A Few Pics

 Friday January 21st

White Peacock butterfly dining on Spanish Needles
at Babcock-Webb WMA, Charlotte County Florida

Glade Lobelia
at Babcock-Webb

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
seen near RSW Airport

Agama Lizard
spotted at the drive-through at Popeyes Chicken in Labelle

Vermilion Flycatcher
at Belle Glade Marina

Indigo Bunting
at Belle Glade Marina

Tricolored Munia
at Belle Glade Marina

Green Heron
Lakes Park, Fort Myers, Florida

White-tailed Deer
at Myakka River State Park

Hairy Shadow Witch
at Fakahatchee Strand State Park

Northern Cardinal
The Celery Fields - Sarasota, Florida

Red-shouldered Hawk
at Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel Island

Brown Pelican
Ding Darling NWR - Sanibel Island

Roseate Spoonbill
Myakka River State Park

Birding in Saraota County

Friday February 23rd

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher seen off Zemel Road in Charlotte County

Seems that there are can be days when birding can be very underwhelming for any number of reasons and days when the birding can be a lot of fun. Today's was a fun day.

The Purple Martin colony

is active at the Celery Fields

My plans this morning was to bird The Celery Fields and Oscar Scherer State Park in Sarasota County. 

Bronzed Cowbird seen at the Celery Field

But first, I retraced yesterday's visit at Babcock-Webb WMA, which was an underwhelming birding day. As I was passing Babcock-Webb, along I-75 in Charlotte County, it struck me that it was still possible to stake-out one of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker Colony as they would emerge from their nest holes. Had tried yesterday, but missed seeing any. As I was waiting Eastern Towhee, Red-winged Blackbirds, Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Meadowlark and Pine Warblers could be heard. Most interesting was hearing a Bachman's Sparrow sing. Didn't hear any Bachman's singing yesterday. As for the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, their morning exit was barely heard as a lone bird was calling far from the stake-out point. Now onto The Celery Fields.

Purple Gallinule

Arrived about 8:30 and found the venue to be a very busy place.  Lots of people here already. Was about to photograph the Purple Martins who are recent arrivals to the Purple Martin Nest Boxes. Brown-headed and Bronzed Cowbirds were also active around the Nature Center. Purple Gallinules, Wilson's Snipes and a busy Sora were all easily seen from the boardwalks. 

Purple Gallinule

Sora seen from the boardwalk at The Celery Fields

Loggerhead Shrike

Green Heron

Mottled Duck. Most of these ducks seen here have been hybridized with mallards,

Spent only a bit over an hour here as I wanted to get over to Oscar Scherer State Park near Osprey. I was interested in spotting the lark sparrow and Blue Grosbeaks reported here. Arrived about 10:30. The birds in question had been reported along the Red Trail, which I found to be very quite.  Mostly Blue Jays were noticed in the open scrub oaks environment. But as I was retracing my steps back to my car I encountered a family of Florida Scrub Jays. Cool. As I am enjoying these birds the birding activity picked up. A Swallow-tailed Kite floated past and a Blue Grosbeak began singing. The grosbeak were being rather stealthy, but a trio of the birds were seen flying to cover. Even though the singing continued, I couldn't capture any photos. Didn't see the lark sparrow today

Florida Scrub Jay at Oscar Scherer State Park

One the way home I made one additional stop. Made another try at the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that can be seen along the western fence line of the trash dump off of Zemel Road in Charlotte County. The flycatcher was being quite cooperative today. Nice.

This was diffidently a fun birding day.  Some of the interesting ticks today included  Bachman's Sparrow, Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Towhee, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Florida Scrub Jays, Swallow-tailed Kite, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Northern Harriers, Purple Gallinule, Sora and FOS sightings of Purple Martins, Bronzed Cowbirds and Blue Grosbeaks.

Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area

Friday December 29th

Spent the morning explorering the roads at Babcock-Webb looking for interesting birds. I arrived just at dawn, as usual, to wait on the red-cockaded woodpeckers  emergence from their nest holes.

Waiting on the morning egress and the evening entrances at their nest holes can be the most reliable option for getting to spot these birds. The RCW colonies are well  mapped and nest trees have been marked with a white band.  I have had good success with this method with staking out the closest colony on Oil Well Grade. But on my past two visits I had dipped.  In fact a few weeks ago, I did have woodpeckers emerge, but they were Red-bellied Woodpeckers.  So this morning, I visited the colony at the junction of Tram Grade and Oil Well Grade and was rewarded with a pair of Red-cockaded   Woodpeckers. A plus here was hearing a calling King Rail from a nearby marshy area.

The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker is an endangered species and no form of harassment is permitted including play-backs. 

Other woodpeckers today included Downy and Northern Flickers. Some of the expected species common here like Eastern Towhee, Eastern Meadowlark and Eastern Bluebird were uncommon sights today. Found a an American Bittern skulking in the reeds and had a Purple Gallinule amongst some Pond Flag. Lots of Pine, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers, plus a couple of Common Yellow-throats. Plenty of waders on hand and a couple of Swamp Sparrows too. Raptors include American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered Hawk and Bald Eagle. Some misses included brown-headed nuthatch and limpkins.

Swamp Sparrow

Green Heron

Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area

Sunday March 19th

White-tailed Deer

The Babcock-Webb property is basically mesic pine flatwoods which hosts three bird species of concern including the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches and Bachman's Sparrow. Of these three birds the Bachman's can be the most difficult to spot due to its more secretive manners.  However, from March into May the males will post itself on a low limb and sing its heart out. This is why I had traveled to this spot today, to look for some Bachman's.

I arrived at dawn and was rewarded with a pair of Bachman's in song. Couldn't get a photograph as they still proved hard to locate. Also singing this morning were a number of Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Northern Cardinals, Eastern Meadowlarks and Northern Bobwhites.

Eastern Bluebird

Green Heron

Pine Warbler

Thistle

This Limpkin has collected a fresh-water muscle

Pine Warbler

 Within the first hour I had been successfully in finding the Big Three, but was able to add, a Great Horned Owl, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellow-throat, Mockingbirds, House Wrens, Palm Warblers, Limpkins, Great Egrets, Eastern Bluebirds, Anhingas, Osprey, Pileated Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Grey Catbirds, Eastern Phoebes, a Great Crested Flycatcher, Northern Flickers, Wilson's Snipe and Tree Swallows.

An Eastern Towhee

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler

Red-winged Blackbird showing-off his chevrons

This section at, Babcock-Webb, had recently been subjected

to a cleansing prescribed-burn

Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

A Gator laying in wait

A Visit to the Conch Republic and Vicinities

Friday, May 22nd
Day One

Today is day one of a long weekend to do some birding in the company of wildlife photographer Bob Pelkey. Didn't start out as a Memorial Day holiday. As it was originally scheduled for the first week of May, to take advantage of the ebbing Spring Migration. But logistics forced this unfortunate change. Home base was in Florida City were room rates were far more realistic than in the Keys.

American Crocodile in Everglades National Park

It has become an annual event to head to the Florida Keys in the Spring to find several of the specialties that are usually only seen there. It started by chasing Antillean Nighthawks and Rosette Terns that are usually found in town of Marathon. But it has now expanded to a four day search for specialties from Dry Tortugas National Park west of Key West up to the urban environments of Miami. 

Leaving Ft Myers, we crossed the state along Alligator Alley watching the birds and especially Black-crowned Night-herons and Swallow-tailed Kites. First stop was on Sherman Road just off Krone near Pembroke Pines to look for Purple Swamphens at Chapel Trails park. Upon arrival I found that my memory card was missing for my camera so I missed getting shots of a Brown Basilisk lizard seen at the start of the board walk or of the swamphens.

Black-necked Stilt near Everglades National Park

 After a stop to replace the missing memory card we made the next stop to neighborhood just north of the Kendall Baptist Hospital for a search for Red-whisked Bulbuls. This is one of the best places to search for these exotic birds and in my dozens of attempts I usually dip on seeing any. Today we sighted three.  Looks like it could be a good start for the weekend.

Green Heron at the Kendall baptist Hospital campus

Red-whiskered Bulbuls in Kendall

 At the Baptist Hospital campus the expected flock of Mitred Parakeets were noisily moving around the property. The ponds also had the usual waders and waterfowl. Didn't see any Egyptian geese but the Muscovy ducks had lots of ducklings.

Next was a stop at Mathesson Park in Coral Gables. Looking for exotics or any lingering migrants. Probably arrived too late in the day as the place was very quite. Best birds here were a pair of Yellow-Chevroned Parakeets and hearing a calling Peafowl

We ended the day visiting Everglades National Park. The goal here was to look for white-tailed kite along Research Road.
We only found American Crows and Eastern Meadowlarks, dipping on the kites.

We headed directly to the end of the road to its terminus at Flamingo. Not very birdy but find Prairie Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper, a Willet, Osprey Brown Pelicans and raucous bottle-nosed dolphins thrashing about as they fish for their supper.

At the marina, an American crocodile came out almost on cue for photographs and a Shiny Cowbird briefly showed with a flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Mitred Parakeet are commonly found at Kendall baptist Hospital campus

Ended the day in Florida City were we watched Gray Kingbirds and Common Mynas


Birds for  Day One

Great Egret at Kendall Baptist Hospital

Swan Goose (Domestic type)

Graylag Goose (Domestic type)

Muscovy Duck

Mallard (Domestic type)

Mottled Duck

Northern Bobwhite

Wood Stork

Anhinga

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

Cattle Egret

Green Heron

White Ibis

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Swallow-tailed Kite

Red-shouldered Hawk

King Rail

Purple Swamphen

Black-necked Stilt

Spotted Sandpiper

Willet

Laughing Gull

Rock Pigeon

White-crowned Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Common Ground-Dove

Mourning Dove

Common Nighthawk

Chimney Swift

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Mitred Parakeet

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

Loggerhead Shrike

White-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Fish Crow

Purple Martin

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

Prairie Warbler

Northern Cardinal

Red-winged Blackbird

Eastern Meadowlark

Common Grackle

Boat-tailed Grackle

Shiny Cowbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

House Sparrow Black-crowned Night-heron Common Myna Gray Kingbird Yellow-chevroned Parakeets Peafowl