Spring Migration Begins - Sanibel Lighthouse

Tuesday, April 10th

Pileated Woodpeckers are nesting at the lighthouse

Spring migration has begun here in beautiful Southwest Florida. We are not located on one of the major spring migration routes through the state, but sometimes we can have a real good day.  Last spring most of the migrants had favorable winds and just shot right past us to points north. It's possible that we'll have a repeat this season, but usually our best results are at the Sanibel Lighthouse. A couple of years ago I visited  day as large numbers of birds did stop here with the telephone wires packed with exhausted Purple Martins and Barn Swallows.

Exhausted purple martins in 2010

Great Crested Flycatcher

Today I stopped by in the afternoon and found zero migrants after a two hour search. But on Easter Sunday we did have a few good hits. We had plenty of eyes as several birders were on hand including several friends like Dr Jose Padilla, Vince McGrath, Wes, Gary Lee and others like Don and Lillian Stokes. Best bird was a continuing Blue-winged Warbler first reported by the Stokes a few days ago.  We also had Black-and White Warbler, Palm Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Pine Warbler, Northern Parula, Coopers Hawk, Cliff Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Fish Crow, Cedar Waxwings, Gray Catbirds and a late Common Loon.

Young gator looking for a safe place to grow up

April is also the time that the local reptile population starts becoming active as the temps rise and the wetlands dry up.  Snakes and lizards are more active, turtles are looking for nesting sites and the larger gators are forcing the smaller gators to look for new digs as the ponds shrink. Just last night I found a displaced yearling baby gator wandering the property at work.  In years past much larger  gators had managed to enter the property.  So we are bit more cautious when working about the property at night this time of year..

Twenty Warblers

September 29th
Six-Mile Cypress and other locations.

The past spring migration was a bust for most of the birders of south Florida, but so far the fall migration has much better.  Most of my personal successes are with warblers.  No tanagers, orioles, thrushes etc, yet.

This final week has been a strange one with getting some good birds, but also dealing with some other strange things. Such as having my computer die and with some annoying health issues. But I got in several visits to Six-mile Cypress Preserve this week just the same.  This past Sunday I ran into Vince McGrath and Stan Daman.  Vince is a phenomenal birder.  He can sense them before anyone else has a clue. With Vince's guidance we reaped Blue-winged Warbler, a female Cerulean Warbler ( a Lifer for Stan and myself), American Redstart, Yellowthroated Warbler, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, a Yellow Warbler, a Black-and-White Warbler and a Tennessee Warbler.  Was able to add a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird and lots of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Tufted Titmice.  Also Vince picked-up a barely audible calling Barred Owl as we were leaving.



Yellow-throated Warbler - 2010



A few day's earlier I had run into Walt Winton at the same location.  I just caught the tale end of a nice mixed flock he was watching. I only managed a black-and-white and a Northern Parula before the flock moved away. Did get on a female Blackburian Warbler later.

Yesterday, I was there around 9am and was able to add Magnolia Warblers along with northern parula, ovenbird, northern waterthrush, yellowthroated warbler and a female American redstart. A surprise was a small bird I phissed-in near the pavilion.  Turned out to be a Traill's Flycatcher  (willow/alder flycatcher). Also can add a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird as well.

Palm Warbler - 2010

Palm Warblers are showing up now. Had  six of them on the 14th at Ft DeSoto and 5 more this morning at Sanibel Lighthouse. On both of these occasions the palms were the only warblers seen.  As for the the rest of this month's warblers I can add a Hooded, Prairie, Prothonotary, and Worm-eating at Calossahatchee Preserves on the first and a visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on the 7th we had a FOS Common Yellowthroat, northern waterthrush, northern parula, American redstarts, worm-eating, Pine, Prairie, black-and-white, prothonotary and Yellowthroated Warblers.

Back on the 4th, at Six-Mile Cypress, I had a blue-winged Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, northern parula, yellowthroated warbler, black-and-white warbler and pine warbler.

Was back at Six-Mile Cypress again this afternoon, but it was very quite.  Saw no warblers at all.  The only salvation to the visit was seeing my first Short-tailed Hawk since July of last year, soaring over the slough.  It was a white-morphed and probably the same one reported from here earlier.

My List Count for September is 129 birds and October has the promise for even higher numbers.

Blue-winged Warbler at Six-Mile Cypress Preserve

Sunday, September 4th,

While taking a break from mowing the lawn, to cool off, I checked on some birding sights on the Internet. Well I found a report that Walt Winton had  hits on twelve different warblers, including blackburian yesterday at nearby Six-Mile Cypress Preserve. So off I headed to Six-mile Cypress and the rest of the yard will have to wait till later.

Got there about noon and had a Blue-winged Warbler almost immediately. It was part of a mixed flocked that included Red-eyed Vireo, Great Crested flycatchers, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied woodpecker, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Black-and White Warbler, Pine Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wren, Blue Jays and a Northern Parula. The rest of the visit was fairly quite after this flock moved on. Was able to later add a couple of Yellow-throated Warblers and Red-shouldered Hawks. Certainly not as good as Walt's visit yesterday, but  for me the blue-winged warbler was a first sighting in Florida.  Had only see it once before, a couple of years ago in Illinois.



Gray Kingbird



While grabbing lunch at a drive-through restaurant in Ft Myers, I noticed a bird acting very flycatcher like on the telephone lines. Turned out to be a pair of Gray Kingbirds.  Not bad. This species should be leaving the area soon to return to Caribbean. Swallow-tailed kites are already gone and common nighthawks will be gone very soon.