STA-5

Yesterday morning, after dropping Rosana off from work, I went to Matheson Hammock. The county parks had been quiet, so I wasn't expecting much, but I did find a nice flock that included BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER, BLUE-HEADED VIREO, PALM, BLACK-AND-WHITE, and BLACK -THROATED GREEN WARBLERS. A huge flock of HILL MYNA also found me. After Rosana got out of work, we went to the raw food place in town that was the historic restaurant (but not same site) of our first date.


This morning I got up at 6 and headed up to the Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) 5 in Hendry County to meet up with Kimarsh and Eva. They only open this awesome birding area once a month. This place was out in the booooooonies, taking me through the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, and a half-hour longer for me to get there than even mapquest suggested.



When I did arrive, Kimarsh and Eva had already scoped out both YELLOWLEGS and a SOLITARY SANDPIPER, but we were at this point interested in finding one of our target birds: the CASSIN'S KINGBIRD. After driving a bit, we got looks at LIMPKIN, ROSEATE SPOONBILL, BLUE-WINGED TEAL, AMERICAN WIGEON, SNAIL KITE, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, PEREGRINE FALCON, BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK and noticed a CRESTED CARACA change its bill color! Without much effort, we found our CASSIN'S right where the leader had suggested it would be, watched our lifer for a while, and moved on to our next target.


After doing a small loop, which included seeing a FULVOUS WHISTLING DUCK, HOODED MERGANSER, RING-NECKED DUCK, and RUDDY DUCK, we decided we had seen most of the birds of interest here. Having great luck on the day, and it still being early, we headed out to the Francsisco St. boat ramp in Clewiston, and pretty quickly found a pack of BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD mixed with BRONZED COWBIRD, as well as my first ever view of Lake O. After lunch at Hungry Howie's, and a bid farewell, I had a long, but very satisfied, drive home.