Shorebirder

I had only a bit of time for birding on my last two days in Florida but was able to get out and see some worthwhile stuff. On the afternoon of the 3rd Dori and I returned to the Zemel Road Landfill area for another shot at the two wintering SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHERS. They were right where we found them on the previous afternoon. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher The next morning I made a point of running over to Cape Coral to check on some of their BURROWING OWLS before my flight home. Dori and I had something like 8 or so owls in one neighborhood. Burrowing Owls And that was it! A quick 5-day jaunt to the Fort Myers area. Some quality birding, a bit of relaxation, and plenty of sun. Looking forward to exploring this area a bit more during a future visit.  - Nick

The Hermit Warbler that was originally found in Barkhamsted by Dave Rosgen on January 31st was relocated yesterday, February 7th. A search party of seven of us headed up this morning to spread out and scour the area of Dave's original one-off sighting, and [somewhat surprisingly] it did not take us more than an hour to relocate the bird! Fran Zygmont first spotted it just before 9am, and the warbler was observed pretty much constantly until Greg Hanisek and I left at 10:45am. In the morning the bird seemed to prefer the riverbanks from the Route 318 bridge and immediately southward to the post office. Both west and east banks were used (mostly the sunlit west side), often foraging quite low...even on the ground at times. Later in the morning, as temps warmed up, it went a bit higher, and for several minutes it was seen foraging in the evergreens at the NW corner of the 4-way intersection that is immediately on the west side of the bridge (318 x 181/West River Rd). As Dave menti

The last time I visited Dori, three years ago, we spent a day along Miami Canal Road in Palm Beach County where we had a blast studying Red-tailed Hawks that included a few of the "Krider's" form. Check out that post for many photos of those birds. I was itching to return this year to see what was around. On this day we found nine species of raptor along 15 miles of this road (not counting the two vulture species, nor the Crested Caracaras we had on the ride there), including a few more "Krider's"-like Red-tails. This road is a ton of fun to bird. I'd highly recommend a winter visit to anyone who is looking for a change-of-pace from the usual south Florida hotspots. I'm not going to get into the detail I got into last time, but here are a few images of the pale Krider's-like birds. We also had several typical Eastern Red-tails. Dori's favorite birds of the day, a pair of White-tailed Kites were actively hunting o

Today I spent a few hours on Sanibel Island, mainly just walking the beach westward from the lighthouse. There was a red tide here last week which resulted in many dead fish and shellfish being washed ashore. This has resulted in good numbers of shorebirds and gulls on the beach. During my walk today it appeared that the bulk of the food had already been consumed, but there were a few bits still available. The highlights were a single SANDWICH TERN (no photos) and a nice count of 14 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Here are some photos from the morning. LBBGs: probably ~4th cycle 2nd or 3rd cycle 2nd or 3rd cycle 1st cycle 1st cycle 1st cycle And others: Royal Tern Royal Tern Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling  - NB