Finch in Florida

Dip-idee-doo-da

This past Saturday, Nov 20th I woke up with my alarm clock blaring at 1:13 AM. The Finch was nestled all snug in my bed, while visions of sugar-plums danced in my head...or maybe they were fig newtons? Anyways, I was able to shake-off any thoughts of fruit as thoughts of Greater Flamingos and Brown-crested Flycatchers soon took over as recent sightings had occurred for both of these species at the Everglades National Park within the past two weeks.

The idea of scoring either of these two possible life birds made the 4.5 hour drive a little easier, but it was still a tiring drive. I arrived near the entrance to the Everglades around sunrise where I was neither bright-eyed nor bushy-tailed. But my senses were revitalized by viewing the Vermilion Flycatcher that is once again wintering at the canal near the park. Lots of birds were calling, including a gang of Gray Catbirds and House Wrens, but not the hoped for Brown-crested Fly.

I next drove a bit down the road to check out Lucky Hammock, the local that hosted the sweet Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher just two weeks before. That bird had unfortunately moved on, but I was still able to get some nice birds such as Painted Buntings (both stunning males and the aesthically upstaged females), a Summer Tanager, a Brown Thrasher (world-class view) and a Grasshopper Sparrow (the Florida subspecies which is quite different looking that the Grasshoppers I used to watch up in Minnesota...the FL birds had very white stomachs...very much unlike the overall buffy look of the northern birds).

I finally got into the main park and was lucky enough to find a Limpkin hunting for Apple Snails about 5 feet from the road! I was able to pull my car practically right next to the bird and started taking pictures...

The Limpkin played it up for the camera a bit and continued to pull up apple snails left and right (well, mostly down actually, from the water)...and then proceed to bring it up to the shoreline to eat.

After my close encounter of the Limpkin-kind, I had about an hour left of BCFL searching before the birds started to quiet down for the day. I took a spin on Research Road, probably the best spot in the park to get lucky and spy the endangered Florida Panther, but I wasn't that lucky. I did see plenty of its favorite food, White-tailed Deer, including a nice buck. There had been a Brown-crested Flycatcher sighting along the road a week prior, but I of course dipped. I did have the oppurtunity to watch my first Swamp Sparrow of the year as well as a noisy flock of Pine Warblers.

I did a quick check of Anhinga Trail where, lo and behold, I saw an Anhinga (well, actually 7 of them),
a hunting Green Heron,

and some menacing looking Turkey Vultures...including this one engaging in Tai Chi?

Fun in Flamingo

I decided to zoom down to the town of Flamingo at the southern end of the park to try my luck at scoring some Greater Flamingos. The destination of choice was Snake Bight Trail but there was no way I was going to walk it and get devoured by mosquitos. So, I ended up renting a "Classic Cruiser" bicycle and pedaled the 2 mile trail through overgrown Mangroves and Hardwood Hammocks to the boardwalk at Snake Bight.

(you can probably see the silhouette of a Reddish Egret just off the boardwalk)

I eagerly scanned the mudflat hoping for a large pink bird. The tide was fairly high, which pushes in the birds and a group of 28 Greater Flamingos were seen about a week and a half earlier from the very spot I was scanning, so my hopes of getting these birds were higher than a giraffe's ass.

But, as the title Dip-idee-doo-da would suggest, it was not to be. Most of the birds were distant, as in hundreds of American White Pelicans and the assorted waders and shorebirds, but no flamingos in sight. I did get excited once as a pink bird flew by, but it turned out to be a Roseate Spoonbill (and also probably the first time I was dissapointed to see one!). I did get quite a thrill as a Peregrine Falcon swooped a group of Western Sandpipers from just off the end of the boardwalk...not just once but twice! It seemed as though the bird broke the sound barrier as it had very audible dives in its failed attempts at a meal.

I ended the day exploring the area around Flamingo and turned up some good birds such as Short-tailed Hawk (a dark morph soaring above the Flamingo marina with a group of Turkey and Black Vultures, two Wood Storks, Ospreys, and two American White Pelicans) and some White-crowned Pigeons (flushed from the tree tops at two different spots).

I finally capped off the trip with one last attempt at Florida Panther on Research Road, where I got my lifer Scarlet Kingsnake crossing the road at dusk.

Good Birds Revisited: Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Dateline: July 27th, 2004 Place: Coquina Key in St. Petersburg, Florida

For the background on this good...make that great...bird, check out this link:
http://listserv.admin.usf.edu/listserv/wa.exe?A2=ind0407&L=brdbrain&O=D&F=P&S=&P=10002

This awesome bird was only 15 minutes from my house in St. Petersburg! Talk about accomadating...ok...you can stop talking now.

This particular bird stayed around until August 1st and many birders from Florida and from around the US got to see the Fork-tailed.

A chase-free weekend

Well, I finally had a weekend to laze around and catch up on some much needed sleep. The Zenaida Dove that I had dipped on the weekend before had not been refound, so that I had no real incentive to leave at 1:30 AM to drive off into the night.

So, I actually had a chance to sleep in, watch my Falcons beat up on the hometown Bucs, and also get out and hike around in the local area.

I checked out a nice little park in the town of Dunedin, Hammock Park, which is located just north of Clearwater, FL (about a half hour drive from my place in St. Petersburg). I was told by a co-worker that I had a chance to see an Eastern Indigo Snake, the largest native snake in Florida (Pythons are known to be living in the Everglades!) but they are also one of the most threatened species as well.

It was a rather cool day, only in the upper 70s (remember, this is Florida) so I was hoping to catch an Indigo warming itself out on the trail. But, it was not to be...but I got a decent consolation prizes in a set of Gopher Tortoises. Not only are these reptiles interesting, they are also easily approachable...as these pictures that I shot will display.

There wasn't too much excitement as far as the bird life was concerned. I did see my first Hermit Thrush for the year...actually three birds in one spot. I also came across a few groups of warblers which were mostly made up of Yellow-rumped, but I was able to pull out a Northern Parula and this Black-and-white Warbler:

(feel free to click on the photos to examine them more closely)

FOR HOCKEMA

Johnny Hockema loves shorebirds...so much that he has neglected good ol' Finch to get a closer look at some out in the middle of a flooded field leaving me stranded with no place to sleep. But shorebirds are cool...so I forgive hm of course (but I never forget...I have to keep him somewhat honest). Anyways John, I thought you would enjoy some photos I took at Honeymoon Island State Park.

Well, I'm all blogged out as it is almost 2AM and I need to get a few hours of sleep. Now where did I put that Tryptophan?

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