Rotary Park - Cape Coral

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.

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.

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.

Philadelphia Vireo

Blackburnian Warbler

Veery

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Northern Parula

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Philadelphia Vireo - back to Ft DeSoto

Friday April 29th

Returned to Ft DeSoto for a third try in April at sighting any spring migrants.  The weather held potential for some numbers to make land-fall here. But alas, some good sightings were made, but the numbers were very low.  And those good sightings required some work.




Black-throated Green Warbler

 

Black-throated Green Warbler

Arrived about 9:00 am and ran into several disappointed birders.  After checking a couple of locations I ran into John Mangold and the birding poet, Jeff Hooks. Just before running into these guys I had found a cluster of birds in an area which proved to be a hot spot for the day. Had a Palm Warbler, a flock of about ten Indigo Buntings, a Yellow Warbler and an unidentified thrush. Earlier John, Jeff, Ron Smith and another birder named Tom had great views of a pair of male golden-winged warblers there. So I joined with John and Jeff to try and relocate the golden-wings. Would have been a lifer for me, but we did get great looks at a couple of Black-throated Green Warblers, an Eastern Wood-pewee,  more Indigo Buntings, a Prairie Warbler and a female Blackpoll Warbler. 

We split up about eleven o'clock and I returned to the mulberry trees near the pier. I had checked it out earlier and had not seen anything.  On my return to this spot, I sat and waited for any activity that is usually centered around the water feature. Almost immediatelly had several birds come in to get a drink. Started with a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, then more Indigo Buntings, a female Hooded Warbler, a FOS Eastern Kingbird, a rarely seen Philadelphia Vireo - Lifer!! and a very large raccoon.  Even had a White Ibis and a Laughing Gull come for a drink. The Nanday Parakeets were also noisy visitors to the area as well. 
Link to photo by Jeff Hooks on his blog of a Philadelphia Vireo he photographed on a later date at Ft DeSoto.
Had to head for home by 2:00  when I noted a Gray Kingbird and a lone Brownheaded Cowbird on the wires. An earlier check of the Teirra Verde ponds still had very small numbers of Lesser Scaups, Redheads, Pied-billed Grebes and a lone male Ruddy Duck. And  even earlier, on the drive up to St Peterburg, I checked the campsite road along the south shore of Webb Lake at Babcock-Webb in Charlotte County. Not to much was found but for a very out-of-place juvenile Snail Kite seen sitting on a snag.  Over all it was a good day.