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Posted by John Boyd on 07:44:20 11/10/13
About 20 birders joined me for yesterday's Everglades trip. Although I drove through some rain to get there, and lots of rain on the way home, it wasn't an issue while birding.
We saw a Brown Thrasher out on the grass near the visitor's center parking lot as we gathered. Then it was off to Lucky Hammock. Some Sandhill Cranes were spotted on our way there. The hammock was pretty quiet, although we did notice a Magnolia Warbler bathing in the wet leaves. We drove down the road to the annex. We took the path to the right of the gate, quickly encountering a couple of apparent Lincoln's Sparrows. Beyond that, things were quiet. The main show was the vultures taking off. A couple of small buteos were also seen, and maybe an accipiter, but we couldn't properly ID them. Because it was so quiet, we opted to not walk the road past the gate.
Anhinga trail was pretty slow also, with few waders. We scared some gators at the little overlook at the end of the asphalt path. They can really move when they want to! The bird hightlight there was a dark morph Short-tailed Hawk overhead. A walk on Gumbo Limbo trail was not productive.
We drove Research Road next. I had planned to stop, but never did see or hear anything worth stopping about. During the whole day it seemed that landbirds had just been sucked out of the place. Even the Palm Warblers were scarce. At the Research Road gate, we got a little raptor action. Some swallows were also present (Barn and Tree, I think). We then drove to Long Pine Key for our picnic lunch.
It was quiet during lunch, with some hopeful American Crows providing most of the bird activity. That actually got to be rather exciting when one of them dropped the remains of a baby Cottonmouth on our table!
A quick walk through Mosier Hammock was unproductive. As usual, the group shrank at lunchtime, and we consolidated into two cars. At Mahogany Hammock, we again encountered quiet... Surely Paurotis Pond would have at least a coot or gallinule. No! Nothing was added at Nine-mile Pond either.
Finally we got to West Lake. Finally we got birds! There's a big flock of waterbirds there, about 1000 coot, 50 Ring-necked Ducks, 11 Shovelers, some Blue-winged Teal, a few Ruddy Ducks and Gadwall. Brian spotted a Wigeon. We didn't find any Green-winged Teal or Redhead. I gather there were more waterbirds when Larry was there.
Mrazek Pond also had ducks, and we added some Green-winged Teal to our list. We checked Coot Bay Pond, but there were only a couple of teal there.
A Merlin flew by as we approached the vistor's center at Flamingo. Although the sandbar was exposed, we only found a few shorebirds. As we stood there looking, a Spotted Sandpiper flew across to its usual spot in the stone circle (a BC Night-Heron was also there). A near adult Bald Eagle provided some excitement. Although only a few were close, there are a large number of American White Pelicans out in the bay.
An Everglades Racer was the most exciting thing at Eco Pond. We added a Ruddy Turnstone and another Spottie near the amphitheater.
Finally, there was a spectacular rainbow at Long Pine Key when we returned to the cars. The arc seemed to come down on the lake right at the island.
The lack of landbirds (and shorebirds) showed in the final tally. I had only 73 species for the day. The group had at least 77. I usually expect 85-105 on this trip.
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