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Posted by Justin Miller on 18:21:05 03/30/13
It's been a great two days around various spots in Palm Beach county - Friday and Saturday I hit Green Cay, Wakodahatchee, and Arthur Marshall. Summary of each park:
Green Cay: lots of activity at the front entrance - northern parula, prairie warbler, pine warbler, common yellowthroat, yellow-breasted chat, blue-headed vireo, black-and-white warbler, painted bunting, ovenbird, ruby-throated hummingbird all continue. Inside the marsh, the water levels are down which has brought in all the smaller waders and shorebirds - least sandpiper, solitary sandpiper, black-necked stilts, lesser yellowlegs, wilson's snipe have joined the least bitterns, American bitterns, sora, purple gallinule, and all the usual herons and egrets. Red-shouldered hawks overhead, along with osprey who've returned after not being seen for a few weeks. The chat was active this time (I bombed out on getting a photo of him the last 3 times), this time he came out on his saw palm, then out into the open field, chased down a bee pollinating a flower and ate it, and hung out on the low saw palm limb for a while - this was around 3:45pm - 4:15pm.
Wako: Shorebirds are present here too, with solitary sandpipers and lots of black-necked stilts. Wood stork chicks are hatched and the island is packed - egret babies are out as well, with the GB heron babies getting bigger and tricolor chicks also out. Anhinga chicks are getting pretty large. Purple gallinule, belted kingfisher, and the usual herons and egrets. Blue-headed vireo, black-and-white warbler, palm, pine, and yellow-rumped warblers all in the tree canopy section.
Arthur Marshall: Hadn't been in a long while and decided to give it a visit to see the owls. Great horned owl male easy to spot, the chicks were easy to find but decided to keep their backs to me the whole time, with spanish moss draped over them so very poor positions. Fortunately the male made up for it. Big surprise was the activity out on the levee trail in the first compound by the parking lot - as previously noted by Marcello, the activity was mostly along the canal separating the compound from Bedner's. Painted bunting, indigo bunting, and my first ever sighting and shots of blue grosbeak...a beautiful bird. Monk parakeets were hanging on the telephone poles by the RV parking lot, pileated woodpeckers were all over the place...very active! Two out by the compound trail parking lot, two more by the RV overflow parking, and one on the cypress trail loop. I felt like I saw more, but some of the others could have been already-seen birds moved to new locations.
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