I rode my bike north on the L-31W canal yesterday November 1st. (the canal just before you enter the Everglades) to see what was out there. At the first water control structure the last three years or so has had a Tropical Kingbird. I guess this bird has not returned this year, perhaps he found another area to winter.
I then rode my bike farther north another almost 2-miles along a shallow canal that was cleared of vegetation this summer. I had Ring-necked Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Mottled Duck and Northern Shoveler. I heard many, many Sora Rails on the west side of this road. I am hoping that this area will get more ducks as the weather cools.
I rode back to the first water control structure and headed to the next one another mile or so from the first. I like riding on the north side or right side of the canal. There seems to be many more birds on this side. I had six Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, one Western Kingbird, Tropical Kingbird, Gray Kingbird and Vermilion Flycatcher here. All of the birds flew east over the berm except the Tropical Kingbird and Vermilion Flycatcher. They naturally went west to the opposite side of the canal and perched on the barbwire fence around the water control structure.
I wanted to try and get pictures of the Vermilion Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird, so I had to ride a mile back to the first water control structure. And then I had to ride back that extra mile, I had a tail wind which helped. Although riding back into the wind was not much fun. I figured I had only ridden perhaps six miles or so yesterday. When I checked Google Earth it was 9.3 miles in total! Wow, I was not expecting that!
