Everglades Ag Area

 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. 

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.

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.

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.

Stilt Sandpiper

Gull-billed Tern

Pectoral Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Wood Stork

American Avocet

Lesser Yellowlegs

Black Tern

EAA

Thursday July 19

Gull-billed Tern

Today I made the hour and a half drive from Ft Myers over to the Everglades Ag Area south of Belle Glade.  Seemed a bit early yet to be checking out the flooded sugar cane fields, but I noticed a few intriguing postings on eBird. 

Black Tern

Arrived in the area of Brown's Farm Road around 8:30 and started with the swallow colony at the intersection of 880 and Brown's Farm Road.  the swallows weren't all that accommodating but was able to pull out one, for sure Cave Swallow, from among all the similarly looking Cliff Swallows.

The flooded fields adjacent to the swallows were very active with a large concentration of Black-necked Stilts.  Dozens of Black Terns were foraging and resting here along with Gull-billed Terns, Least Terns, Caspian Terns, Short-billed Dowitchers and maybe a few Long-billed Dowitchers too. Other species present included Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Least Sandpipers, a Spotted Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plovers, plus Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Black Tern

Common Nighthawk

Drove several miles along Brown's Farm Road and did encounter a nice couple of fields that werejust starting to be flooded. Slightly different mix of birds here.  Because the water wasn't very deep yet, it was attractive to nearly a hundred  Glossy Ibis, a couple a dozen Mottled Ducks, a few Common Gallinules and lots more Black-necked Stilts.  Both Yellowlegs, Dowitchers, Least Sandpipers and Laughing Gulls were also present. 

Had to be more than a hundred Black-necked Stilts today

Had hoped to add Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Wood Storks, wintering American White Pelicans, Pectoral Sandpipers and Stilt Sandpipers, but dipped on these.  Its a bit early on these sandpipers but no totally out of the question. But we should see numbers of them soon along with American Avocets and Wilson's Phalaropes

Caspian Tern

Least Tern

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Additional sighting along Brown's Farm Road included a great many Brown-headed Cowbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Both Grackles, Eastern Meadowlarks, Common Nighthawks, Green Herons, White Ibis, Purple Martins and Barn Swallows.

On the drive over and back noticed a few Swallow-tailed Kites soaring mostly near LaBelle, plus a Crested Caracara and several Sandhill Cranes.

Dowitcher

Least Sandpiper

Gull-billed Tern

Black Tern

Gull-billed Tern

Brown-headed Cowbird

Red-shouldered Hawk

The Ag Fields

Monday July 31st

Gull-billed Tern

Today, Tropical Storm Emily has formed in the Gulf and is dumping rain on us. But yesterday I drove out to the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Belle Glade in Palm Beach County. The Ag Fields is an area south of Lake Okeechobee known for growing sugar cane, rice and sod farms. In late Fall the Ag Fields hosts migrating shore birds, terns, swallows and grass peeps.

The purposeful flooding of finished cane fields to kill off the nematodes that damage the sugar cane,  can be a mecca for these migrating birds. It is early yet to make these trips to the area, but there were birds to be seen.  Not a lot of birds yet though. Give it a couple of weeks.

Pectoral Sandpiper

What was found, at the only flooded fields encountered, at the junction of Rt 880 and Browns Farm Road, were several family groups of Black-necked Stilts, several Gull-billed Terns, Least Terns, Lesser Yellowlegs, Dowitchers (not sure if they were short-billed or long-billed), Pectoral, Spotted and Least Sandpipers, Killdeer and a few Laughing Gulls. It shouldn't be long till numbers  and variety increase. Will be looking for Black Terns, White Pelicans, Wilson's Phalaropes, Stilt Sandpipers and Avocets and tons of waders.

Gull-billed Tern

The sod fields were devoid of activity.  The Upland Sandpipers have been here this early in the past, but they'll probably show by mid-August.

Other interesting sightings on the day included numbers of Barn Swallows with a few Cliff and Bank Swallows, Purple Martins, a lone Tree Swallow, Bobwhites, Meadowlarks, Common Nighthawks and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Best sighting of the day was a Barn Owl flying along Boles Canal, and the most interesting sighting was spotting a pair of Common Mynas at the parking lot at the BK restaurant in Belle Glade.

Hopeful, Ill be able to return in two or three weeks.

Barn Swallow

Spotted Sandpiper

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt Chick

Northern Bobwhite

A very young Red-tailed Hawk

A young Red-shouldered Hawk

Least Tern

Browns Farm Road

Monday, August 1st

From page 212 in the ABA Bird Guide 'A Birder's Guide to Florida' by Bill Pranty, is a brief narrative concerning birding on Brown's Farm Road. This narrow road breaks off from cr-880 a few miles south of Belle Glade in what is referred to as the Everglades Agricultural Area. Come late summer and into Fall, the sugar, rice and sod fields here, can be a great place to find migrating grass peeps and shorebirds. A major attraction for these birds are the flooded cane fields. The farmers will flood these fields between crops to kill off nematodes and other root attaching pests, and the migrating shorebirds flock to these man-made wetlands.

Gull-billed Tern

Currently, near the northern terminus to Browns' Farm Road is a very large flooded field were some early shorebirds have arrived including several Wilson's Phalaropes.  These phalaropes are very uncommon in Florida and there appearance here was an inspiration for Bob Pelkey and I to visit  today. 

Wilson's Phalarope with a Semipalmated Sandpiper

Wilson's Phalaropes

We arrived about 9 AM and met Peter Hawrylyshy and Robert Lewis who had already had eyes on the phalaropes. The birds were a distance out but we could clearly see there twirling movements as the feed. Other species present included Wood Storks, a Roseate Spoonbill, Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets, Black-belled Plovers, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, a lone Stilt Sandpiper, Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers,Laughing Gulls, Gull-billed Terns, Black Terns and a Re-shouldered Hawks. This site did lack waterfowl and white pelicans and only a few wading birds. This a nearby colony of Cliff and Cave Swallows at a small cement bridge over the canal on cr-880. We also checked-out the nearby Six-bend Sod Farm for grass peeps, but its still early yet and the sod fields were quite.  The Uppies should be arriving in a couple of weeks.

Black-necked Stilt
Photo by Bob Pelkey

Stilt Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Earlier we did some investigating along Brown's Farm Road for any other hot spots. We were able to locate Black-bellied and Fulvous Whistling Ducks, more Black-necked Stilts, Mottled Ducks, Common Gallinule, Solitary Sandpipers, Killdeer, a lone Pectoral Sandpiper, Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-herons, Common Nighthawks, Anhingas, a lone American White Pelican, Barn and Cliff Swallows, Glossy and White Ibis, various waders, White-winged, Mourning, Eurasian Collared and Ground Doves, Eastern Meadowlarks, Red-shouldered Hawk, a very high count on Green Herons and a great many Brown Cowbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds and Boat-tailed Grackles. 

Solitary Sandpiper

While on the phone with Dave McQuaid for an up-date on directions, we had a Gull-billed Tern right past the car. We managed to get a few pictures as a trio of the terns made several passes up and down the canal as they hunted.

Killdeer.
Photo by Bob Pelkey

Barn Swallow 

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

White-winged Dove

Brown-headed Cowbird

Least Sandpiper

Glossy Ibis

Shiny Cowbird

There was one more stop to make after finishing up at  Brown's Farm Road and that was to visit Belle Glade Marina on Torry Island, just a few north at Lake Okeechobee. Here, we are after a pair of Shiny Cowbirds, but we hit a snag.  Seems that the bridge providing access to Torry Island was under repair and would be closed for most of the day, except between Noon and One PM. We had almost a forty-five minute wait, but it was worth it. The male Shiny Cowbird was easily located within a few short minutes. We dipped in the orchard orioles and eastern kingbirds, but did see a Cooper's Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker, Limpkin  and a Great Egret which after reviewing its photo may possibly be a White Great Heron based on the leg color.

Is this a Great Egret or Great White Heron?

Apple Snail shell at Belle Glade Marina.
 No doubt refuse from a Limpkin's meal

Other sightings on the day included Swallow-tailed Kites, Ospreys, Crested Caracara, Red-tailed Hawk Chimney Swift and Fish Crows.  I'd have to say that a return trip is necessary after migration heats up.