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Posted by Rick Schofield on 11:57:50 01/17/13
A hearty group of 25 convened in the Marsh Trail parking lot for this week's walk. We had a few new faces in addition to some from the past. Welcome to All!
Our first stop was at the Great Horned Owl nest where we had decent views of the female on the nest and great views of the male a few trees removed. [I just got a decent scope that will, hopefully, allow me to digiscope the owls next week. Let's hope that they're still cooperative.]
Things were pretty slow behind the Visitors' Center (at least when the entire group was there early in the morning). We did, however, pick up Palm and Prairie Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a Great Crested Flycatcher (thanks to Sue) and a lone Ruby-crowned Kinglet (thanks to Gary). The resident Merlin didn't perch for us as he did last week but did make a brief flyover.
Some people expressed interest in walking the butterfly triangle but the majority of the group had already moved beyond the trail so we skipped it this week.
Back at the C-6 impoundment we had a few Purple Gallinules (the young ones are really starting to come into their gorgeous plumage) and two or three groups of Blue-winged Teals in addition to the ever-present Coots and Common Gallinules.
Moving down to the Pavilion area we picked up more of the same Warblers and Gnatcatchers but added a Black-and-White as well as a Limpkin on-the-fly. Along the way Al spotted a group of White-winged Doves in a cypress quickly joined be some Mourning Doves and a couple of Common Ground Doves. This was the first time since I've participated in the Loxahatchee birdwalks that we had all three Doves on the checklist.
The trail that had been closed for a few weeks due to the humongous alligator is now open but, because we've had such good luck splitting the Cypress stand, we kept going to the boat launch parking area. We had numerous birds-already-seen but added Blue-headed Vireo, American Kestrel, Osprey, both Vultures, and a possible American Bittern. I was the only one to see the very distant Bittern and, unfortunately, don't feel strongly enough to include it in the list.
A kettle of Vultures was forming directly over the parking lot and at the very top (very high up and flying independently of the Vultures) we spied a single light morph Short-tailed Hawk. Shortly thereafter we had a much smaller kettle of, maybe, four or five raptors that had a different standout -- a Red-tailed Hawk.
Working our way back to the Marsh Trail, we dipped on the King Rail but had the Loggerhead Shrike in his general area. Once we were back on the Marsh Trail a large group of students from Lynn University passed by -- generally interested but more into alligators than birds.
We considered bunting hunting but decided to draw up the checklist and call it a day. When I went back to the Visitors' Center to turn the list in -- I forgot to check out the owls on the way -- I ran into Steve who had walked with us earlier. He had spotted both a White-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireo and invited me to see them for myself. Though difficult to find, we got them along with another Blue-headed Vireo.
I have always told people at the checklist discussion that the total will be more than most would think -- we even have a lottery to see who comes closest to the actually total. No one, including myself, came anywhere near our total species number because the day seemed very slow but was actually quite productive! We had 63 species before I added the two Vireos for a grand total of 65. I can live with that. :)
Rick
Loxahatchee NWR--Marsh Trail, Palm Beach, US-FL
Jan 16, 2013 7:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.75 mile(s)
Comments: Weekly Wednesday morning birdwalk, Marsh Trail, Loxahatchee NWR, Boynton Beach, Florida. 25 birders. Rick Schofield, leader.
65 species
Mottled Duck 2
Blue-winged Teal 20
Pied-billed Grebe
Wood Stork
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk 1 (light morph)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Killdeer
Caspian Tern
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Great Horned Owl 2
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Monk Parakeet
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 3
Blue Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Prairie Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12620967
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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