Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

The Thick-billed Vireo was present this morning in Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP. I first heard it scolding 25 yards north of Dan's initial sighting but I lost it in the dense Green Buttonwood stand. I continued birding and when I returned on the dirt Nature Trail, I heard it scold and then saw it, this time, farther north about 68 yards from Dan's sighting. It was several layers back and difficult to photograph. I tied a pink tape to the dead Privet shrub. Miriam and Liz saw it at that location about 30 minutes later. A House Wren scolds in the same area but the Thick-billed Vireo scold is raspier and more substantial.

At the same location, a female Western Spindalis showed up and was more confiding. This area was active at 8:45 but I didn't hear her vocalize. She never sat in the open and eventually moved back into the denser shrub.

This section west of the trail has a lot of fruiting vegetation - White Stopper, Florida Trema, Florida Privet, Virginia Creeper and Cestrum - so perhaps these birds will stay around for a while.

A female Blue Grosbeak is at the SE corner of the intersection and a Nashville Warbler is on a trail east of the Nature Trail.