About a dozen birders braved the chill of the Thanksgiving weekend cool front to convene at Green Cay on Saturday, November 28, 2009. The group was hopeful that the weather wouldn’t keep the birds hunkered down and out of sight. As it turned out, our hopes were borne out: the day turned out to be beautiful, warming up nicely as the sun got going, and a total of 39 species were identified.
The typical parking lot experience yielded pine warblers and mockingbirds; the first birds seen from the boardwalk, staring into the low morning sun, were a stately Great Egret and a pair of dabchicks, formally known as Pied-billed Grebes. As the day wore on, more and more “must-have” species revealed themselves, including Limpkin, Painted Bunting, and Sora.
Florida’s “default” hawk, Red-shouldered, alighted in a tree as we began to move on, but it was harassed by the resident Red-winged Blackbirds into departing its perch before the whole group got a chance to inspect it through the spotting scope.
An unexpected but welcome sight was a hunting male Northern Harrier, swooping low over the marshes from horizon to horizon, displaying its characteristic white rump (a field mark shared by the female) and crisp gray plumage (the female is a warm brown).
We got excellent views of female Blue-winged Teal (they have a small white patch at the base of the bills, while the males have the trademark white “crescent moon”), and they came so close to the boardwalk that it was easy to see how much smaller they are than the similarly tame Mottled Ducks swimming nearby. Later in the day, we were to put this field mark to the test as we saw a pair of small ducks that did NOT have the white patch at the base of the bill, and this, combined with the warmer brown of the plumage and the larger size of the spots on the breast led us to conclude that these were Green-winged Teal, which are present at the site, but rarely provide such easy viewing.
A particular highlight for most participants of the trip was one solitary Black-bellied Whistling-Duck throwing its head back and whistling for all it was worth. We surmised that it was calling out to the rest of its flock, which was sleeping just a few hundred feet away in a different section of the impoundment.
A pair of Painted Buntings adorned the feeders on the far side of the boardwalk, and as we rounded the corner past their perch, we started keeping our eyes peeled for Sora. And sure enough, just after we’d given up hope, we saw not one, but two Sora cruising through the fireflags. A photographer who’d been staking out the area told us that there were at least 3 or 4 in the immediate area.
Thanks to all who came; we had a lovely day!
A complete list of species appears below.
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Wood Stork
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Green-winged Teal
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Limpkin
Sora
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Rock Pigeon
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle