Birding Florida

Well I'm back from my stay with family in Florida and wanted to share some of the photos I was able to create while I was there of the many birds I saw. My first posting will be of the of the birds that were new to me, the story to finding them and some of the photos I was able to collect.

The first 4 new life birds where the Yellow-throated Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Eastern Phoebe and the Eastern Screech Owl. All four where to be found in different locations at Loxahatchee one of the places I enjoy birding. The Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge stretches for about 13 miles long and 12 miles wide with the north end just west of my daughters home. The visitor center & the area I like to bird and photograph at are located at the south end of the refuge off of  hwy 441 south and Lee road.
I had made a list of the birds I hoped to see while I was in Florida and in my search of the internet for places to bird and locate birds for my life list I came across a gentleman, John Schwarz, a very knowledgeable and enjoyable individual on birds. He knew where and when to locate them. Through this contact I was able to find out that there was a Eastern Screech Owl being seen at a nest box located behind the visitor's center at Loxahatchee. I made a run out there late that day and was rewarded with one of my golden birds!

Prairie Warbler

Eastern Phoebe

  

Eastern Screech Owl

  Two other areas not far from daughters that I like to bird and photograph are Wakodahatchee Wetlands and Green Cay Wetlands in the Boynton Beach area. These are quite amazing as they are located within the city and are like big wetland parks with a visitor center and raised boardwalks that you walk through the park on, putting you at eye level with a lot of the nesting Herons, Egrets, Cormorants and Anhingas that use these areas. Makes for some great photographic opportunities. The bird I picked up here is actually a newer invasive species that is starting to increase in numbers, the Purple Swamphen, (Pukeko), is originally from Thailand. These birds are fairly good sized and reminded me of  looking much like a Purple Gallinule on steroids.

Purple Swamphen

   My next three birds I was able to find where, north, up by Cape Kennedy at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Upon pulling up in line to the main entry gate I spotted my next bird as it came over and lit on the lawn at the gate-house, Florida Scrub-jay. I had taken photos of it and unfortunately for some reason when I transferred the photos over to my portable harddrive from my cameras memory card they were lost along with Reddish Egret, Wilson's Plover and others, very disappointing! I was able to locate the Wilson's Plover along a small salt water slew in the mangroves. There were two of them working along the shore line and I was able to get in good photographic range while they worked the water line and had some great shots of them. Reddish Egret at an area on the refuge called Black Point Drive. I was not expecting to see the egret here as I was under the impression it was more a bird found along the west coast of Florida, but this is not true thank goodness. When I spotted the two birds about 200 yards out, I knew immediately what they were by their peculiar way they hunt, running around in the water and spreading their wings out to shade the surface. Fantastic as this was one on my list I was really hoping to see. 
   A trip west and south out past Belle Glades took myself and John Schwarz to STA-5. This is one of many water treatment areas found around southern Florida. This area is known for the Snail Kite which was on my list to find and bingo we found a many. Apparently this is one of the few breeding areas for them. Along with the Snail Kite we also saw Stilt Sandpiper, and Florida race of Grasshopper Sparrow which added three more birds to my life list.

Snail Kite

Another trip with John would take us north to the Lake Kissimmee area at a place called Three Lakes. We were going to be in search of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker which required us to be on the road heading north by 5:30 in the morning as you want to be at the site at first light. We were very fortunate in locating 8 different birds and we believed due to the weather conditions, overcast, very high humidity and showers off and on during the night helped in us seeing as many birds as we did. The didn't disperse out to forage as quickly as they normally do, keeping them closer to their nesting trees. The weather conditions did make for very poor photographing as the lighting was very poor. We also picked up the Bachman's Sparrow that prefers the same general habitat as the woodpecker and Pine Warbler.

Bachman's Sparrow

Bachman's Sparrow

Pine Warbler

Red-cockaded Woodpecker
The next bird on my list was the White-eyed Vireo which John and I located at Kissimmee Prairie Park. Our plan was to go into the park to try and find the Vireo and the White-tailed Kite. As we parked got out of the vehicle at the main gate we could hear Northern Bobwhite Quail calling from a field off to the west of us and as John had not gotten any photographs of one we wanted to try and locate one. We started down a dirt road that skirted the field but was also lined with shrubs on both sides. Apparently this is the prefered habitat of the White-eyed Vireo as we soon heard one calling from within the shrubs. We were able to locate it but couldn't get any photos as it stayed pretty much hidden.  I was to see several more on my trip down to the Keys, but was unable to photograph them for the same reason.
Miami and Key Largo were my last runs for my life birds and I was able to pick up in Miami the following; White-winged Parakeet, Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Mitered Parakeet, Common Myna-bird and Hill Myna-bird. In Key Largo I was able to see the Thick-billed Vireo along with several White-eyed Vireos but unable to get photos of either. I did have photos of the birds in Miami but do to my mistake or something with the transfer to the portable hard drive I lost all of those photos.
My goal was to get 20 new life birds and I ended up getting 21, a very pleasing time!