Posted by John Boyd on October 25, 2015 at 01:32:02
About 15-20 birders joined me at Coe Visitors Center at 8am this morning. We started by birding around the vistors center and parking lot. We found a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in a tree next to the cars. Some people saw a White-winged Dove behind the visitor's center, and we spotted three species of warblers. We headed out of the park to Lucky Hammock. We immediately found an Eastern Phoebe, and 2 Limpkin by the side of the road. Other interesting birds included a male Northern Harrier and heard-only Sandhill Cranes. Since birding was slow there, I decided to skip the Annex and head for the park. This turned out to be an excellent choice. We went to Royal Palm and tarried a bit in the parking lot so that people could put tarps on their cars to protect them from the Black Vultures. It looks like the vultures have been tearing holes in the tarps. While we were waiting, we noticed a raptor at the end of the parking lot. It disappeared before we got a good look. I could see it was streaky underneath and had pointy wings. However, it just didn't have the energy of a Merlin. It occurred to me that it could have been a Mississippi Kite, but the bird had disappered. We waited a little and it came back. It was a Mississippi Kite! It perched, it soared overhead, and afforded excellent views. Some other raptors then appeared: Red-shouldered Hawks, a Broad-winged Hawk, and 4 Short-tailed Hawks (3 light, 1 dark). We later saw a 5th Short-tailed from the far end of the boardwalk. Two Barred Owls were heard calling from a cypress dome while we were down there. A group of 19 Lesser Yellowlegs flew over. I also saw a distant Cooper's Hawk from there. On the way out, I had heard a Least Bittern. We saw an assortment of waders, although numbers were low except for Green Heron. We then walked the Old Ingraham Highway to the intersection with the Gumbo Limbo trail and returned on the trail. We found Ovenbird, American Redstart, Black-and-White and Black-throated Blue Warblers (male and female). A Brown Thrasher was seen by some of the group. We then visited Research Road, where we found Pine Warblers and Brown-headed Nuthatches. It was getting toward noon, so we turned around and went over to Long Pine Key were we had our picnic lunch. The first stop after lunch was Mahogany Hammock. We found a nice flock of warblers, including a tailless American Redstart, at least 2 Northen Parulas, Black-throated Blue, Yellow-throated Warbler, and both male and female Black-throated Green Warblers. There were few birds at Paurotis Pond. We did find another Yellow-throated Warbler and another Sapsucker. A couple of Pied-billed Grebes were out on the pond. I don't think there were any waders. We did have a flyover adult Bald Eagle before we left. Nine-mile Pond had American Crow. I saw a Belted Kingfisher along the road a bit south of there. The next stop was West Lake. An American Wigeon was hanging out with the Coot flock. We didn't find anything interesting on the boardwalk. There were quite a few mosquitoes. It seems to me that the canopy has opened up a lot along parts of the boardwalk, with dead trees. This was especially true near the water. I wonder what is causing this, perhaps too much saltwater. A stop at Mrazek Pond yielded little, and no new birds. Then we went off to Flamingo. It was after 3 when we got there. Our first stop was at the visitor's center. The sandbar was covered with water. We did see Brown Pelicans and a nice flock of soaring American White Pelicans. Some Tree Swallows were also seen, as well as a Barn Swallow. Since the tide was high, we thought there might be shorebirds near the amphitheater. There were. There was a big Willet flock in the grass (1000?), and many other shorebirds were hidden in and around it. These included 50 or so Marbled Godwits, Short-billed Dowitchers, perhaps 500 Western Sandpipers, maybe 75 Least Sandpipers, and both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs. Nearby on the shore we found Ruddy Turnstones, Black-bellied Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, and a couple of Wilson's Plovers (a good bird for Flamingo...I last saw one there 4 years ago). Diligent searching turned up a couple each Semipalmated Sandpipers and Dunlin. There wasn't much at Eco Pond. At that point we called it a day and headed home. The list includes birds seen on the trip and those I saw in transit. I noticed Common Myna in Florida City on my was out, bringing the total to 83 species. American Wigeon Pied-billed Grebe White-winged Dove Mourning Dove Rock Pigeon Limpkin Sandhill Crane American Coot Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Wilson's Plover Marbled Godwit Ruddy Turnstone Dunlin Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Willet Lesser Yellowlegs Short-billed Dowitcher Royal Tern Laughing Gull Anhinga Double-crested Cormorant White Ibis American White Pelican Brown Pelican Least Bittern Cattle Egret American Egret Great Blue Heron Green Heron Tricolored Heron Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Turkey Vulture Black Vulture Osprey Bald Eagle Mississippi Kite Red-shouldered Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Short-tailed Hawk Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk Barred Owl Belted Kingfisher Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker American Kestrel Merlin Eastern Phoebe White-eyed Vireo Loggerhead Shrike Blue Jay American Crow Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Brown-headed Nuthatch Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Northern House-Wren Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher Northern Mockingbird European Starling Common Myna House Sparrow Common Grackle Boat-tailed Grackle Ovenbird Black-and-white Warbler Common Yellowthroat American Redstart Northern Parula Black-throated Blue Warbler Palm Warbler Pine Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Prairie Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Northern Cardinal