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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 12:33:13 05/06/14
Eighteen eager and ready birders met us for a wonderful walk of Cape FL this morning. Winds made for a good, but windy spring migration day. We didn't have any "marquee" warblers as Toe calls em', but we did see plenty of Blackpoll, American Redstart and Barn Swallows. We met at No Name Harbor where the brisk northwest wind was promising for the birders, but not as forgiving for the birds. While making sure we weren't leaving anyone behind we had a few birds fly in off the bay, quickly taking refuge along the mangroves and behind us at the mound as well as some others that just flew right on past the park.
We had to alter our original route due to a closure of the nature trail from the north end of the park so we decided to walk up the bike trail. A GREAT EGRET was there to meet us right off the bat, it looked at us, we looked at it, it welcomed us to Cape FL today :) As we walked south along the bike trail the winds were beginning to hurt the birders, this was until we spotted our first AMERICAN REDSTART. Soon thereafter we were seeing swallows speeding past the small vantage view we had from above, a walk to the bay remedied that for us and we picked up our first of many BARN SWALLOWS for the day. While at a fishing dock we had a flyby CASPIAN TERN and cormorants along with, you guessed it, more Barn Swallows. Passerines could be seen flying over the bay and darting towards the hammock to our east, these birds were just arriving! Ready for some warbler action we started our walk down the gravel road that bisects the hammock to access the nature trail. On this path Doug Weidemann spotted a vireo fly into the buttonwoods across from the bathrooms, BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO, boom we had our first awesome bird of the day. Right after the vireo flew out of sight, BOBOLINK started to call pink pink pink" as they flew overhead. At this point swallows were really starting to come in and we were able to pick out a few NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW to add to our trip list.
We finally got to the nature trail where we walked south watching migration in progress. Birds were hard to find on the ground, but were easy to see as they were streaming in over open areas, seep seep, buzz buzz these birds were moving fast! We would eventually begin to find warblers in the trees and not just dropping in. Three species of warbler were the main migrators in this movement from our vantage, Blackpoll by far followed by American Redstart and in smaller numbers Black-throated Blue Warblers. What we missed in quality we gained in quantity, birds were numerous, but diversity was low.
At the southern end of the nature trail we encountered two vocal PEREGRINE FALCONS that dueled over us at eye level, what a rush! Back to the warblers we went as we finally found a male Blackpoll Warbler for our youngest birder to enjoy, he was stoked, giving high fives and more importantly ready for the next new bird as he would remind us. We still had to find him two more birds on his wish list, WORM-EATING WARBLER and OVENBIRD the latter which he found himself! Our group split a bit towards the end, but we all met up again on the bike trail along with a cameo appearance by Bill and Nancy LaFramboise and a territorial female CAPE MAY WARBLER. That pretty much wrapped up the day for the group, what birders had stayed behind to talk for a bit gathered for a group picture and we parted ways.
We made some new friends and saw some we haven t seen in a while. What started as a windy and overcast morning at 8:00 a.m. ended up bright and sunny by noon. Thanks to all the birders that braved the uncertain conditions, but still joined us for a fun walk of Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP.
We had a great time with you all!
Nature is Awesome
Angel & Mariel
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