Twenty-seven birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza this morning for a walk at three birding hotspots in the Black Point area in south Miami-Dade. We began the morning under rainy skies at Black Point Park, but the rain quickly moved on and didn’t return until our last stop, at Cutler Wetlands. The highlight of our walk at Black Point Park was undoubtably the Mangrove Cuckoo we found in mangroves at the end of the parking area on the east side of the park. Thanks to April Waters for her photo of this often-difficult-to-find Caribbean specialty. We saw a total of 30 species at Black Point Park, including several Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. An eBird checklist for this first stop is here.
Our next stop was at Dump Marsh. Among the 39 species seen here were Blue-winged Teal, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Wood Stork, American White Pelican, Northern Harrier and an immature Bald Eagle. An eBird checklist for this stop is here. Our final stop was at Cutler Wetlands and adjacent Blue Heron Park, where we saw 35 species, including a Mute Swan and another immature Bald Eagle, before a rain shower chased us back to our cars. An eBird checklist for this final stop is here. A total of 58 species were seen during the morning.