TX - FL Trip ~ February 5, 2010

I woke up early enough to get back to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park just before it opened. I arrived at the flycatcher spot a little after 8:00 AM under pretty windy conditions. A few minutes later, Greg Cranna from Massachusetts joined me. The next hour of watching and waiting produced Eastern Phoebe, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Common Yellowthroat, and a female Painted Bunting. We both agreed that the winds were not a good sign and that checking the leeward side of the area might be worth a try. We exchanged cell phone numbers and slowly ventured off to the surrounding areas. About 9:05, Greg called to let me know that he had the bird. I headed for his location and he pointed out the bird to me. It was about 10 feet up in a tree right next to a paved bike trail. I got excellent looks at my 'life' La Sagra's Flycatcher that was, at one time, no more than eight feet away! But by the time I decided to grab my camera, the bird moved back into the thicker vegetation and disappeared. We planned to hang around a while longer to see if it would reappear, but a heavy rain shower moved in and squashed that idea.

Instead, we decided to drive over to the Kendall Baptist Hospital to look for parrots and parakeets. We did see a small group of Monk Parakeets and a small group of adult and young White Ibis.

A Boat-tailed Grackle walked aroung the grounds.

From there, I drove to Miramar to hopefully get a look at a Purple Swamphen. Several of them cooperated with close views.

Note the length of the toes on this bird.

My description of them is a pale-headed Purple Gallinule on steroids. Here's a comparison photo of the two species. Note the differences in size, leg color, bill color, and frontal shield color.

I managed to get a few photos of the Purple Gallinules there, including this young bird.

Here's one of the adults.

Other birds seen there included Osprey, Tricolored Heron, Common Moorhen, a 'fly-by' Cooper's Hawk, and more Monk Parakeets.

I still had a good amount of daylight left, so I headed for Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. There, I was thrilled to find this single Roseate Spoonbill.

Four Wood Storks also were present. One young bird (right) was with the adults.

Other birds included Anhingas, Tricolored and Little Blue Herons, and Limpkin. I left after sunset and headed back to my room in Coral Springs.

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