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Posted by Leo Weigant on 18:15:13 06/10/13
I am an out-of-state birder (Maryland) who's come down to bird So. Fl. annually for over twenty years.
I did hesitate to post this, not knowing if it was so
unlikely it'd be dismissed out of hand. But just in case others might like to search, I'm offering this info.
Date/Time/Place:
6/9/13, 6:20 PM
Research Rd. ENP -- across from the David Beard Center,
looking north, just opposite the tattered wind sock.
The weather had been occasionally cloudy, but mostly sunny, Wind ca. 10 mph, gusts to 15.
I'd been scanning the flats to the north there, trying to pick out anything interesting among a few semi-plovers, black-b'd plovers (6) . . . but not much else.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small flock (4 or 5)of pigeons flying in from my left(West) in the sunlight. I moved my binoculars to catch them, noticing that one seemed to have no white on it at all. They must have passed close (ca. 50 - 75 yards) in front of me and I found the unusual bird at once. It was clear & detailed in the field of my 8x42 Nikon Monarchs but allowed only a few seconds before the flock veered quickly & headed straight away to the north.
In that time I noticed that the dark color was mostly dark blue/gray while the upper breast & neck were a dusky wine-red running from the upper breast around the front & back of the neck and up onto the face and bill. I could not see the face long enough to see the eye pattern, but I did have 3 or 4 wing-beats to note that the underwing was very dark (not quite black)along the trailing edge while the main,front underwing was a slightly, but noticeably lighter gray.
It may be worth adding that my first thought was "This is not Texas!" ~ where I have seen them before (Bentsen & Chapeno).
I have no access to any info on whether this species is an occasional vagrant this far east, or not. I'd be interested to hear about that.
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