Bird Board
EvergladesNP,10-15 - scissor-tailedFlycatchers,WestKingbird
Posted by Robert Thorn
almost 6 years ago
4 Comments
Birder northern parts of main road, plus Lucky Hammock. Water levels very high, so egrets and herons scattered in prairies of Taylor slough and dwarf cypress area. Anhinga Trail blah, but hammocks had some migrants. Royal Palm Hammock (Gumbo Limbo Trail) had 6 warbler species (Redstarts common, nothing unusual),catbirds,vireos, Broad-winged & Short-tailed Hawks. Mahogany Hammock had 4 warbler species, catbirds,vireos, Western Kingbird in parking area. Lucky Hammock had 5 warbler species, catbirds, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (2 around parking area), Blue Grosbeaks (2-3 in entrance field), Indigo Buntings, but no sign of Smooth-billed Ani.
Comments
Just curious, did you participate in the Coot Bay CBC in the 70s with Jim King. I was there also.
Yes; I was usually on the Snake Bight team, even led it for a few years. Thought about going down there on this day, but then remembered the industrial-strength mosquitos :-)
As I recall you were a teenager and an expert on warblers. I remember taking you and your bike to Coot Bay one year. I assume you know that Jim King passed away several weeks ago. I don't live in N Miami anymore. We moved to Arcadia about 20 years ago. Do not miss those mosguitos at all!
I'd heard about Jim's passing from several other birders, including Brian R. I hadn't visited Miami in nearly 40 years (my family had left back in the 80s, while I was away at college), so it was strange to see how so much had changed. It was not all bad, though I wished they'd been able to greenbelt more of the parks. The wild areas in the urban parts of Dade County seemed fragmented, with the exception of the bay shoreline. Very little of the pine forests remain, apart from some blocks in south Dade. On the plus side, Key Biscayne looks great sans Casuarinas, a lot of Everglades buffer areas are now protected, and north Key Largo is mostly parkland.
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