landed on an antenna a short distance away. Also, at a feeder we saw around 10 MITRED PARAKEETS. Then we went to Matheson Hammock Park. Right where the park runs into Fairchild Gardens we saw about 30 YELLOW-CHEVRONED PARAKEETS, 5 BLUE-AND-GOLD MACAWS, and a light phase Short-tailed Hawk circling overhead with vultures. After this, we stopped at Miami Beach with the intention of just sightseeing. However, we heard loud sqwaking in the top of the tree next to where we parked. We searched through the tree and found 2 BLUE-CROWNED PARAKEETS, an excellent surprise. After sightseeing, we made our way to Miami Shores, but it was still too early for the parakeets, so we headed to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Having no success in searching for a the anis on the perimeter road, we decided to head back to Miami Shores. When we arrived we found 3 Monk Parakeets and 4 or 5 WHITE-WINGED PARAKEETS. That was about the end of the birding for our trip. We had a great time and we all want to move to the Miami area now. We loved it. I guess the Mitred Parakeet, Blue-and-Gold Macaw, and Blue-crowned Parakeets are non-countable. Is there any possibility that these birds may become countable in the near future? : : Thanks again for all your help, : Jonathan DeBalko : McAdoo, PA
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