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Posted by Alex Harper on 16:28:23 01/02/06
From 11:00 to 1:30 today I birded and lizard-watched at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. It was high tide, and the only shorebird I saw was Spotted Sandpiper on the 1/2 mile up stretch of beach that usually is loaded with birds. Not even a Black-bellied Plover!
A very interesting dark-mantled gull was hanging out with some Ring-billed Gulls near the northernmost lifeguard shelter. I sat down to photograph it certain it was a Lesser Black-backed Gull. However, what caught me by surprise it had dull pink legs and the upper mandible was mostly black (tip was yellow) and the lower mandible was mostly pink, with a yellow tip and black in between. There is no/little trace of red on the lower mandible. It did have a fair amount of brown streaking on the head and nape. I'm sure this must be a third-winter Lesser Black-backed, but even second-winters start to obtain yellowish legs. Then, wouldn't you know it, a beachcomber walks straight towards "my" gull and scares it off, even though it's obvious I'm on all fours trying to photograph it. As it flew off somewhere down the beach, I saw a small trace of brown on the tail.
Looking offshore with my scope I got on a bird which must be a jaeger. For the most part it was little more than a dot in the horizon, but I could see it did have strong wing-beats that it would alternate with a 3-5 second glide. At one point it dipped around and I could see a light belly and a light breast. Since I have no experience with jaegers, I am reluctant to give it a name.
I then went off to photograph the many exotic lizards in the park. Crandon Park probably has the most species of lizards than anywhere else in Miami! I can name fourteen species I've seen there off the top of my head. There are plenty of Green Iguanas and Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguanas throughout. I even found a large spiny-tailed trapped inside the men's bathroom! It took ten long, disgusting minutes to coax the lizard into a garbage can from behind a toilet, then I released outside near a seagrape. As I went back into the bathroom to wash my hands, it came back in through a hole on the side on building. This time, using my Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin skills, I picked it up bear handed and released further from the bathroom but in a place which must still be in it's own territory. The lizard was over twenty inches long and at least three or four pounds.
Back to the birds. I convinced my dad to take me to Crandon Zoo in the south end of the park. There are always plenty of exotic waterfowl to see, as well as some wild ones. There was a flock of eleven Blue-winged and one male Green-winged Teal in the easternmost ponds. Eventually the got too spooked by me and flew off only to return a couple minutes later. Just for fun, here are some of the geese and ducks I saw:
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Cackling Goose
Nene (Hawaiian Goose?)
Chinese Goose
Bar-headed Goose
Egyptian Goose
Black-bellied Whistling-duck
Fulvous Whistling-duck
Red-crested Pochard
Also:
Helmeted Guineafowl
"Wild" Turkey
Sandhill Crane
On the way back a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew over, and five Red-breasted Mergansers were right off Hobe Beach near the toll booth.
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