Posted by Rick Schofield on November 01, 2015 at 19:42:09
12 early birds met before dawn Wednesday morning in the boat launch parking lot at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge for the fly-out that we have celebrated the last Wednesday of Daylight Savings Time for the last few years. (Well most people were there before dawn but there were a few sleepy heads who showed up late. You know who you are.) Quoting from my email announcement of this trip: "As I've stated before concerning these fly-outs, there is no guarantee. Sometimes it's a bust and other times, unbelievable. We can all hope for the latter." I'm afraid I have to say that this fly-out was one notch above bust. Maybe it was the full super-moon or Mercury in retrograde or the bird gods laughing at us but, with the exception of the Ibises, there were way, way, way fewer waders coming out of the interior of the refuge as one would hope for. I am happy to report that the birds that did show maintained -- pretty much -- their assigned starting times and followed their assigned routes. So that aspect of the fly-out was as expected. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Loxahatchee fly-outs, each species has followed the same starting time and route out of the interior for all the years that I've been present. They come out in the following order and direction: - First, the Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets fly Northeast - Followed by the Tri-colored and Little Blue Herons flying due North up the C-40 Canal - Followed by the Snowy Egrets and Black-crowned Night-herons also flying due North up the canal - Followed by the White Ibises flying due East toward their favorite lawn or golf course - Followed by the Glossy Ibises flying due East as well but after than the White Ibises - Lastly, the Pileated Woodpeckers fly West into the interior. What's up with them? So the fly-out was not so great but the cookies were delicious! We drove back to the Marsh Trail parking lot to begin the regular Wednesday walk and ended up spending a good 30 to 45 minutes just in the parking lot. Jody's rule number 2 in her Rules of Birding clearly states, "The best birds are in the parking lot!" Between the Marsh Trail and Visitors Center parking lots we totaled 12 warblers species. Not too shabby. The combined species total for both the fly-out (27) and regular walk (33) was 52. While overcast, it was hot and humid so we cut the walk short so that some of us could drive down to Fort Lauderdale to catch the Variegated Flycatcher (of which we had great views). Remember that there are walks every Wednesday morning starting at 7:30 am from now through the end of April. As has become the custom, rather than post the entire list(s) here, I include links to the eBird lists. Fly-out List (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25626670) Regular Walk List (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25626668) Thanks to Sue Young for keeping the lists. Rick