Posted by Brian Rapoza on August 30, 2015 at 01:56:16
Twenty birders joined Paul Bithorn and me for today's TAS Tour to STA-2 and the Everglades Agricultural Area near Belle Glade in Palm Beach County. We experienced weather typical for late summer in south Florida; hot and sunny in the morning, with intermittent rain showers in the afternoon. Water levels in STA-2 were found to be too high to provide suitable habitat for shorebirds, so we only spent a couple of hours at this first stop. Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Least Bittern, Grey-headed Swamphen (about 20) and Bobolink were among the species seen there. We then made several stops along US 27. At a flooded field near Star Quarry on the west side of the highway, we found our first shorebirds, including American Avocet, Willet and Pectoral Sandpiper. Sod fields at King Ranch on the east side of US 27 held a few shorebirds, but nothing new. At sod fields on the west side of US 27 between US 827 and Willard Smith Road, just south of South Bay, we found several Upland Sandpipers. After lunch in Belle Glade, we stopped at flooded fields on CR 880, where we found hundreds of Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills, Bald Eagle, several types of shorebird (again, none new) and four species of terns (Caspian, Gull-billed, Black and Least) plus Black Skimmer. Our final stop of the tour was a flooded field at Roth Farm, west of Brown's Farm Road, where we found several Wilson's Phalaropes among the many shorebirds present. We also had both Fulvous and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at this location. Our trip list follows: Muscovy Duck Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Fulvous Whistling-Duck Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Anhinga Least Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Tricolored Heron Cattle Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron White Ibis Glossy Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Wood Stork Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey Bald Eagle Red-shouldered Hawk King Rail Grey-headed Swamphen Common Gallinule American Coot Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs Willet Lesser Yellowlegs Spotted Sandpiper Upland Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Stilt Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Long-billed Dowitcher Wilson's Snipe Wilson's Phalarope Laughing Gull Gull-billed Tern Caspian Tern Least Tern Black Tern Black Skimmer Rock Pigeon Eurasian Collared-Dove Mourning Dove Common Ground-Dove Common Nighthawk Belted Kingfisher Loggerhead Shrike Blue Jay Fish Crow Purple Martin Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Northern Mockingbird European Starling Common Myna Yellow Warbler Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Boat-tailed Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Sparrow