Birding Around the World

Upon waking up at home on this last saturday of spring break, I found my phone bombarded with rare bird alerts about a mega-rare Ross’s Gull, an Arctic species the hasn’t sighted in Illinois since 1978. Since the bird was reported at Rainbow Beach Park, a familiar place a drivable distance away before I had to fly back to NYC, I threw on clothes, drove my mom to work battling St. Patrick’s day traffic, and soon enough arrived at Rainbow Beach.

My hopes were high when I saw the dozens of birders lined up along the beach:

THERE IT WAS!

WOW! A truly high-arctic species that I was absolutely not expecting to see while home in Chicago, but perfect proof that I should indeed bring my camera just in case!

Here it is juxtaposed with a RING-BILLED GULL:

Distant RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:

REDHEAD:

And back to the Ross’s:

It was great to see its beautiful wings in flight:

After admiring the gull for a long time as well as catching up with several birders like Simon, Peter, Henry M, Owen, and Jacob, I headed over to Park 566 to search for a Western Meadowlark and all 3 Scoter species that had been seen from there recently. There were some distant WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS in Indiana waters:

Here pictured with a single drake SURF SCOTER, the second bird from the right:

And a female BLACK SCOTER, completing the Scoter trifecta — the first time I have had all three in one day in Illinois/Indiana waters!

There were a few HORNED GREBES in the slip, apparently they’ve been numerous along the lakefront this winter:

What an amazing day of birding! Bird-of-the-day obviously goes to the Ross’ Gull with runners-up to the three Scoter species. But now, here is the real reason I came home from break — Poppy!!!

STAY TUNED!

Henry
World Life List: 1150 Species (1 life bird today: Ross’s Gull)

SATURDAY, MARCH 4:

Before flying back to New York City today, two of dad’s friends (both Dans!), dad, and I headed south to Everglades City for a morning of kayaking and birding. My target bird in mind was the White-crowned Pigeon, an uncommon mangrove specialist that is much easier to find down in Everglades NP and in the Keys.

Anyway, our hope was to rent a kayak in Everglades City (the NW edge of the everglades) and hopefully stumble upon one or two of these birds. Upon arriving at Everglades City, there were definitely some Columbids (doves & pigeons) around, but none with a white crown. EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE:

MOURNING DOVES with a EUROPEAN STARLING:

Then, when we tried to rent kayaks, the owner warned us that it would not be worth paddling around for ninety minutes and we would have a much better chance at the Pigeons by focusing on birding by car or foot at a few nearby locations. So, we headed to a number of nearby nature centers and boardwalks in hopes of spotting one of the Pigeons either roosting or flying over.

At our first stop, we were alerted to the presence of several American Alligators in the water:

GREEN HERON:

Our most uncommon find at this stop was a nice early migrant LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH — note the thick white supercilium and bubble gum colored legs to differentiate this from its Northern cousin:

This NORTHERN PARULA male posed nicely:

WHITE-EYED VIREO was also cool to see:

And of course we were put into our usual awe of SWALLOW-TAILED KITES. What magnificent raptors:

PURPLE MARTIN colony:

At one point while cruising along, I spotted an abandoned TV alongside the road that looked like it would have a snake under it. Sure enough, when I flipped it, there was my lifer Florida Ring-necked Snake! A beautiful, harmless species with a bright orange belly. Photo credit Dan A.

WILD TURKEY running down the road:

EASTERN PHOEBE:

Another herping stop yielded a Southern Black Racer which unfortunately lived up to its name and evaded capture by disappearing into a rock pile. I was so close!!! I have seen this (harmless) snake species before in southern Illinois.

Then, as we were driving down Highway 41, I yelled for dad to pull over as I spotted another SHORT-TAILED HAWK, a dark morph this time! As I had missed getting this life bird’s photo two days prior, I really really wanted a photo of this bird. There wasn’t a good pull-off for a little bit but soon enough dad was able to pull over, I jumped out, and immediately started scanning the sky behind us.

There was one extremely distant speck so I zoomed in and voila! I had my second-ever Short-tailed Hawk’s photo! This was extremely relieving and exciting — now I had photos of my three life birds so far! Note the dark overall color, faint banding on the tail, and slightly lighter coloration on the trailing edges and tips of the underside of the wings. Another beautiful tropical raptor, only found in Florida in the US!

It was also very loosely associating with a SNAIL KITE, another south Floridian specialty. Note the conspicuously white tail:

And a BLACK VULTURE, a much-more-common raptor around here:

My dad was particularly excited to spot these ROSEATE SPOONBILLS mixing in with GREAT & SNOWY EGRETS:

More amazing Swallow-tailed Kite acrobatics:

Unfortunately, we were soon out of the White-crowned Pigeon’s range so that will be the one major miss of this Florida trip — still pretty good to get three out of four main target birds, especially considering the Bachman’s Sparrow and Short-tailed Hawk had eluded me many times before!

We still had a bit of birding to do before wrapping it up though, and had a really nice LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE that sang for us roadside:

We missed Crested Caracara too, but I have seen that bird in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Florida before so I wasn’t too hearbroken about that dip. Overall, it was a solid morning of birding (and a bit of herping) with bird-of-the-day absolutely going to the Short-tailed Hawk again and runners-up to the Louisiana Waterthrush, Snail Kite, and Roseate Spoonbills. Good stuff!

And by the evening, I was back on the ground in the big apple!

To wrap up this trip, I gained three life birds:
Bachman’s Sparrow
Gray-headed Swamphen
Short-tailed Hawk

And I would have to elect the Hawk as bird-of-the-trip. The reason for this is because the other two species had specific locations where I was fairly confident I would get them, but the Short-tails are overall uncommon and very widespread over southern Florida — people only ever really get them soaring over highways, which is how I spotted both on this trip. For this reason, I had never found this species on prior Florida trips but I made a concerted effort to keep my eye on the sky at all times while in the car during this trip and it paid off with both a light morph (my lifer) and a dark morph (by photographic lifer) seen. Runner-up to the Bachman’s Sparrow as it is an awesome pinewood specialist, and third place to the Swamphen because it is an introduced (though relatively benign) species from Asia.

I am also including a list of herps from the trip:
Cane Toad (lifer, introduced)
Red-bellied Cooter (lifer)
Common Slider
Florida Softshell Turtle
Florida Snapping Turtle (lifer)
Green Anole (lifer)
Cuban Brown Anole (lifer, introduced)
House Gecko (introduced)
Rock Agama (lifer, introduced)
Southern Black Racer
Florida Ring-necked Snake (lifer)
Nerodia sp. watersnake (unidentified hawk prey)

As you can see, the herping scene in Florida unfortunately is dominated by exotics, as is the birding scene in most urban areas (particularly Miami). Florida and Hawaii, though also being home to many fascinating native species, are ecological disasters in terms of habitat destruction and released-pets-gone-wild. We must keep and maintain our wild spaces naturally wild because this wonderful biodiversity we all appreciate has predated humans here by millennia and it is our duty to make sure we are responsible stewards of the most imperiled ecosystems.

Thank you so much to dad for doing all the driving this week, we were able to cover so much ground, get great birds, and have a grand time together.

Stay tuned — it is March and spring migration and herp emergences are right around the corner! Very soon, I will also be announcing my full 2023 musical season!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1149 Species (1 photographic [& recent] life bird today: Short-tailed Hawk)

FRIDAY, MARCH 3:

This morning, my dad and I headed over to Picayune Strand State Forest to hopefully pick up a few herps on a hike from the Sabal Palm Trailhead. It was a beautiful morning for hiking and we started off with YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER:

BLACK VULTURE:

Super nice to see SWALLOW-TAILED KITES:

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER:

At first I thought it might be another Gopher Tortoise, but then I realized we had stumbled upon a female Florida Snapping Turtle laying her eggs. A lifer subspecies for me! (they are considerably smaller than the nominate Common Snappers)

Another awesome “Common” species: COMMON GROUND-DOVE, a southeast US specialty!

Though I briefly saw a Southern Black Racer cross the trail, I didn’t manage to find any other herps of note other than the ubiquitous Green Anoles. So, after a failed attempt at finding a colony of Rose-ringed Parakeets, we headed back to the Naples Grande Beach Resort. Did I mention our view from the room is awesome?

Pool deck is great too.

After a relaxing afternoon, we walked the Clam Pass Boardwalk where we observed Mangrove Crabs climbing up mangrove trees: they are one of the few organisms to eat decaying mangrove bark and leaves, according to Dan.

BROWN PELICAN:

1. csoontour — thanks to Nuccio DiNuzzo for catching Dan G, my dad, and I on our way to Clam Pass.

We didn’t stay a whole long time on the beach due to the stinging air quality from the red tide left over from last year’s hurricane. We did, though, manage to see a number of birds such as these BLACK SKIMMERS, ROYAL TERNS, and RING-BILLED GULL:

Same species makeup with a few SANDERLINGS mixed in:

As well as LAUGHING GULLS:

In the retention pond by the hotel there was a COMMON GALLINULE, which are truly common down here as opposed to their spotty distribution up in Chicago:

And a nice, ugly introduced MUSCOVY DUCK (feral):

Followed by a delicious seafood dinner at the restaurant Sea Salt.

Bird-of-the-day to the Common Ground-Dove with runner-up to the Swallow-tailed Kites. More tomorrow: we will try to find my lifer White-crowned Pigeons!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1149 Species (no life birds today)

THURSDAY, MARCH 2:

Today, Dan, my dad, and I birded Myakka River State Park and Cape Coral on our way to Naples, in hopes of finding Short-tailed Hawk (a would-be lifer), Burrowing Owl, and herps. We started at a marsh area in the state park where there was a CATTLE EGRET:

And GLOSSY IBIS:

SANDHILL CRANE:

WILSON’S SNIPE and LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

American Alligator!

More of the Yellowlegs:

WOOD STORK:

BLACK VULTURES:

NORTHERN BOBWHITE was a really nice surprise along the trail:

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK:

Then, it dove into the nearby ditch and caught a Nerodia sp. watersnake which it then flew into the nearby forest and presumably feasted upon. So not the greatest way to see my first Florida snake, but a cool sighting nevertheless!

BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER:

NORTHERN PARULA:

Then, the drive along backroads on our way to Naples was pretty productive bird-wise with LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE:

RED-TAILED HAWK:

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK:

BALD EAGLE:

A nice large flock of WHITE IBIS:

Then, upon getting to the Burrowing Owl colony in Cape Coral, I spotted a large blob next to the roped-off section for the owls…could it be???

GOPHER TORTOISE!!!!

Though I know these endangered reptiles are one of the main reasons Burrowing Owls persist in Florida, I was not expecting to see one as they are so uncommon. But we ended up actually seeing two, so this was an amazing lifer!!!!

And of course, BURROWING OWLS never disappoint:

I even snapped a photo of these two keystone species together, an uncommon and awesome sighting!

This EASTERN MEADOWLARK was also nice:

And on the rest of the drive down to Naples we were treated to my FOY SWALLOW-TAILED KITE, an absolutely amazing bird of prey of which I will never tire!

My bird of the day, though, unfortunately went unphotographed as I spotted my life bird SHORT-TAILED HAWK, a light morph, soaring over I-75 on thermals while we zipped down the highway! An absolutely awesome Buteo species and I am really hoping to photograph it over the next few days. So a slightly unsatisfying look, but satisfactory enough for a positive ID as I saw that darker head contrasting sharply with its bright white underside.

And finally upon arriving to our hotel in Naples, I spotted another FOY: this MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD! Cool.

Finally, my lifer Rock Igama (an introduced species of lizard) by the hotel pool. Crappy iPad photo.

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1149 Species (1 life bird today: Short-tailed Hawk)

This morning, my dad, his friend Dan, and I set out at a bright-and-early 6:50am for two lifers. We would hit Wewika Springs State Park in search of Bachman’s Sparrow (which would be difficult) and Lake Apopka in search of Gray-headed Swamphen (which should be easy).

After picking up our rental car, we made it to Wewika Springs by 8:00am and birded a bit by the gate before the park opened. There, we had NORTHERN PARULA:

YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER:

Once entering the park, we stopped every once in a while in the right pine forest habitat and listened for any Bachman’s Sparrows that might be around.

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER was nice:

Then, I HEARD IT! BACHMAN’S SPARROW!!!! Its song was unique with a single drawn-out note followed by a trill, and after a bit of bushwhacking, I scared it up out of the undergrowth and it perched for about ten seconds — but long enough for photos!

Notice the slight yellow patch by the bill and the slight yellow wash to the folded wings — somewhat reminiscent of a Botteri’s or Grasshopper Sparrow. But there is no exactly similar species to the Bachman’s in the southeastern pine forests!!!! Absolutely amazing as I have searched for this species probably four or five times without success in Florida in the past.

So we continued on to Sand Lake which was a nice loop hike for the three of us. RED-SHOULDERED HAWK:

We noticed a lot of Gopher Tortoise burrows around, though no Tortoises were seen.

The lake itself was gorgeous.

And hosted two nice MOTTLED DUCKS:

EASTERN BLUEBIRD:

Our next stop was Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive for my prospective lifer Gray-headed Swamphen. We were greeted by plenty of their cousin, the COMMON GALLINULE:

TRICOLORED HERON:

GLOSSY IBIS:

This American Alligator looked like it was about to feast on a Mallard X Mottled Duck hybrid:

But thankfully the duck waddled (and eventually flew away) to safety.

ANHINGA drying its wings:

BLUE-WINGED TEAL:

PIED-BILLED GREBE with a female Teal:

Mixed flock of COMMON GALLINULE and AMERICAN COOTS:

Same species, plus a GREATER YELLOWLEGS:

OSPREY:

Then, after a bit longer of a search than I suspected it would take, I laid eyes on my lifer GRAY-HEADED SWAMPHEN upon scanning the far edge of the marsh! It was a beautifully indigo-violet bird. Absolutely awesome! This is an introduced species from Asia that has become a fixture of Floridian marshes in recent years, and countable by ABA standards.

And off it went:

A watchful Alligator:

WHITE IBIS:

And in the afternoon we made it to our hotel in Sarasota, where the view from the rooftop pool is quite nice:

It was a fantastic day of birding! Bird-of-the-day to my lifer Bachman’s Sparrow with runner-up to my lifer Gray-headed Swamphen. Awesome! Stay tuned: tomorrow on our way from Sarasota to Naples, I will keep my eyes peeled for Short-tailed Hawks and we will stop to photograph Burrowing Owls!

Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1148 Species (2 life birds today: Bachman’s Sparrow & Gray-headed Swamphen)