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Posted by Nancy Freedman on 15:02:11 01/05/13
Prior to arriving, John Boyd spotted what he thought was a Whooping Crane flying beside the Turnpike in Broward - turns out he was absolutely right!
14 birders joined me for the first TAS walk of the year,including a birder from Oregon and a former TAS member now living in South Carolina. Wakodahatchee was drizzly all morning. We were greeted by three groups of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flying around, approximately 42 birds. We had 4 Soras, the first just off the boardwalk when we started our walk, along with a Purple Gallinule. There were lots of nesting and beginning-to-nest (and mating) Great Blue Herons. Black-crowned Night Herons were abundant, all on the banks with their beaks almost in the water; with the exception of one who was eating a mudfish on the bank and having a tough time doing it. We identified one Neotropic Cormorant. Unlike last year, there were no nesting Wood Storks although we saw one fly over. There was one very pink Roseate Spoonbill and a Limpkin flying away.
At Green Cay we were greeted by numerous screaming Limpkins and a Ruddy Duck diving with a Pied-billed Grebe. Rough-winged and Tree Swallows swirled overhead. We had at least 7 Soras here, a solitary Purple Swamphen and a lone Lesser Scaup. Screech Owls (yes plural) were heard by some in a chickee on the far side but never seen. We had a Cooper's Hawk, a perched Red-shouldered Hawk and an almost-not-seen Harrier. As always, there was some killing going on at Green Cay. This time it was an American Bittern killing and trying to eat about a 3 foot long water snake. We never did see it being eaten but the Bittern finally killed it after it kept wrapping itself around the Bittern's beak.
After lunch at the Morikami Pavilion, we headed to a "life park" for most of us - Tall Cypress, where the weather finally cleared. We walked the boardwalk only and picked up a Kestrel, Flicker, Pileated and Downy Woodpeckers (Red-bellied having previously been seen), a Broad Wing Hawk and a Great Crested Flycatcher. But the birds of the day were a group of Robins flying over and perching in the cypress trees.
Warblers were next to nil, only Palms, Myrtles and a Black & White (someone correct me if I left one out).
So a good start to a New Year!
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