West to East

Friday morning, Kim and I started the day at Bunche Beach in Lee County. We came across a good variety of shorebirds, including WILSON'S PLOVER, PIPING PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, WESTERN SANDPIPER, DOWITCHER sp., DUNLIN, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, and MARBLED GODWIT, as well as plenty of BLACK SKIMMER. The heat cranked up, so we moved onto some shade at Lakes Park and Six-Mile Cypress, where we picked up 5 warblers including PINE, PRAIRIE, YELLOW-RUMPED, NORTHERN PARULA, and BLACK-AND-WHITE. We finished our birding with a look at a pack of MONK PARAKEET at the marina. We were exhausted from this hot day, so we just hung out at Kim's house, engaging with a delicious homemade lasagna.


Saturday morning, Kim and I met up with Rosana at Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for a stroll about. The ~3 mile boardwalk hike was pretty birdy, giving us great looks at a male PAINTED BUNTING, GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER, BLUE-HEADED VIREO, HAIRY WOODPECKER, and MAGNOLIA WARBLER, among many others. I left with Rosana, heading east to South Miami.


I took a birding day off to be with my lady yesterday. In the last couple days we've mostly chatted and lazed, checked out Y Tu' Mama Tambien and The Wrestler, and last night made some delicious Risotto with Danny and Emily. Oh, and had blind taste testing of tap water that was filtered by their new Brita, versus unfiltered.


This morning I drove Rosana to work, and got right to business trying to see the RED-WHISKERED BULBUL. It was a success (sorry Eva), as I saw two of them on the electric lines of their infamous Kendall neighborhood. I then went to Matheson Hammocks to see what kind of late-ish neotropical migrants were around and was decently successful. A few mixed flocks provided me with PRAIRIE, PALM, BLACK-AND-WHITE, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, NORTHERN PARULA, and MAGNOLIA WARBLERS, as well as WHITE-EYED VIREO and the bird that escaped me a few times September 1st, the YELLOW-THROATED VIREO. I also got a flyby of 3 BLUE-AND-GOLD MACAW, which are not ABA countable.