Bird Board
LaSagra's Continues
Fourth time was a charm I guess. Today I briefly caught the LaSagra's at Bill Baggs State Park along the powerlines behind the bicycle stand. We heard the bird call a couple times around 8:30 in this area, but it didn't emerge for another hour or so after a short shower. The bird is certainly shy and quiet. I saw it in a large Sea Grape tree along the powerlines. Georgia birder Mark McShane and Smith Juan caught glimpses of it later on the wire and followed it into a strangler fig off the maintenance area. It should be noted that the bird was seen in the areas Robin has managed to get open to us. A HUGE thanks for that and there was no need to push this permission by venturing toward the residential area; that is decidedly off limits.
By the way, there is a ranger working back there who told us that he started birding yesterday. We couldn't get him the flycacther, but he was thrilled to see his first catbird and gnatcatcher. If you see him, point something out to him--his enthusiasm is contagious and we can sure use another set of eyes back there!
Comments
We saw the LaSagras briefly perched on a guide wire in the maintenance area about 9:30. It flew a couple of seconds after we spotted it. We have not relocated it.
Hi All,
I tried for this bird on the morning of 11/26 circuiting the area on the roads and trails that were publicly accessible at that time. In the afternoon of 11/26 when birder access to some of the prime interior areas was publicly announced we birders intensified the search in those areas. Others and myself had heard the La Sagra's Flycatcher vocalize very infrequently and at a distance a few times on 11/26 but no sighting was made.
Birders started trying for the bird in the special access interior areas on 11/27 as soon as the park opened, and the flycatcher was again heard vocalizing very infrequently at a distance a few times on 11/27 as well, but to my knowledge no sighting was made during any vocalization.
As Shane Runyon reported, he saw the La Sagra's at 9:40am on 11/27 while everyone was spread out in the immediate area looking for the bird. Shane instantly alerted the rest of us who were very nearby and we all scurried over to the exact spot where he had just seen it.
Shane had picked up the very special Myiarchus on the east side of the powerline cut, he had seen it well, and then it had moved into the trees on the west side of the powerline cut right there. Approximate location where Shane had the bird:
Coordinates 25.67057,-80.157075
GPS N 25 40.234 W 80 09.425
Current easily available aerial map photography of the park doesn't seem to show the powerline cut between the administration buildings and the parking lot and to the east of the main north/south service road cut through that area as it appears now or very well.
When we made it over to where Shane was the bird had just gone so we all looked for the flycatcher in the very immediate area.
A few minutes later another birder and I were standing in the powerline cut, just about where Shane had seen the bird, when a birder flushed the bird east out of the trees from the west side of the powerline cut. That was very near where Shane had just seen it go into the trees when he had lost it minutes earlier.
When flushed the bird briefly perched on a wire right in front of us, though maybe 40-50 yards out, just a bit south of where Shane had seen it. Approximate location:
Coordinates 25.670332,-80.157045
GPS N 25 40.220 W 80 09.423
Due to being very fluent in the use of the Angled-Eyepiece Birding Scope Cable-Tie Sight, hey anyone can do it, can't live without it, Yes - You Too Can Warbler With Your Scope, highly recommended, at:
http://www.neargareport.com/p/2-cable-tie-sight-guide-ruff-and-stki.html?m=0
I instantly got the Nikon 82mm (with 30x wide-angle eyepiece) Fieldscope on the bird, and the birder I was with got it in his binoculars as well. The morning sun was actually very near the angle of our view of the bird but not in the field of view, and the bird was pretty backlit. The flycatcher was a bit crouched on the wire.
I saw a small and slim Myiarchus flycatcher with a prominent crest, and a seemingly thin bill. I could see very pale yellow on the belly only but couldn't see the breast of the bird very well at all due to the crouch and the back light. The tail seemed to have very little rufous in it. I was working through the bird but with the lighting I couldn't really see much more detail before it quickly took off.
When the Myiarchus left the wire, it flew almost 110 yards to the northeast, crossing to the east side of the open area called "The Nursery" (where the park staff deposits much of their tree, path, and road trimmings) and disappeared into the top of a large tree over there.
Approximate location:
Coordinates 25.670822,-80.156296
GPS N 25 40.249 W 80 09.378
I followed it in flight in the scope as it went and scanned the canopy for it when it put down but couldn't relocate it anywhere on the edge of the tree. In flight the bird was pretty much going away from us and displayed very little rufous in the tail or wings. A bunch of us went over to the tree, contended with some rain for a good while, and kept watching for the bird which we never found again.
Just outside the southwest corner of the administration building complex on the side of the road there is a small and old boat laying on the ground at the north end of that section of the powerline cut. We saw the flycatcher on a powerline about 100 yards into the powerline cut south of the boat.
I wanted more! I wasn't quite happy missing any of the details of the plumage of the bird with the badly backlit and quick view, sans video, and stayed till almost 2pm hoping to re-spot the La Sagra's again and get some nice video clips. I heard it once after the sighting but did not see it again.
Taking prior and subsequent sightings into account it seems that the bird has been favoring the north end of that section of the powerline cut there as well as The Nursery area just east.
Entrance to the south end of the powerline cut can be made around an Authorized Personnel Only marked white gate on the west side of the parking lot just south of the bicycle rental establishment.
(special birder access is granted and detailed via previous 11/26/16 Tropical Audubon Society Bird Board post by Robin Diaz)
Good Birding All!
Mark
Mark McShane
Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia
www.neargareport.com
I'am the State Park Ranger i saw the La Sagra at 7:39am 3 times 2 on power line and 1 time on a tree in back of Ranger home special note also the bird was very vocal on all three sightings
I'am the State Park Ranger i saw the La Sagra at 7:39am 3 times 2 on power line and 1 time on a tree in back of Ranger home special note also the bird was very vocal on all three sightings
Leave a Comment