[Zackiedawg]

Phew - second wave of migration at Green Cay! Stopped by today (Sat Oct 20) and it was a very busy place. Right as you come in, lots of passerine activity - painted buntings, indigo buntings, white eyed vireo, black and white warblers, palm warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, red-bellied woodpeckers, cooper's hawk. At the chickee hut tree canopy, worm-eating warbler, red-eyed vireo, palm warbler, prairie warbler, black-throated blue warbler, yellow-throated warbler, grey catbird, ovenbird, brown thrasher, and a few more I didn't get a firm ID on. In the cypress tree stand, more prairie warblers, palm warblers, yellow-rumped warblers, black-and-white warblers. Plus, American bittern are back, sora in good number, northern harrier and red-shouldered hawks, roseated spoonbills by the dozens, and a few hummingbirds in the east tree stand.

Wakodahatchee also has sora, American bittern, and lots of palm warblers.

[snowyowl]

Originally Posted by Zackiedawg

One of my shots of the bobcats at Green Cay - I know it's not a bird, but thought some of you who go there might enjoy it anyway!

That is a gorgeous capture. I'm so jealous.

[Robert Gundy]

I made a quick stop, about 30 minutes, at Green Cay yesterday on my drive up to Tallahassee. I wanted to see the Roseate Spoonbills and I was not disappointed. There was one perched on a stump sleeping. I also saw an American Bittern, Cattle Egrets, Wood Storks, White and Glossy Ibises, Red-shouldered Hawks, Black-crowned Night Herons, a Little Blue Heron, Tri-colored Herons, a Great Egret, Painted Buntings, Common Gallinules, Cardinals, Common and Boat-tailed Grackles. I was there briefly but really excited to see the spoonbill and the bittern.

[Zackiedawg]

That's one of the best things about Green Cay - it's one of the few places you can practically guarantee sightings for people. I sometimes feel bad telling someone to go to a park in hopes of finding a bird, knowing their chances are slim and often they are unlucky...but I can be very confident at Green Cay that they'll see so many species as close to a guarantee as you can get, even for some of the more rare or harder to spot birds.

[Zackiedawg]

Weekend of Nov 24-25, I got back to these two parks after being out of country for the previous two weekends. Both are in a sort-of transition phase - fair number of the regulars, some new migrators passing through, some previous migrators having moved on, and the winter breeding season kicking off.

At Green Cay, good raptor activity: red-shouldered hawk, cooper's hawk, northern harrier, and kestrel all regular now. Sora back in good numbers, along with blue-winged teal. Painted buntings throughout the park, at 3 different feeder locations. Yellow-rumped and palm warblers in big numbers, all over the place - occasional prairie, black-and-white warblers, northern parulas, and blue-headed vireos too. The dreaded purple swamphen has been spotted near the Cypress tree stand to the west side of the park. Night herons and all the usual waders in good numbers.

At Wakodahatchee, great blue herons are nesting again - at least 3 islands have nests being built and occupied. A few couples have already paired off and started the mating process - others look like they're just getting ready. The infamous Wurdemann's/morph hybrid bird from last year has returned to nest again, with a regular GBH mate...this time, she's at the closer of the two islands towards the northwest end of the park, to the left rear of the island. Cormorants are also nesting at this point. Eastern phoebes were there in good numbers, common yellowthroats, yellow-rumped & palm warblers, sora, gallinule, and all the usual waders are present. Northern harrier has been hovering around the main lake quite a bit lately, and dead moorhens have been landing out on Jog Road several times (you can guess who's to blame for that...Mr. Harrier!).

[merryslug]

Justin have you seen any interesting ducks besides the BW Teal? I had some Shovellers out in the STAs but would love a closer look at them.

[Zackiedawg]

No interesting ducks yet at either of these two parks. Wellington Wetlands/Peaceful Waters/whatever it's called out on Flying Cow Road has had some scaups, shovelers, and green winged teals, but the only problem there is that they have so much room to stay far away from people!

[Dermot Breen]

A few shots on the blog mostly from Green Cay about two weeks ago while I was passing through the area. Green Cay was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me, the views of the herons,egrets,ibis, etc. were out of this world coming from an Irish perspective.

[Zackiedawg]

Good to hear Dermot...thanks for sharing the blog link - I'll definitely be taking a look.

We 'locals' become almost jaded about the birds at Green Cay and Wakodahatchee parks, because of how often we go there - we'll sometimes complain that it was 'dead' at the park today, because we didn't see something new or rare...ignoring the fact that we saw probably 30-40 species of birds numbering in the hundreds! Green Cay's bird population and species diversity is well above many other places in the world, so when you go every weekend you start taking those for granted, and looking for something different or unusual. Hopefully, any visitors from abroad don't read into this too much, as you can attest - for any non-local, these parks would be astounding any time of year in the diversity and proximity of birds and wildlife!

I'll be there this afternoon, to see what I see.

[Zackiedawg]

Saturday Dec 22 at Green Cay and Wakodahatchee was pretty good. At Green Cay, I spotted: American redstarts, yellow-rumped warblers, blue-headed vireos, white eyed vireos, palm warblers, black-and-white warblers, northern harriers, merlins, kestrels, sora, common yellowthroats, purple gallinules, limpkins, night herons, greater yellowlegs, kingfishers, blue-winged teals, mottled ducks, black-bellied whistling ducks, and of course all the usual herons and egrets.

At Wakodahatchee, great blue herons are nesting heavily, wood storks are gathering to start nesting soon, great egrets, cattle egrets, snowy egrets all look ready to start too, cormorants and anhingas are already well on the way. Still visiting and nesting are the Wurdemann's heron and the neotropical cormorants. Sora, American Bittern, kingfishers, eastern phoebes, common yellowthroats, black-crowned night herons, and all the regulars. The monks have been active flying over often, and a nice rare flyover Saturday of a juvenile bald eagle was a treat.

[Robert Gundy]

I was at Wakodahatchee on 12/26 and 12/27. I found two Neotropic Cormorants (only heard about one reported). One appears to be immature, but the other is an adult and I witnessed it bringing in nesting material twice in 30 minutes on 12/27. LOTS of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and then the usual stuff.

[Zackiedawg]

Indeed Robert I noticed two neotropicals as well - I do think one is immature - it was constantly squawking with its mouth open at every cormorant that landed nearby. The juvie I saw was down a little lower in the trees on the island, whereas the adult was often up near the top and flying in and out on occasion. The Wurdemann's heron is on that very same island, BTW - near the back.

[Robert Gundy]

I saw two Roseate Spoonbills today at Wakodohatchee including this one that wandered to within a few feet of the boardwalk. I shot this with my 105mm macro lens!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographerp/8324404674/

Here's the Neotropic Cormorant today
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographerp/8323338349/

[Zackiedawg]

Yep - the roseates were there again yesterday...just about the same spot, right next to the boardwalk. Neotropicals and wurdemann's were still there too. Also, lots of sora have been present at both parks - at least 6 counted at Wako, and at least 20 at Green Cay. Northern harriers at both parks yesterday - plus cooper's hawks and kestrels at Green Cay still hanging out. American bitterns also present at both parks now. Purple swamphens are definitely present at Green Cay, like it or not...I got some good shots of them out in the open yesterday - like a purple gallinule on steroids.

American redstarts, yellow-rumped warblers, black-and-white warblers, pine warblers, palm warblers, common yellowthroats, eastern phoebes, blue-headed vireos confirmed at Green Cay, with a few of them at Wako too.

[Zackiedawg]

Drizzly Saturday, grey and dreary for the morning and early afternoon, then breaking to become a beautifully lit late afternoon...I decided to hit Green Cay alone and did a few laps around in the wet and then again in the dry. It was worth going around in the rain, as a surprising number of birds were out and about very publicly.

Two American bitterns were quite in the open - I passed them 3 times as I looped around the boardwalk and every time I passed they were still there. At least 10 sora along the back stretch. 1 painted bunting by the front entrance, and 3 more by the chickee hut feeder, including two males who spent quite some time there. Purple swamphen still hanging around. Yellow-rumped and palm warblers in huge numbers, along with a few blue-headed vireos, black-and-white warblers, lots of common yellowthroats, and a few American redstarts. Two kestrels, two coopers hawks, and a northern harrier on the hunt. A ruddy duck all by itself hung out to the west of the nature center building for most of the day, fishing alongside some pied-billed grebes. Osprey hanging out overhead. Two belted kingfishers were hunting prominently to the east, one kept making close passes by the nature center and right over the boardwalk.

[Zackiedawg]

Rainy rainy rainy day Saturday, Jan 19. But my early rise was worth it - headed over at 8am and got a good sighting of the rare visitor who's been there the past week or so - La Sagra's flycatcher. And I got really lucky - a minute after pulling into the parking lot, and wandering over to the area where some birders were standing looking for the bird, having heard the call...it just popped right on out, and sat on a branch directly on the street edge!

I managed a few yellow-rumped warblers, palm warblers, a lone pine warbler, two sora, some common yellowthroats, and then the rain really dumped on me - bad. It came down heavy enough to make me hide my camera under my hat and shirt and run for cover - which was a few hundred yards away because I was in the most open section of Green Cay. When I finally was able to poke my way around, the rain stayed constant and I pretty much just walk/ran the rest of the way out of the park with no time to pause and sight anything. I decided to break north and west to see if I could escape the heavy rain...and it worked somewhat. I went to Wellington Wetlands off Flying Cow Road. I caught light rain about 60% of the time - enough that I could manage with an umbrella. Lots of raptor activity up there today! 5 red-shoulder hawks, 2 kestrels, 3 snail kites, & a merlin. I need to ID these to be sure, but an awful large number of what appeared to be blackpoll warblers (strong black streaked olive-brown backs, streaked pale yellow chest, orange legs/feet and bill, white eyestripe) - upwards of 40 of them. Mixed in with some pine & prairie warblers, lots of palms and yellow rumpeds, dozens of loggerhead shrikes, and limpkins galore.

All in all, not a bad day for an all-day rainy day!

[Zackiedawg]

Update again - Green Cay has been invaded by some rare visitors for that park...and when I say 'invaded', that's no exaggeration! Feb 23 I stopped by around 2pm and stayed until 5pm...two American bitterns, 2 least bitterns, at least 6 sora, two red-shouldered hawks, 1 northern harrier, were among the good sightings. A hybrid blue-winged/cinnamon teal male gave some very nice views - an odd colored duck it was! Then moving into the chickee hut area, the invasion began. Dozens (and HIGH dozens, like 60-70) of American robins were taking over all the high trees which are sprouting berries - feeding voraciously. I've rarely seen a robin at that park in all the years I've gone - and this was full-on takeover. Also mixed in with the robins were a dozen or so cedar waxwings - another unusual visitor for Green Cay. Two grey catbirds, and several dozen yellow-rumped warblers were trying to mix in with the robins and score some food themselves. On the way back to my car, the invasion had a second wave - more American robins - could have been well over 100 of them - all along the eastern side of the parking lot by the maintenance building and the nearby trees.

Quite a sight - American robins are really here in force right now!

[merryslug]

Justin I saw a similar flock in Dupuis earlier this month, ravaging a Brazilian Pepper Tree. 97% Robins, some Catbirds and assorted winter warblers. It was fun to watch!

[Zackiedawg]

More updates on Green Cay, from March 9. The park is staying fairly busy with some good sightings...in between my last update and now, two northern shovelers were hanging out for a few weeks - a male and female.

Saturday, I started off with a nice ruby-throated hummingbird right at the entrance, feeding off the flowers just feet away. Opposite that in the large open field was a yellow-breasted chat. By the entrance feeders, lots of painted buntings continue, along with northern parula and ovenbird. Tree swallows are there by the hundreds over all the open water. Starlings and grackles also everywhere, with red-winged blackbirds. Two juvie red-shouldered hawks have been hanging out together just past the alligator pond. American and least bittern have both been frequent and easy to spot. Sora still number in the dozens. Blue-winged teals are everywhere, but no green-winged so far this year - the male cinnamon/blue-winged teal is still there along the back stretch. Monk parakeets took over the chickee hut feeders in the late afternoon, kicking out all the buntings. Yellow-rumped and palm warblers abound by the hundreds. On the way out by the parking lot, I still see a dozen or so American robins and a handful of cedar waxwings, so they haven't left yet. And the LaSagra's flycatcher continues to hang out in the parking lot area - about a month and a half it's stayed around! Saturday afternoon it came out in the open and gave me some good photo ops.

[Zackiedawg]

Another Green Cay / Wakodahatchee update for the end of March, since noone's been visiting from these boards apparently!

It's been very good the past few weeks, with the following birds spotted, updated all the way to Saturday March 30:

Green Cay:
Palm warbler, pine warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, prairie warbler, northern parula, black and white warbler, blue-headed vireo, painted bunting, indigo bunting, yellow-breasted chat (he's been around for nearly a month now!), LaSagra's flycatcher (last sighting confirmed that I know of was 3/24), purple martin, tree swallow, northern rough-winged swallow, least bittern (at least two pairs nested - one recently abandoned nest and another just starting), American bittern, sora (continuing in the dozens), solitary sandpiper, least sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs, black-necked stilt, Wilson's snipe, red-shouldered hawk, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, little blue, great blue, and tricolor heron, cattle, great, and snowy egret, wood stork, limpkin, red-winged blackbird, common yellowthroat, moorhen, Am. coot, white-winged, collared, and mourning dove, pigeon, grackle, cardinal, purple gallinule, anhinga, pied-billed grebe. I might have missed something, but that's what I can think of!

Wakodahatchee:
Palm warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, prairie warbler, northern parula, black and white warbler, blue-headed vireo, tree swallow, least bittern, sora, solitary sandpiper, black-necked stilt, red-shouldered hawk, red-bellied woodpecker, little blue, great blue, and tricolor heron (nesting well - great blue chicks getting large, tricolors just getting started), cattle, great, and snowy egret (all nesting, with cattle and great egret chicks already out), wood stork (very successfully nesting again, with dozens of chicks visible in the various nests), red-winged blackbird, common yellowthroat, moorhen, Am. coot, grackle, cardinal, purple gallinule, anhinga & cormorant (both nesting, with both chicks already hatched - cormorants almost gone, anhinga getting larger), pied-billed grebe.

[Sydsmythe]

Have you seen the bobcat lately? The other night a couple of photogs and I hung out looking for him. We've concluded it's just one photo being passed around hahahaha.

There was a bird at GC I couldn't id. Thought it wa maybe a juvy little green, but the pics I see online don't jibe. It was shaped like a little green, maybe smaller, and had blotches of color like a rufous chest, darker wings, with a white background. It was perched on some reeds.

Then I saw something in a scrubby area I couldn't id but maybe you know Zach. It was maybe the size of a cardinal, with a fairly long tail, and black/blueblack--hard to tell because of the light (getting dark) There was a lot of tail bobbing, and the tail was not down, it was at a 45 degreee angle and looked black underneath. I didn't see the chest. The face and back were very dark. as he had his back to me but was looking at me and bobbing his tail. He was too big to be an indigo bunting. This was at Seacrest Scrub in Delray/Boynton . I looked at pics of redstarts but they didn't seem to fit. How do you tell the difference between a martin and a tree swallow?

[Zackiedawg]

Yep - the bobcats have been around. Didn't catch them this past weekend, but caught them a few times in March. One of the young males gave me some nice poses:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/imag...38810/original

By the sound of it, you seem to be describing a least bittern - they can look similar to the green herons at a glance, around the same size, but would have darker browns or rufous type colors and white on them as well. And they're often sitting on reeds.

As for the other dark bird - hard to guess from the description, but my closest guess might be grey catbird. Since they're dark grey, and have patches of black on the head and tail, and have long tails. Though as they get older they'll develop an orangey patch under the tail. But of course they have a much narrower head and bill than something like a cardinal - so that's throwing me off.

[Sydsmythe]

Yep-- I never thought of grey catbird but that's what it was. The position of the tail reminded me of a peeved mockingbird, and he had that darkish area on his head that seemed to give the illusion of a crest. He matches the id photos for sure.

Thanks!

I couldn't find any photos of the other bird that match what I saw (or at least what I think I saw) What throws me off is that the bird didn't have a striped chest--it was just a rectangular rufus blotch on white. So I'll look for him again.

[Zackiedawg]

Well the migrators are thinning out at both parks, but a few are still around. Meanwhile, the shorebirds are coming en masse to Green Cay, and some of the summer regulars are starting to settle in. Saturday April 13, I first went to Green Cay after hitting Spanish River park that morning...though a little quieter looking at first than past few months, there's still been some good activity there. Yellow-breasted chat seems to be sticking around by the front entrance, painted buntings still there in abundance both by entrance feeders and inside at the south tree stand feeders, ovenbirds sticking around the front feeders, least and American bitterns both showing up in good abundance, purple martins in big numbers occupying all the houses, tree swallows and northern rough-winged still sticking around too, red-shouldered hawks in abundance, blue-winged teals sticking around, pied-billed grebes common, little blue herons in white form, and the usual herons and egrets. Roseated spoonbills showing up in larger numbers - 15 to 20 of them, getting ready to spend the summer. Black-necked stilts also in abundance, starting to mate and nest, solitary sandpipers, least sandpipers, lesser yellowlegs, and Wilson's snipe all present and easy to find. Red-winged blackbirds, common yellowthroats, palm warblers with strong red caps, yellow-rumped warblers all in abundance.

At Wakodahatchee, still finding the odd warbler in the tree stand - black and white, prairie, and northern parula as of this weekend were still there. American redstarts have arrived too and are showing up at Green Cay and Wako. Stilts are nesting in Wako too - in good numbers, with least sandpipers and lesser yellowlegs also present. Wood storks have lots of chicks - a successful breeding year for them again at Wako. Great blue chicks doing well - good to see after the first sets of babies seemed to die off rather quickly - the latest ones all seem healthy and growing large. Black-bellied whistlers hanging out at Wako in big numbers - still dozens of them around.

[Zackiedawg]

This Saturday, some migrants were passing through Green Cay...painted buntings still here, along with yellow-rumped and palm warblers...black-throated blue warblers and Cape May warblers were also in the chickee hut vicinity. Least bitterns still in good numbers, along with sora. And waders still present in the shallows - least sandpipers, solitary sandpipers, lesser yellowlegs, and black-necked stilts in good numbers. Roseated spoonbills still piling up there as well. Red-shouldered hawks increasing in activity too - at least 3.