Dermot Breen's Blog: yellow-bellied sapsucker

Sunday, 20 January 2013

Florida 19th November 2012

Another day in and around the Tallahassee area with Wakulla Springs State Park, Lake Munson, Maclay Gardens and Tall Timbers Research Station all visited. I was hoping to pick up a few more northerly based species in the area. The most productive site was Tall Timbers. I arrived at 1530hrs only to be told that it was closing at 1600hrs. I had no time to walk the trails but the area around the buildings was excellent with a lot of birds visiting a leaking water tap. I caught up with one of my highlights of the trip here - Red-headed Woodpecker, a cracking looking woodpecker especially in flight. There was a family party in the area which gave good views. Also coming to the tap were Eastern Bluebirds, Blue Jays, Chipping Sparrow and Purple Finches. Would have been great to have spent a lot more time here. I spent the last hour or two around a nearby lake walking along the shoreline in a large area of weed fields. I was looking for more sparrows and although there were dozens of Savanah and a handful of Swamp Sparrows there were no other species present. I was surprised not to have picked up any Song Sparrows at all on my trip. Even with seven species of sparrow for the trip I had missed some of the sparrow specialities despite trying several times such as Bachman's, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed, Nelson's Sharp-tailed, Seaside, etc.
Once the last of the light was gone I made the long push back South and spent my last night in Florida in the not so glamorous area off the Interstate 75 near Ocala.

Hermit Thrush, the only Catharus to commonly winter in the States.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-headed Woodpecker

Adult and juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker, Blue Jays & Common Ground Dove in background.

Blue Jay

Wood Ducks

Manatee, honest!

Grey Squirrel

Monday, 3 December 2012

Florida 11th November 2012

First day in the "Glades". Spend most of it just outside the boundary of the Everglades National Park in the Lucky Hammock/Annex area. Managed to twitch two nice Florida rarities in the area - Vermillon Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird. The male Vermillon has been returning to the same area for the last few winters. The nearest they usually nest is Texas but for some reason a handful sometimes winter in Florida. The Tropical Kingbird was discovered amongst two or three similarly wintering Western Kingbirds. They're very similar to Couch's Kingbird but can only be reliably seperated on voice.
The surrounding open fields were excellent for raptors. At least one Swainson's Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawk, one Red-shouldered Hawk, several Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawk, three White-tailed Kites, Merlin, numerous American Kestrels, Ospreys, hundreds of Turkey and American Black Vultures all in the area.
Not much in the line of late migrating/wintering passerines in and around the Lucky Hammock itself though the strong wind may have been keeping alot of stuff down.
Walked a good 3 mile along a dirt road along the park boundary where several species of flycatcher had been reported the previous day. The only flycatcher I saw were the ubiquitous Eastern Pheobes. Headed on into the park itself and popped into the visitor centre. Like most visitor centres the staff in there didn't know a huge amount about birds which was a similar experience with nearly all the sites I visited.
Tried a few sites suggested by Irish ex-pat Mark Berney. Once I was in the National Park however birding proved to be rather challenging. Numbers of even common species proved to be very poor. The highlight of the afternoon was without doubt a light phase Short-tailed Hawk. This is a Florida speciality is found pretty much nowhere else apart from southern Florida.
A quick look around the Lucky Hammock after sunset produced a Barn Owl along the fenceline.