Finch in Florida

The Finch is being rereleased back into cyberspace

Guess who's back
Back Again
Finch is back
Tell a friend

Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back
Ooooaaaaooooaaaoooaaooo

I better stop now before Eminem sues me for plaguerism (rumor has it he is a huge twitcher and fan of Finch in Florida).

Yes, Finch in Florida had a bit of a "setback"; I guess the whole "ex-fiancee deciding two months before the wedding to dump me flat out and kick me out of the apartment for good, therefore leaving behind the computer that I did all of my blogging stuff" could of played a bit of a role in the lack of blog.

TO CHASE OR NOT TO CHASE

That was the question....but last Sunday it turned out the answer was Two Chase, "two" being two great birds being reported in South Florida... ZENAIDA DOVE and a MYIODYNASTES Flycatcher!

So at 1:20 AM Sunday morning I gathered my birding stuff and quickly slapped together some PB and J sandwhiches (seedless Red Raspberry was the jelly of choice) and headed out towards Lucky Hammock, which is near the entrance to Everglades National Park.

http://tropicalaudubon.org/locations.html#LuckyHammock

Five plus hours later I arrived at Lucky Hammock teeming with anticipation about scoring a sweet bird of yet undetermined ID. (see this link for the background info on the flycatcher http://tropicalaudubon.org/tasboard/messages/6944.html)

The hammock was teeming with birds and there were some good ones: Painted and Indigo Buntings, a good mix of warblers including my first NASHVILLE for the state, about half the world's population of Gray Catbirds, my first CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS for Florida and a Yellow-breasted Chat was calling across the street.

The search was still going for the flycatcher but, luckily I had some company in the likes of Major and Brennan who originally found the bird the day prior, as well as Robin Diaz and a few others. After around 45 minutes of searching Brennan The Brave donned a Mosquito head net and trudged through the hammock into the thick of snarled branches and bloodsucking bugs. It wasn't long before his effort paid huge dividends, as the MYIODYNASTES Species appeared at the edge of the hammock. Once the flycatcher finally appeared out in the open, it allowed itself for some good study...which was definately needed to try to pin down a firm ID on the bird.

The bird in question was most likely either 1) a good bird, a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4510id.html(a possible 4th state record) or 2) a mega good bird, a Streaked Flycatcher http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/streakedflycatcher.html(and most likely a first confirmed record for the ABA area).

Luckily the bird perched out on an exposed limb and allowed me to obtain both photos and a 22 sec video clip. It also allowed our group time to look at key fieldmarks, most notably the malar area. As seen in the photo that I took below, the bird showed a rather dark and continuous malar stripe which reaches under the "chin" of the bird. This is consistent with Sulphur-bellied.

Larry Manfredi was able to get some awesome pictures of this bird recently...click this link to see how they put my measily picture to shame!

http://www.southfloridabirding.com/html/rarities_page_2..htm

Posted by tuffrasta at November 9, 2004 01:36 AM