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Posted by Alex Harper on 22:13:56 12/30/05
I just read a "BrdBrains" report from David Goodwin. Of most interest, he mentioned a Black-chinned Hummingbird at Castellow Hammock Park in west Homestead. Here is his complete post:
"Hi all,
Sorry about the late report, but I've been away birding for a few days,
including the Lake Placid CBC. I've had a few birds of interest during
this time.On our way to the Lake Placid CBC from the Tampa Bay area,
Erik Haney, Mauri Peterson, & I took an extreme southern swing to the
Everglades on Wednesday, 12/28. At the Education Center nature trail on
the Old Loop Road in Big Cypress, Erik found a Magnolia Warbler, first
of a number of warbler species on the trip. We had 5-6 Snail Kites
along their usual hangout near the out-of-business air boat ride on the
Tamiami Trail. At lucky hammock we had incredible looks at an adult
dark morph Swainson's Hawk as it soared over us for a good 10 minutes.
This was a state bird for Erik & he was rewarded with what Charlie
Buhrman calls a "crippling look". We also had a pair of Short-tailed
Hawks (one light, one dark morph) soaring with the vultures over the
pines to the west of the hammock in Everglades National Park.
Castelow Hammock turned up several warblers, but the real bonus was
that one of the three or more "hummers" present turned out to be a
beautiful adult male Black-chinned Hummingbird doing the ping-pong ball
tail bounce as it fed, showing the dark purple, almost black gorget.
Also present was a male Ruby-throat and a female apparent Ruby-throat
(no "bounce bounce" while feeding).
At Sawgrass Recteation Park on US 27 in Broward County, we managed to
find several warblers including N. Waterthrush and American Redstart in
a pile of downed trees, weeds, & trash near the gate on the levee. In
the lilypad-covered ponds behind the animal exhibit and the parking lot
we quickly found 5 Purple Gallinules walking on the lilypads. With time
drawing short, we hurried on north to get to Archbold in time to make
plans for the next day CBC.
Early morning showers & high winds Thursday kept the numbers down on
the count. Our party did manage 3 Hairy Woodpeckers on the Archbold
property, 5 Caracaras, Solitary & Stilt Sandpiper along with 4
Long-billed Dowitchers in wet areas on the cattle ranches that we
cover. At the end of the day, Erik & I almost had to hit the deck to
avoid being run down by a woodcock. We watched 88 Woodstorks fly in to
roost in the marshes on Scarborough Ranch as it became total dark. They
were the last birds to come in, well after the Sandhill Cranes &
Black-crowned Night-Herons.
Earlier, we had a large, long-winged dark morph buteo fly across the
ranch a couple of hundred yards to our south. Unfortunatly, it refused
to give us any kind of look that would help in the i.d. - oh well,
maybe it was just a dark morph Red-tailed.
All in all, we had a blast. Off to the West Pasco CBC tomorrow. I hope
everybody has a great New Year's Day & start on a super birding year in
2006!"
Hopefully part of the south Dade trip in early January (the 7th?) will include Castellow Hammock.
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