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Posted by Justin Miller on 23:35:42 10/27/12
Started the day out at Arthur Marshall/Loxahatchee...it was stupid-windy - couldn't even wear a hat without keeping one hand on it. On the cypress trail, spotted two pileated woodpeckers, several catbirds, and a blue-frey gnatcatcher. On the levee trails, lots of vultures, 3 red-shouldered hawks, several osprey, several loggerhead shrikes, lots of palm warblers, the usual wading regulars.
Heading over to Green Cay, an unusually high number of raptors again - red-shouldered hawks, coopers hawks, at least 4 kestrels, loads of osprey and vultures, and several northern harriers. Painted buntings remain in high numbers - over a dozen total between the front entrance and the east feeders...though I didn't spot the indigo today. Blue-winged teals and sora still around, one American bittern, and many pied-billed grebe (they were hanging out in groups of 6-10). Only palm warblers spotted, no other type...a cooper's hawk was staking out the chickee hut area where they've usually been of late, so it was quiet through there.
Interesting sighting of the day - I spotted an American coot struggling mightily in the water, as if something had it from underneath - I snapped a series of shots to try to figure out what had it, and finally got a glimpse of the greenish brown shell of a softshell turtle, who had it by the legs and was pulling it under. I watched it get dragged about 30 feet, alternately going under and back up to the surface, before I lost the scene behind some reeds. Poor coots - northern harriers and hawks grabbing them last week, and now being eaten by the turtles! Those softshell turtles are surprisingly aggressive and mean.
Moving to Wakodahatchee to close the day, I have never seen such a large number of black-crowned night herons in any one place at any one time, ever. At a bare minimum, there were 20 of them - probably closer to 30...flying all around in the middle of the afternoon (got a ton of in-flight shots of them, which I rarely ever get). The raptors continued there as well, with northern harriers, kestrels, osprey, and vultures in large number. Palm warblers were the only passerines spotted there.
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