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.

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.

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.

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.

(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?

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

I did get out a bit last weekend and actually got a lifer... three Seaside Sparrows...up in Citrus County (thanks to the spot recommended by Bev Hansen). I unfortunately could not even manage a moderately adequate picture of the sparrow, so my world-class binocular views will have to do.

I did manage to see a few other interesting birds, such as an alternate plumaged Horned Grebe, a sharp-looking Red-headed Woodpecker View image
and a Florida ABA exotic specialty, the Budgerigar.

For those of you ABA listers out there, the Budgie mecca is definately the town of Hernando Beach, a community on the gulf coast of florida about 45 minutes north of St. Petersburg. http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&&csz=HernandoBeach+FL+&Get%

I have been three for three on Budgie sightings when looking for these Australian imports, so hopefully all who venture forth for these fast flying chatterboxes will be successful as well. I have had great luck seeing these birds by driving on Flamingo Blvd, which can be reached by turning off CR-597 to Calienta St. http://www.mapquest.com/maps/refreshmap.adp?pan=s&rand=1521
There are at least two different houses along Flamingo Blvd that have feeders and if the Budgies aren't having a feeding frenzy at the time, the birds should either be in a near by tree or sitting up on the powerlines.

To top off the day, I even got a lifer reptile out in an interesting sandy oak/pine scrub type area in Hernando County...a Peninsula Mole Skink that was hiding under a piece of plywood.

As I pulled into the Royal Palm parking lot of Everglades National Park around 6:30 AM I was excited, yet cautious...I usually am when it is early in the morning and tired from driving 4+ hours through rather thick fog. A quick check in my backpack for my binoculars and digital camera insured that despite the early wake-up call, no brain farts had occurred (whew...so far, so good). I began to step out of the car when I almost made a drastic mistake. I caught myself luckily, and rummaged around the front seat of the car to pull out the secret weapon...

Now, before I reveal this secret weapon, I want to let you know that I am generally not a very superstitious person. I gladly walk under ladders, I never knock on wood, I don't mind breaking a mirror or two (or three) and I even challenge black cats to cross my path...in fact, I encourage them! However, I have succumed to the fact that in order increase your chances of seeing a rare bird you just need to do one simple thing...drink some Fierce Grape Gatorade View image If you don't believe me, try it yourself...all I am saying is that your chances of seeing a good bird are much better after drinking some Fierce Grape (and it doesn't look as silly as throwing salt over your shoulder).

The fog was lifting quickly and the birds were getting very active. It was already 7:15 AM. I got into position near the entrance to the Gumbo Limbo trail, the scene of the Red-legged Honeycreeper appearence from yesterday morning...always a good place to start a rare bird investigation. The gumbo limbo tree next to the trailhead was alive with birds, Northern Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Northern Parulas, White-eyed Vireos (along with a nice looking Blue-headed) and even a Great-crested Flycatcher hawking insects.

The Flow was definately building...I could feel its presence.

Then, suddenly, admist the flurry of activity there IT was...the Red-legged Honeycreeper and right above my head! After a double take and a figurative pinching of myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming I got my binoculars to my eyes to view this splendid little bird. There was no mistaking this bird...red legs, cobalt blue body, black wings, downcurved bill, and if those weren't enough, a University of North Carolina baby blue cap! Simply stunning! Awestruck by its beauty, I almost forgot that taking some pictures of the bird would be nice, but I was able to keep on the bird as it moved to the top of the tree. I was not thwarted and some documentation photos of moderately acceptable quality were soon mine!

(in this bottom picture you can see the honeycreeper eating the gumbo limbo tree fruit)

After posing for the moderately adequate pictures, the honeycreeper became rather active and flew around to a few different large ficus and gumbo limbo trees in the immedate vicinity (for those of you contemplating a chase yourself, the bird seemed to favor the taller gumbo limbo trees by both Gumbo Limbo Trail entrances as well as the large ficus next to the Royal Palm pavillion).

With the bird now ticked and photo documented I could now enter the most coveted state of birding freedom...the Bonus Round. Yes, the weight on my shoulders and monkey on my back were officially cast aside. I could now pay some attention to "those other birds". Within a few minutes I had a chance to admire a Yellow-throated Warbler

The distinctive song of the Least Bittern poo-poo-pooed its way from the Marsh adjacent to Anhinga Trail...another pleasant surprise. I soon made my way back towards the Gumbo Limbo trail. It wasn't too long a wait when a flock of no fewer than seven (7) White-crowned Pigeons winging by, always a welcome sight! After another appearance by the Honeycreeper just after 9AM, the group of birders that had stayed around were given another treat...a beautiful light-morph Short-tailed Hawk kettling higher and higher amoungst of Vultures (mostly Turkey with two Black).

After ushering the little turtle across the main road, I made a stop down at the nice little town of Flamingo to check out the bay by the visitor's center. A quick check of the trees around the parking produced the typical Eurasian Starlings and a Brown-headed Cowbird...unfortunately not the dreamed of, hoped for Shiny Cowbird. Oh well...

I did have the pleasure of meeting Bill Wittman, a visting birder from Albuquerque, New Mexico and a really nice guy! We chatted for a good half hour about birds, big years and about his co-finding of a great ABA bird in NM last year, a Piratic Flycatcher! http://kmlschneider.home.comcast.net/Piratic.html
I informed Bill about the Honeycreeper down at Royal Palm and he went off to find the bird (hopefully he saw it!). I am always glad to know that there are so many great birders out there that are great people as well.

After the nice chat with Bill I decided to start heading back up and out of the park, as it was getting near noon. I pretty much cruised back up the main road with a quick pit stop at Royal Palm to see if I could get greedy and get some better pictures of the honeycreeper (well, I mean the Flow was Flowing, so why not try!). It was not meant to be, but my short walk on Gumbo Limbo trail did produce a lifer snake and I was thrilled to watch the aptly named Peninsula Ribbon Snake

Hmmm...it was now nearing 1:00 PM and I still had to make one more stop on my way out of the park. I stopped at the canal just outside the park and waited...sure enough, not more than 2 minutes passed and he was teed up on the top of the chain link fence. There he was, the overwintering Vermilion Flycatcher, so aesthetically pleasing on such an aesthetically appalling perch.

My moderately adequate photos simply do not do this bird justice! However, I was able to better capture the essence of another nice looking bird, thanks to a much obliging Eastern Meadowlark.

And good ol' Fierce Grape had still not forgotten me, as when I was waving goodbye to Mr. Vermilion another light-morph Short-tailed Hawk cruised overhead. The Bonus Round rules!

A look at the wrist and I can see that 2:00 PM has come and past...time to jump aboard the Exotic Express! (sounds a little cooler than jumping aboard the 1997 Pontiac Grand AM...just a little). Thoughts of sugarplums and parakeets danced in my head as I cruised up the Florida Turnpike en route to Alex Harper's abode in Miami Shores. The Exotic Express was chuggin' right along until the omnipresent Miami traffic was met head on. The Exotic Express was charging down the interstate at a top speed of 10 mph...I felt like I was in the opening scene in the movie Office Space . Finally I got out of Miami and up into Miami shores were I met Alex outside of his house. We immediately walked across the street from his house and Alex showed me a large palm tree where some parakeets were checking it out for nesting. And sure enough, clinging on the the side of the tree were two Yellow-cheveroned Parakeets!

This was awesome and the birds were very cooperative. I had only seen this species once before, out in Hermosa Beach, California at the Ralph's supermarket. But, interestingly enought, these birds are pretty much in Listing Purgatory. The Checklist Committee of the American Birding Association has accepted the YCPA as a countable bird, BUT since no individual State Checklist Committees have accepted the bird, the YCPA is simply a countable ABA bird that can not be counted at present.

Well, I wanted more and I wanted ABA countable parakeets...and luckily Alex knew just where to take me to get them! Alex jumped into the green machine and we were on our way to find some White-winged Parakeets. En route to the parakeet spot we had some nice birds including another Non-countable Exotic...four Hill Mynas. These birds make some crazy noises and can be heard from quite a distance away.
(You'll definately have to click on this picture to see the Hill Mynas better)

For some interesting ID and status discussion of both Hill and Common Mynas in Florida, definately check out this link http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/tasboard/messages/4476.html

So, after some satisfying views and moderately adequate photos of the Mynas, we pressed on to THE parakeet spot. I was not disappointed...upon arrival at the feeder area there were a few White-winged Doves perched on the telephone wires. Others could be heard singing in the distance, which was a new thing for me to hear. And then came loud screeching calls from the sky...and within 10 seconds we had an instant feeding frenzy of White-winged Parakeets! Yes, it was another ABA lifer for me and I was lovin' it (I had also seen this species before out in California, but they are NOT countable there).

Although the 2nd pic is a bit blurry, you can see a bit of the white in the wing and that is one way to tell the WWPA from the YCPA. In the June 2003 issue of BIRDING there is a great article discussing the Parrot Fauna of the ABA Area which says (the) Yellow-chevroned Parakeet is told from the closely related White-winged Parakeet by its brighter "grass-green" body plumage, narrower whitish orbital ring, green lores, and slightly darker bill.

At exactly 4:10 PM, and later than usual according to Alex, the mass of parakeets took wing and zoomed off with a loud raucous chatter. It was a very cool sight to see and was a great way to end a great day.

I just read another interesting bird report today on a great sighting of a RED-LEGGED HONEYCREEPER at the entrance to Royal Palm trail in Everglades National Park. This bird is the 4th bird reported within the past year and is making a good case to be a newly added species!!! I am going to make the 4.5 hr trip down tonight and hope for the best! For more info on this bird, check out this link http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/FLAB.html#1077398849

A photo of this species can be found here: http://www.softbills.com/images/photo_q/redleg_hcreeper.jpg

So, if all goes well I will hopefully give an update on the status of this bird. My luck hasn't been too great down in the Everglades, as I had dipped twice on Black-faced Grassquit last fall in the park...but then again, maybe I am due this time. Lets hope so!

Some interesting discussions have been occuring on the Minnesota Ornithologist's Union's Listserve as of late in regards to the official state checklist of birds and their status of relative scarcity or abundance in the state.
http://www.surfbirds.com/phorum/read.php?f=88&i=4582&t=4582 Due to what some birders believe are questionable changes on the list (For example, demoting KING RAIL from the Casual list down to Accidental and downgrading GYRFALCON from a Regular species down to a Casual species) some of the discussion has found its way towards bird record acceptance in general. In other words, are birders correctly identifying species in the state, but then unfortunately have their records rejected by the state committee do to incomplete documention? It is a shame that there are always a decent number of rarities that don't make the official state records due to improper documentation. For those birders who wish to learn more about properly documenting rarites (which should be all of us!) Peder Svingen, current MOU records commitee chair, provides some great web-based resources for better bird documentation:

Dittmann, D. L., and G. W. Lasley. 1992. How to document rare birds.
Birding 24:145_159. Available online at http://www.greglasley.net/document.html
or via the LOS website at http://www.losbird.org/dittman_lasley.htm

Lynch, M. 1995. The importance of documenting birds. Bird Observer 23(5).
Available online at http://massbird.org/marc/Documentation.htm

Helpful hints on documentation from the Oklahoma Bird Records Committee
can be found online at http://www.okbirds.org/how_to.html

The Maryland Bird Records Committee has dedicated a page to the late
Claudia Wilds as a tribute to her identification and documentation skills
at http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/rcdocument.html

Mark Patterson has posted a step-by-step primer on writing convincing
details at http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/details/details.html

Wilds, C, and R. Hilton. 1992. Emerging from the silent majority:
documenting rarities. Maryland Birdlife 48:30_35. Available online at http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/rarities.html

Welcome to the blog of the Finch! Please note that no Giant Prairie Chickens (or myself for that matter) were injured in the making of the photo. Yes, that is me, Colin "Finch" Gjervold...and yes, I am wearing chaps.

I am looking forward to sharing some thoughts and stories on birding and sharing my passion (others say obsession) for birds and other cool creatures. I am currently living in Sarasota, Florida where armed with my trusty digital camera I manage to take moderately acceptable pictures of about 25% of the creatures that I actually spot.

However, I seem to manage a decent picture now and then as this Snail Kite can attest to. This very obliging bird was found at Markham Park near Fort Lauderdale http://www.broward.org/parks/pri01602.htm in early January. This seems to be a fairly reliable spot to observe this species as there are usually multiple birds cruising around the vast marsh area on the other side of the dike.

RECENT SIGHTINGS OF INTEREST

Ken Allen reported two LARK SPARROWS at Rye Wilderness Area in Manatee County on Wednesday, Feb 18th. I was luckily enough to refind the birds near the playground area, feeding on the ground with a decent group of Palm Warblers. These sharp-looking birds were fun to watch, but rather difficult to photograph, but once again I managed a moderately acceptable photo of one of the birds!

Man, that is about all I can muster up for tonight...I still have to prepare for my bird outing tomorrow. Anyhow, thanks for reading (or at least looking at the moderaltey acceptable pictures).

Take it easy,

Finch