It
took a little doing, but I finally convinced Dave and his wife Floy that we should hit the Island
today, as a mild front went through the night before and winds were still from
the north, so fallout conditions should be good! (He was reticent throughout our
correspondence as they had reservations out there after they left the Inn, but
after explaining that the winds would be coming out of the south by the time
they got there and that the migrants would probably just blow right over, and
Thursday promised to be “The Big One,” they reneged…)
But
when we got to the Convention Centre and started walking through the “central
area” (the place was so packed we had to use the “real” parking lot), there
wasn’t a bird to be seen, and I started to sweat that I had heightened their
expectations for nothing! L But thankfully there were at least a couple
of Indigo Buntings feeding amongst the whistling ducks, and a guy already there
drew our attention to a Sora hanging out with them!
Even the water feature was slow with just a Catbird holding forth, but after using the restroom Floy came and joined me at the railing, and we got to wondering why Dave was taking so long in the men’s room! Shortly he came after us and said, “You gotta see this!” When we got to the back he said, “Where’d they all go?!” Turns out he had been waylaid by all the Baltimore Orioles hogging the oranges, which had now been taken over by grackles! But a little waiting paid off, and gradually we got great looks at the regular suspects, including the female Cape May Warbler! A female Rose-breasted Grosbeak came down to an orange, which was an ABA bird for them!
Friendly Sora
Even the water feature was slow with just a Catbird holding forth, but after using the restroom Floy came and joined me at the railing, and we got to wondering why Dave was taking so long in the men’s room! Shortly he came after us and said, “You gotta see this!” When we got to the back he said, “Where’d they all go?!” Turns out he had been waylaid by all the Baltimore Orioles hogging the oranges, which had now been taken over by grackles! But a little waiting paid off, and gradually we got great looks at the regular suspects, including the female Cape May Warbler! A female Rose-breasted Grosbeak came down to an orange, which was an ABA bird for them!
We had a very odd Baltimore Oriole that was more yellow than orange, making him look almost like a Scott's Oriole!
Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak; note the "kiss of pink" at the shoulder!
The female Cape May Warbler hasn't left!
We
ran into my friend Baceliza again who said that the Black-throated Blue Warbler
was showing well on the boardwalk, so we decided to head out there. There was indeed a lot of action (including
running into all my friends again J), but it was
tough to see things in the mangroves; we did get skulking views of the Blue,
along with a Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white, a female Hooded, the
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and a Yellow-throated chowing down on a butterfly! But the star for many was the male
Golden-winged Warbler that showed very briefly!
Out on the end we enjoyed Oystercatchers, a nice breeding-plumaged Least
Sandpiper, two Spotted Sandpipers, a Northern Waterthrush that was upstaged by
a Tricolored Heron, and the piebald Reddish Egret driving out an intruder!
Dave joins the rest of the mob waiting for a warbler to grant them a photo op!
This Yellow-throated Warbler was the only one that cooperated with me...
On the pier, a pair of Oystercatchers joins the resident piebald Reddish Egret in finding lunch!
Least Sandpiper
On
the way back I heard a Least Bittern, and Dave expressed an interest in seeing
it, but then thought better of it when there were migrants to chase! By that time we were already at the “east
pond”, so we checked it out, and thankfully the shorebirds were close enough to
identify, including his life White-rumped Sandpiper! Back at the Center we spent extended time at
each “station”, picking up a cooperative Gray-cheeked Thrush and Kentucky
Warbler at the water feature, a female Summer Tanager, the continuing Louisiana
Waterthrush, and a cuckoo that got away (I didn’t see any rufous in the wings,
but it just darted off too fast)… Some
other folks said they had a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, so I went over to try
and confirm it (Dave was glued to the fence at the water feature J), but all I could
find and comfortably ID was a Least Flycatcher near the top of the
foliage. I did see an empid that had very little (if any) contrast between the
face and throat, but it looked very pale below, so it could have been a worn
bird, but I just didn’t feel comfortable calling it as such. At one point we sat on a bench in the “back yard”
and enjoyed both Indigo and a Painted Bunting pair, along with a fairly
cooperative Magnolia Warbler, and I noticed that Floy was sketching while Dave
shot photos; turns out she’s quite the artist with her own website!
Stilt Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Tennessee Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Indigo Bunting
Floy creates a sketch journal of her observations...
Drawings (above and below) ©2018 Floy Zittin
We
opted to eat lunch and then head over to Oleander, but on the way to the parking
lot all those birds that were missing when we first arrived suddenly showed up,
and we had point-blank looks at an Acadian Flycatcher, a lovely Blue-headed
Vireo, and more thrushes bouncing along on the ground! While we munched in the lot we of course
attracted the attendant Laughing Gulls (and they had great looks at hundreds of
their life Franklin’s Gulls going over), but the killer was the pair of
breeding-plumaged Ruddy Turnstones that also came in seemingly wanting a
handout! J
Acadian Flycatcher
Swainson's Thrush
Mob of Cattle Egrets on the way out
Ruddy Turnstone looking for a handout
We
then rolled over to the drip at Oleander and miraculously got the last parking
spot, but had to kindly ask some folks who were actually walking around the
fence area by the drip to please come back and watch from a distance, and it
was amazing how the birds just flocked in after the people left the area
alone! Dave and Floy’s life Dickcissel
sang and called in a tree right overhead (was tough to see, but they spotted
it), and as we waited we had great looks at Ovenbird, American Redstart, three
kinds of thrush (including Wood), Hooded Warbler, Yellowthroat, and a Northern
Waterthrush that practically sat on us!
Juan Sebastian wandered in with my three Dutch friends from the last
three days, and about that time a vireo came in that at first glance looked
like a Philadelphia to me, but then a bird flew to the other tree that was
clearly a Warbling Vireo, so I figured it was just one of those bright
birds. But then there was still a bird
in the tree close to us, and when it came out, it was a Philadelphia Vireo, and it eventually almost landed on us! What looks!
(As an aside, I found out later from Keith that my condensed names for
some of these things, like “Philly,” “Buffie,”
“Hoodie,” and TV, caused much mirth amongst the Dutch folks… J)
Friendly Northern Waterthrush
Not so friendly Ovenbird...
Philadelphia Vireo (aka "Philly")
Wood Thrush
American Redstart
We
finally tore ourselves away from there and headed over to Sheepshead, and
thankfully it was overcast so we could enjoy the north side in relative
comfort! A Red-eyed Vireo hopped around almost
close enough to touch, and both Baltimore and Orchard Orioles were out the yin
yang! Several Parulas were around, and
on the south side we had a pair of Black-throated Green Warblers practically sit
on us as well! But the star was a
knockout gorgeous male Western Tanager that showed up! Ho hum for my charges from California, but
exciting for us! J I
was also surprised to hear a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher buzzing this late! Dave enjoyed the Golden-fronted Woodpecker
trying to raid the hummingbird feeders…
Baltimore Oriole
His rusty cousin the Orchard Oriole
Northern Parulas were never far from an orange!
This little Red-eyed Vireo was so cute that I couldn't decide which pictures to use!
You can actually see the red eyes in this one!
This Western Tanager caused a lot of excitement!
Black-throated Green Warbler
Dave
was getting “saturated” by then (and the sun had come out, and that north side
can be brutal in the heat), so we sat on the bench while we checked IDs of
birds he had seen the day before, then decided to come home while discussing
birding options for them on their own for the rest of their stay. (I would be curious to hear what the migrant
action would be during their stay there at the Island with the strong south
winds!) We did well with almost 100
species for the day! Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Oystercatcher
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone
Stilt Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
Least Tern
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Marsh Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Northern Waterthrush
Golden-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Western Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow
99 SPECIES
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