Canada Warbler at Six-Mile Cypress

Saturday October 1st

Female Canada Warbler - photo by Jose Padilla

Saturday I wanted to squeeze in some birding in the morning before going into work.  First checked out my patch along Domestic and Lee Streets in San Carlos Park to see if the burrowing owl are present. Seems that following the fledgling of the chicks the two families of owls that I have been watching  have moved to new digs elsewhere. As of this visit none are found.  Did have some Palm Warblers and a FOS American Kestrel, plus a few Mourning Doves, a couple of Loggerhead Shrikes including one with a dragonfly skewered on some barbed wire, some singing Eastern Meadowlarks and a juvie Red-shouldered Hawk.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Next onto Six-Mile Cypress Slough Preserve to look for migrants. Bird-wise things were actually slow. Ran into Stan Daman who had already done some birding, finding a couple of warblers.  As we were speaking we came up with a male American Redstart and a Northern Parula, plus Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, singing Carolina Wrens and Tufted Titmice. Later we ran into Jose Padilla at the far side of the boardwalk.  Still the birding was slow, but as we were talking a couple of warblers did show up.  The first was a Black-and-White Warbler and then to our surprise we were able to id the second bird as a female Canada Warbler,  The canada is not very common at all in Florida during migration as they generally travel down through Texas. So it was a welcome addition to my Life list As we were leaving we were to locate an Ovenbird near the pavilion.

Pileated Woodpecker at Six-Mile Cypress

Yellow Rat Snake explorering the boardwalk