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Posted by Trey Mitchell on 20:51:31 12/22/05
In Reply to: Re: Fork-tailed Flycatcher update posted by Vince
Hello everyone.
It was me.
I went to the site near Apopka around 1pm after spending the morning at Merritt Island. When I arrived there were 5-6 local birders walking through the field trying to flush up a Le Conte's Sparrow that had been seen a few days before. (I actually saw one bird fly up that could have been it. It had Yellow flanks.) I thought nothing of going into the field, since there were local birders already in the field and so a precedent was set.
I made the assumption that it was OK to walk in that field. I had traveled a long way to see and photograph the Fork-tailed Flycatcher and wanted to set myself up in a favorable position to do so. I decided to park myself near the rear of the field where I thought I would have the best chance to photograph the bird. I had been told that was the area where it had been seen.
I enter the field at 4pm, much earlier than the birds had been showing up. I positioned myself with my back near some shrubs and stayed low to the ground and did not move from the spot until the mentioned group wandered down the fence line of the orange grove at 5:45 pm. That is when the rest of the perched birds on the wires flew into the groves. I sat fairly still and in one location the entire time.
I did not move, for the sole purpose, not to disturb the other people looking for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher or the birds as they arrived. I had Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Western Kingbirds and Robins land in trees 50 feet or less from me. They didn t seem bothered by my presence. I didn't move around to take many photos of these birds to minimize my movement and not to scare the birds away. I did take a few test photos trying to adjust for the poor light conditions.
At about 4:50 - 5:10pm, I did see the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, but it was at least 400-500 ft away. As a matter of fact it was closer to the main road than to me. I could easily see in my scope that it was not a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I am originally from Texas and have seen thousands of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. The bird I saw had a dark cap and a shorter tail than the Scissor-tails, but much longer tail than an Eastern Kingbird.
As soon as I made the ID in my scope I grabbed my camera and made an attempt to photograph the bird, with no luck. This is when I wished that I hadn't sat in the field. I would have been able to adjust my position if I had been on the fence line.
From the extreme distance and with such dim light (clouds in front of the sun), I knew it was just a shot in the dark, literally.
By the time I picked up my camera and took the shot, apparently the bird moved. I searched my photos for silhouettes that could have been the bird, but nothing that could be discerned as a Fork-tailed Flycatcher.
I offer my apologies for my ignorance about the protocol at the roost. I would not have entered the field if the local birders had not been doing so already.
Anyone that has birded with me knows that I bird first and photograph second. I let anyone and everyone get their looks at a subject before making my way to the front to get a photo. That is unless I am directed to do otherwise.
So, that is my report.
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