On Saturday, October 12, thirty-four birders joined TAS President Joe Barros for a post-Milton morning of birding at Matheson Hammock Park in Coral Gables. Fortunately, overnight rains came to an end shortly before participants began to arrive. The group spent most of the morning in the section of the park on the west side of Old Cutler Road. We began on the old service road, where puddles in the road attracted lots of Ovenbirds, a couple on Northern Waterthrush as well as several Gray-cheeked Thrush and a Swainson’s Thrush. The excitement really began as we neared the end of the service road, where we encountered two spectacular Great Horned Owls! Other birds of prey seen in this area included Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Swallow-tailed Kite, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk and Peregrine Falcon. We later added Red-shouldered Hawk and two light morph Short-tailed Hawks, making for an eleven-raptor morning!
We also ended the morning with eleven different warblers. In addition to the aforementioned Ovenbirds and Northern Waterthrush, we also found Black-and-white Warbler, Swainson’s Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler, Prairie Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler. Other birds of note included White-crowned Pigeon, White-winged Dove, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Orange-winged Parrot, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Summer Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
A total of 45 different species were tallied during the morning; all are listed in this eBird checklist.
Great Horned Owl. Photo courtesy of Christine de la Rosa.