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Posted by Alex Harper on 10:54:45 05/31/05
Yesterday morning, Brevard County birders picked me up in Miami Shores for a full 24 hours of birding. They were scouting south Florida in hopes of beating their previous June Big Day record to make their 145+ species total even tougher to beat. Luckily, I tagged along with them and picked up year birds and a life bird.
Miami Shores only had a few White-winged Parakeets, but the orioles were quiet. Fourteen minutes later we were in Kendall. Kenwood Elementary had neither bulbuls or orioles, but a late Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In the neighborhoods adjacent to Kendall Baptist Hospital, we had no problem finding bulbuls. They were on almost every block we went down. Two orioles and a flock of about ten White-winged Parakeets were in the neighborhood too.
Holey Land/Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area hosted one Snail Kite and two White-tailed Kites, a singing Eastern Towhee, and a whole bunch of Common Yellowthroats. For information on how to reach here, see Rock Jetty's "Re: Black Rail" from a couple days ago. The White-tailed Kites were sitting on a myrtle about 4 miles after the turn into the WMA.
We pushed on at mid-day towards South Bay, looking for a reliable Fulvous Whistling-duck spot for the Big Day. Andy "The Punk" Bankert, fresh off the plane from World Series of Birding in New Jersey, spotted a King Rail out in the open south of King's Ranch in western Palm Beach County. Black-necked Stilts were everywhere, and so were Common Yellowthroats. Between the Miami Canal and the canal which runs along US-27 (sorry I don't remember the name guys), we found a White-rumped Sandpiper in a large flooded field with a Semipalmated Sandpiper and Black-necked Stilts. Last year's STA-5/Palm Beach Sod Farms trip might remember this flooded area as the location with all the Black Terns and Gull-billed Tern.
About six Barn Owls were present at their usual spot along the Miami Canal. A pair of Barn Swallows appear the be breeding in a pump station in the area. Clewiston hosted Red-tailed Hawk,Limpkin, Purple Gallinule, Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Eastern Kingbirds.
We headed back down towards the Florida Keys with rain clouds in the horizon, and hundreds of nighthawks came out to feed. The Cave Swallows were seen at a couple locations between Kendall and Homestead circling the Florida Turnpike overpasses where their nests are. A brush fire along Card Sound Road forced us to take the Turnpike down to Key Largo. No Yellow Warblers for us today. We had three hours to kill between Key Largo and Marathon, so we poked around Keys Wild Bird Center, Lake Edna on Grassy Key, Long Key State Park, and a couple neighborhoods in the upper Keys. We didn't find anything unusual: Prairie Warblers at the bird center, four shorebird species and a Reddish Egret on Lake Edna, two Black-whiskered Vireos at Long Key State Park, and Northern Flickers and two late Cedar Waxwings in the neighborhoods.
Three Antillean Nighthawks were at Marathon Airport, a couple Roseate Terns were at the Government Center, and two Burrowing Owls on a golf course in Marathon. We ended the day with Miami Subs across the street from the airport, sat at the picnic tables, and listened as the nighthawks called with the sun setting. Nothing beats that.
At 5:00 am, we woke up and headed to Alabama Jacks on Card Sound Road from our hotel in Key Largo. At least four Yellow Warblers started singing at about 5:55 on both sides of the toll. After that, we went to look for Shiny Cowbirds in Homestead, but only came up with Brown-headed. I was dropped off after 8:00, only greeted by two Red-masked and a couple White-winged Parakeets in Miami Shores. I had 81 ABA countable species yesterday, and added two more today, making for 83 ABA countables. A couple Muscovies and Common Mynas were around in Miami, Florida City, and the Keys.
Before I was picked up yesterday, David and Andy found one Smooth-billed Ani at Greenbelt Park near the Ft. Lauderdale Airport, as well as a Blue Grosbeak! They did not locate the Thick-billed Vireo in Ft. Lauderdale. Thanks guys for the fun trip.
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