Fifty-three birders joined Miriam Avello yesterday for the TAS bird walk at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Due to the size of the group, we broke into three smaller groups, with Miriam (assisted by TAS President Joe Barros) leading one group and Luis Gonzalez and TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza leading the other two groups. Because this walk was part of this weekend’s TAS 75th Anniversary Celebration, representatives from Leica Store Miami were on hand to provide loaner binoculars for those participants who wanted to experience first class optics in the field.
Each group passed by the Cape Florida Banding Station at some point during the walk, but only two of the three groups passed by when birds had just been banded. Banding Station Director Michelle Davis and her volunteer staff brought out a few just-banded birds for the group to see, including a Common Ground-Dove and Black-throated Blue and Cape May Warblers.
Though the windy conditions made finding birds somewhat difficult, we still managed to cumulatively find 37 species by the end of the walk. Highlights included Common Nighthawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Magnificent Frigatebird, Great Blue Heron (white morph), Merlin, Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Kingbird, Blue-headed Vireo and eleven warbler species (Ovenbird, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Northern Parula and Black-and-white, Cape May, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue, Palm, Yellow-rumped and Prairie Warblers).
A cumulative eBird checklist for all three groups is here.
Group photo by TAS Communications Director Ana Lima.