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

Fort DeSoto Park

 April 23rd

Nanday Parakeet

Spent the day looking for interesting birds at Fort DeSoto Park, which is located south of Tierra Verde in Tampa Bay. The park can be a great venue for birding during spring migration. So, a springtime visit is almost mandatory. 

eBird Checklist - 23 Apr 2023 - Fort De Soto Park - 54 species

Some of my better pics

Brown-headed Cowbird

Least Sandpiper

Cape May Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Swainson's Thrush

Willet

White Ibis

Swainson's Thrush

Ovenbird

Veery

Laughing Gull

Fort Desoto Park

Thursday April 19th

Rose breasted Grosbeak feeding on mulberries

By Thursday, the winds were now favorable for the migrating birds. But I visited Fort Desoto Park in Pinellis County anyway. Found that most of the warblers, vireos and such had moved out, but lots of Rose breasted grosbeaks and Scarlet  Tanagers were around.

A few thrushes too - including  Wood Thrush, Swainson's Thrush and Veery. Other migrants included Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Indigo and Painted Bindings, Summer Tanagers.


Other birds seen included Caspian Tern, Least Terns, a Lesser Black backed Gull, Marbled Godwits, Red breasted Merganser and Nanday Parakeets.

Swainson's Thrush

A rather orangish Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

Female Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager consuming a wasp

Nanday Parakeets were everywhere

Black-bellied Plover looking for a ride North

Marbled Godwit

Caspian Tern

Reddish Egret

Red-breasted Merganser

Veery

Last Hurrah

Sunday May 7th

Ruby Throated Hummingbird seen at Bowditch Point Park

Locally, the start of May heralds the waning of the Spring Bird Migration. So far we have been experiencing an unexceptionally low movement of neotropic birds. The prevailing winds have been pushing the migrating birds away from southwest Florida more toward the more western landfalls on the Gulf Coast. But just this past Friday the weather pattern had changed, pushing birds our way. Thus creating our Last Hurrah.

Female Rose Breasted Grosbeak

 I personally was able to find a few these new arrivals, but many birders who visited the Sanibel Lighthouse Park, Freedom Park in Naples and down on Marco Island,  had a great day.  Many warblers, thrushes, vireos, grosbeaks, buntings, cuckoos, bobolinks, tanager species, as well as, lots of hungry Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds were om hand. It wasn't Magee Marsh, but a very satisfying occasion.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Indigo Buntings singing from the trees

Black-and-White Warbler

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Migration Continues to be Slow

Monday May 4th

Our little corner of Florida continues to be quite slow for local birders as the migrants take advantage of favorable winds and fly past us. Even the migrant hot spot at Ft DeSoto Park in Tampa Bay has been very slow. Its good for the birds and not so much for us.

Rose-breasted seen at Sanibel Lighthouse

But a recent bout of weather has contributed a few interesting spring migrants. In the past few days I was able to add samplings of neotropicals to include Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Blackpoll Warbler, Cape May Warbler,  Magnolia Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Eastern Kingbird, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart and Orchard Oriole.

Other folks have found Blue-winged Warblers, Yellow-throated Vireo, Summer Tanagers, Bobolinks, Wilson's Phalarope, and White-rumped Sandpiper.

Black-and-White Warbler at Six-Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

Other species are arriving in the area to take up summer residence, such as the much appreciated and popular Swallow-tailed Kites. They arrive just as February gives way to March and will be gone about the end of July. The Common Nighthawks are just arriving now and will be around till about the end of August. Purple Martins are already fledgling there broods and will soon be free-ranging. A few Chimney Swifts have pasted through and some will spend the summer with us. Gray Kingbirds have also arrived and the Least Terns that nest on our beaches should be increasing their local population soon.  A good place to see many of these species during the summer is down at the River District in Ft Myers.

Orchard Oriole at Sanibel Lighthouse

Cape May Warbler at Ding Darling NWR