Monday, August 9th
South of Lake Okeechobee, are farms in an area referred to as the Everglades Agricultural Area. Here is were sugar cane, rice and turf is grown and this is the time of the year to come out here for some birding.
Upland Sandpipers are probably the most coveted species to find here as they make pit stops to refresh on the sod farms as they migrate south toward Argentina. Other species we chase here include migrating shorebirds, wading birds, gulls and terns, white pelicans, nighthawks and migrating swallows.
Came out on Saturday to take advantage of the, potential, lighter traffic on these roads and lanes. Besides checking the sod farms for plovers and sandpipers, locating the flooded ag fields is important to find many of the species we'd be chasing.
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| Common Nighthawk |
Did see the Cave Swallow colony along County Road 880 just north of Brown's Farm Road. The flooded fields just across the road from the swallows have actually almost dried up. So moved on to Brown's farm Road to another location few miles south. This list for this flooded field included Black-bellied whistling Ducks, Mottled Ducks, Common Nighthawks, Lots and Lots of Black-necked Stilts, Killdeers, Stilt Sandpiper, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Gull-billed Terns, Barn swallows, and the expected wading birds.
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| American Avocet |
Close by is another road, Gladeview Road, lined with sugar cane, sod farms, rice and barren fields. Spotted Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Fulvous Whistling Ducks ( they really like the rice fields), lots more Black-necked Stilts, Pectoral Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, Wood Storks, Cattle Egrets, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Roseate Spoonbill, Yellow-crowned Night-herons, Common Yellowthroat and Barn Swallows. Dipped on the spotting any Uplands Sandpipers that are being seen along this road. Seems I missed on a seeing a newly reported American Golden Plover as well.
The best spot for the day was a flooded field at the end of Gladeview Road. Species listed included more Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, lots of Doves, Blackbirds and Grackles. But also seeing almost a dozen American Avocets, Lots more Black-necked Stilts, a Wilson's Phalarope, several Stilt Sandpipers, Killdeers, Common Nighthawk, Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Yellowlegs, Black Terns, Gull-billed Terns, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis and more. Awesome seeing the phalarope, the avocets and some many stilt sandpipers.
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| Wilson's Phalarope, not a very common bird here |
Probably will come here one more time soon to see if can catch-up on the Uppies.
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| Stilt Sandpiper |
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| Gull-billed Tern |
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| Pectoral Sandpiper |
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| Greater Yellowlegs |
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| Wood Stork |
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| American Avocet |
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| Lesser Yellowlegs |
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| Black Tern |
