Life's Ruff

Yesterday I headed down to south Dade to try to find the briefly seen female RUFF at the Cutler Wetland the evening before. Nobody had seen it since, and my one-hour search was no different. After, I headed to Lucky Hammock and the Annex to the Everglades, which proved that neotropical migrant movement had not fully begun, having only seen a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER and WHITE-EYED VIREO. On my way back up, I drove through some of the agricultural fields in Florida City, and came across a pack of 3 UPLAND SANDPIPER, which was a lifer!

Vacation and Florida Oddballs

Rosana and I took a trip up to St. Augustine, the Georgia coast, Savannah, and back down to her parents house. It was a good trip that included watching ghost crabs, ropeswinging, good beering, biking, history learning, etc.

We also got a chance to look for birds, including the gregarious FLORIDA SCRUB-JAY, which we more than just saw! Additionally, we went to look for the few eastern migratory WHOOPING CRANES that have been reintroduced to Central Florida. There was one at the Double C Bar Ranch, hanging out with a bunch of SANDHILL CRANES. Quite a sight. On our way home, we stopped in Palm Beach County to look in the sod agricultural fields, looking for the recently reported UPLAND SANDPIPERS, but were unsuccessful. Now Rosana's back to school, and I am back to being an unemployed birder.

PBC big day

Eva, Kim, and I went for a day of birding Palm Beach County agricultural fields and stormwater treatment areas on Sunday. We had a great day of 69 species, including my year BLACK TERN. What's more than that, we broke the Palm Beach County Big Day record (of 65). Looking over the records for a number of county big days, we realized we could probably break the record for a few with relative ease (Broward - 64, St. Lucie - 57, Nassau - 34). Still 3 weeks until the end of my year, and I've got a new birding goal in mind.

one at a time

As July turned to August, I have come to realize that I need to beef up this list before the end of my year. Hopefully this will happen, as it seems to be in the process.

I drove up to Eva's house on Saturday night, and we got an early start in the morning. We headed up to St. Lucie County to try to get some looks at two birds that have eluded me: BACHMAN'S SPARROW and FLORIDA SCRUB-JAY. After several attempts at the Savannas Preserve and surrounding areas, we had no luck, and headed to the coast in Ft. Pierce. The jetty south of the Ft. Peirce Inlet State Park was very productive for us. We got great looks at 5 species of TERN (LEAST, SANDWICH, ROYAL, GULL-BILLED, and a year-bird COMMON). Also, this juvenile BROWN BOOBY was hanging out on the jetty for us to get incredibly close to.

This morning, I got up at 5:30- two hours before my alarm to go to work. I thought about what I needed to get accomplished, and I remembered a certain roost waiting for me in Cutler Bay. Last week, Eva and I had tried to see the only sizable roost of West Indian race CAVE SWALLOW without knowing exactly where it was. Eva got the Pranty field guide, and clued me in to exactly where it was. This morning I caught at least 10 of them under the SW 216th street bridge, as they, and I, were beginning our days.