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Posted by Rick Schofield on 08:33:55 01/27/13
Sorry for the tardiness of this report.
Wednesday's walk began with 31 expert birders -- the largest crowd of the season. We tried for warblers and woodpeckers in the Visitors' Center area and had a few -- but not many.
The Great Horned Owl was easily visible along Lee Road and the one on the nest poked her head up occasionally. Either two flocks of American Robins flew by overhead or one flock passed over twice.
We continued down Lee Road checking for more warblers while checking each side of the road for waders and ducks and keeping our eyes to the sky for raptors and swallows (and Robins).
The C-6 impoundment produced the usual Blue-winged Teals, Coots, Common and Purple Gallinules, and a Limpkin or two. But this area still can't compare to last year when it was loaded with everything. We split into two groups to walk each side of the cypress stand and came up with Palm, Pine, Prairie, Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white warblers. The group on the north side of the tree line spied a lone Sandhill Crane off in the distance.
After we joined up in the boat launch parking lot we noticed a kettle passing slowly to the south and upon close inspection came up with a dark morph Short-tailed Hawk up at the top -- occasionally going off on its own but always returning to the group of Turkey and Black Vultures (and an Anhinga thinking it was a Vulture).
Earlier along Lee Road we had an Accipiter fly over that generated much discussion as to species. The flying-T shape allowed us all to agree on Sharp-shinned Hawk. And over the course of the entire walk we added Osprey, Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered, American Kestrel, and Merlin for a total of 9 species of raptors.
Rod saw what he thought was a Flicker pass quickly by but we couldn't relocate it so we didn't put it on our list.
Walking back to the Marsh Trail, we hoped for rails of any sort but, even though some scientists had viewed a couple of Black Rails earlier in the week, we dipped on them and had to settle for the resident Loggerhead Shrike.
Many people called it a day when we got back to the parking lot but a dozen or so people went bunting hunting along the trail that heads south along the canal. We, unfortunately, dipped on buntings as well and couldn't even come up with an alligator for one of our younger attendees.
As happens practically every week, we thought our species count would be pretty mediocre but we ended up with a very respectable 60 species.
Until next Wednesday,
Rick
Loxahatchee NWR--Marsh Trail, Palm Beach, US-FL
Jan 23, 2013 7:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.75 mile(s)
Comments: Weekly Wednesday morning birdwalk, Marsh Trail, Loxahatchee NWR, Boynton Beach, Florida. 31 birders. Rick Schofield, leader.
60 species
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Pied-billed Grebe
Wood Stork
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk 1 (dark morph)
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Caspian Tern
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Blue Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Black-and-white Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Prairie Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12702702
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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