March 14, 2014

Today was AWESOME! I went to Dolphin Mall and got two confirmed records for the Atlas! I was cursing the traffic and Daylight Savings Time for depriving me of my birding time, but if I hadn't gotten there when I did and parked where I did, who knows if I would have seen what I saw? That's one of the many things I love about nature, the uniqueness of each experience.

Purple Swamphen, a non-native species that lives basically everywhere except the Americas. There's an established population in South Florida because Hurricane Andrew allowed their escape from breeders and Miami Metrozoo.

Close-up of the baby. This will be the first breeding record for this species in Miami-Dade (4th in the state) for this Atlas, bringing us up to 41 species breeding in Dade! Though I'm excited about the find, it's tempered by the knowledge that these guys don't belong here.

Male Common Yellowthroat

One-legged Boat-tailed Grackle. She's missing her left leg, you can see the stub below the branch.

Had a little trouble identifying this one because I thought she was a sparrow. But all sparrows have pink legs. Then we realized she's a female Red-winged Blackbird! This is the exact habitat where you'd find them too: in the reeds on water.

Wood Stork. A new and unexpected species for this location.

Even though there were 50 schmillion American Coots, I only saw 1 Common Moorhen. Ecologically, I thought they were pretty much the same bird. I'll have to investigate that.

Boat-tailed Grackle carrying nesting material. This will be the 9th confirmed breeding record for this species for Dade County.

Boat-tailed Grackle nest. I may have had to stand in the street to get this photo... which I don't advise.

I'm very proud of these two records, especially since I only had 50 minutes and only explored one of the two lakes there, very quickly. I'll have to return to investigate the other lake. Hopefully I don't see too many more Swamphens.