[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by Paul Bithorn on 20:20:29 04/25/05
On Sunday, April 24, 2005, Bruce Purdy, Brian Rapoza, Juan Villamil and I, the Life is good..... team, as three-time defending champions, sought to break our record of 142 species from 2002, while participating in the Tropical Audubon Society s Fourth Annual Birdathon, dedicated to our dear friend, Jill Rosenfield, who passed away in late January.
We began our quest at 5:30 a.m., with our first bird of the day being Eastern Screech Owl on top of Bruce s Martin house. Before you ask Bruce hasn t seen any nesting activity at the Martin Condo as of late.
We altered our route using the Tamiami (Tampa-to-Miami) Trail and its tributaries as the areas we would bird until getting back to the Miami Metropolitan area and birding the Kendall area and the Miller Parrot roost. Our 15-hour loop, which traversed Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier and back to Miami-Dade Counties would tally up 123 species - nine below last year s 132 species. We missed 31 species seen from last year, but added 22 new species. The main reason for the drop-off in numbers was due our team missing out on some of the winter birds that we got last year, while birding two weeks earlier, high winds blowing water into the tidal basin at Tigertail Beach on Marco Island and the parrot roost moving from S.W. 62nd Avenue and S.W. 64th St. to a location a couple of blocks to the southeast, where the parrots were well concealed feeding on Black Olive tree flowers.
Some of the highlights of our day were a Limpkin and Snail Kite at the abandoned Airboat concession, a neon-yellow Prothonotary Warbler showing off at Sweetwater Strand on Loop Road, an unexpected Red-headed Woodpecker sitting on the new boardwalk at Kirby Storter Park and an American Golden Plover (possibly a second) seen in the tidal areas southwest of SR 29 and the Trail, a Yellow-throated Vireo on the Big Bend Boardwalk in the Big Cypress Preserve and a Red-whiskered Bulbul, Yellow-chevroned and White-winged Parakeets, along with Hill Mynas across from Baptist Hospital.
Here is the list of all species seen by the Life is good team during the Birdathon:
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Mottled Duck
Mallard (feral)
Blue-winged Teal
Muscovy
Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
Snail Kite
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Limpkin
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden Plover
Snowy Plover
Wilson s Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin (50)
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Least Tern
Rock Pigeon
White-crowned Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Monk Parakeet
White-winged Parakeet
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet
Yellow-crowned Parrot
Red-crowned Parrot
Lilac-crowned Parrot
White-fronted Parrot
Eastern Screech Owl
Burrowing Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Belted Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Gray Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Florida Scrub Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Red-Whiskered Bulbul
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Myna (100)
Hill Myna
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow (123)
Life is good.................... We miss ya Jill! If you would like to make a donation in Jill s memory for this year s Birdathon, go to the tropicalaudubon.org website for information.
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]