Tuesday May 16th
Spring Migration. In beautiful Southwest Florida, the default venue for finding the birds migrating north in the spring is Sanibel Lighthouse on the island of Sanibel. The numbers of birds encountered is a directly affected by weather conditions. The prevailing winds and weather fronts can either induce the birds to drop-in or be pushed onward toward their summer homes or even cause them to alter where they will enter North America.
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| Swainson's Thrush |
The most recent years haven't had great local spring birding, but in 2023 we had some nice birding. Usually, we'd head to the barrier islands like Sanibel Island. But Hurricane Ian had been so devastating that venues like Sanibel Lighthouse and Bowditch Point on Fort Myers Beach are still closed and unavailable. In April, however, the Pond Apple Trail on Sanibel offered some exciting birding with early arriving migrants like Kentucky Warblers, Swainson's Warblers and Cerulean Warblers. I missed out on that bit of fun. But I did make several visits to this year's best venue. Rotary Park in Cape Coral had som nice activity.
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| Tennessee Warbler |
The star attraction was the arrival of a couple of Philadelpha Vireos. This species is a rare migrant through Florida. They usually enter the U.S. in Texas. Other sightings also included Red-eyed Vireos, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Eastern Kingbirds, Cedar Waxwings, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers; Baltimore and Orchid Orioles; Worm-eating, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Tennessee, American Redstarts, Ovenbirds, Northern Parulas, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue and Bay-breasted Warblers, Veery, Gray-cheeked, Wood and Swainson's Thrushes, Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks and more.
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| Philadelphia Vireo |
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| Blackburnian Warbler |
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| Veery |
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| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
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| Northern Parula |
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| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
