I don't understand weather

Wednesday morning, I scrapped my plan to head down the the Annex near the entrance of the Everglades, due to the weather forecast. A couple of exciting birds, including SHORT-EARED OWL and CASSIN'S KINGBIRD had been seen on Tuesday, but it didn't seem worth making the drive. So I went to Matheson Hammock, and the weather was beautiful. However, I only saw 6 birds species in more than an hour of birding there. I was thinking perhaps the impending storm hunkered them all down.


Thursday was the same deal, the weather looked to be a bit crazy, so I decided to stay local. I checked out the Kendall Indian Hammocks, and only did slightly better than the day before. There was a perched female MERLIN, and also a BLUE-HEADED VIREO, so it was not a complete waste. I went to the Kendall Baptist Hospital after to see what kind of exotics were around. There were GRAYLAG/SWAN GOOSE hybrids, domestic MALLARDS, MUSCOVY, and hundreds of the above pictured MITRED PARAKEET, none of which are ABA acceptable birds. In the afternoon I went to the Pinewood Cemetery for the first time. There was a SHORT-TAILED HAWK and YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, but no other birds present. The weather had stayed completely clear all day.


This morning the weather forecast looked slightly better than the previous two days, so I figured I was safe. It poured the whole drive down to the Annex from about 6-7am, but luckily stoppped when I got there. There were some nice birds around there, including BROWN THRASHER, CAPE MAY WARBLER, and OVENBIRD. When I started to drive to leave, I noticed a kingbird on the electric line. I got out, and spent 20 minutes analyzing him. He looked like he could have been the CASSIN'S KINGBIRD, but it turned out his feathers were ruffled, giving them a grey frontal appearance. His white tail edges and darker wings than back made him a wintering WESTERN KINGBIRD. On the drive out a beautiful SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER on some electric lines caught my attention.