Ft. DeSoto and Another Lifer

That time of year when the early warblers start heading up the Florida coast by the end of March. Word has been that the trees were 'dripping' with Hooded Warblers for a week but were starting to thin out. I had not even figured on being over there today but after our family day at the beach I was allowed to run over for a short time.

Dad and I got there just after sunrise. I really wanted to get a shot of the sun rising above the Sunshine Skyway as I have been doing the past couple of years but...oh, well. We still had birds to find. Worse still, I had forgotten my binoculars.

For the Hooded Warblers, we would not need them. They were still showing a strong presence at the East Beach area even at dawn.



They filled the trees. They were calling all over. They were dropping on the ground for food right in front of us.



They were even foraging in branches at eye-level. My camera was acting up so it became hard to get some easy shots but I can live with the ones I did get.



Could have stayed at East Beach all day but we actually had a couple other birds on the list for the day. We headed to the Mulberry Trees to see if the reported Blue-winged Warbler was around. No sign of it but we did get a first of the year Worm-eating Warbler feeding among the palm fronds.



We vowed to stop back to check here again later but we wanted to get over to the North Beach side to hopefully get a view of the rare bird spotted here: a Brown-crested Flycatcher. We looked around for a bit. More Hooded Warblers. Then a group of birders huddled in one spot. Could it be the flycatcher?

Nope. I had forgotten the Great-horned Owls had set up a nest here, too. Might as well take a quick shot though I was really not interested that much since I see owls all of the time, it seems.



We decided to circle back around the parking lot side to make sure we covered all of the trees before heading back to a spot another photographer said he had seen the bird we were after but it had disappeared not long ago. At least I got to see one of the first Yellow-throated Warblers of the season grabbing a bite.



Heading toward the beach again, I was distracted by blackbirds and then a flock of Waxwings. Soon, I noticed my Dad motioning to me to come over. I had given him some things to look for (size, color, etc.) regarding the flycatcher and it seemed that he had caught the suspect bird flying into a Brazilian Pepper bush. Two different birds, in fact.

Soon, the bird we were focused on, which was busily preening, took off to a nearby branch. This seemed to be our bird! The best shot I got was this but it is the Brown-crested Flycatcher! My second Life Bird for the weekend. Nice. The bird was fast, though.



Later, I got a better shot of it as it flew from branch to branch around the area. A very nice bird to have added to the Florida list!



We left over a dozen photographers which had now gathered in the same spot and headed back to the Mulberries before heading home. Still no Blue-winged Warbler but there were many Cedar Waxwings in the trees grabbing fruit.



They perched in one tree and then would fly over to the fruiting tree to grab food before flying back to the other tree again. Always fun to watch.



Last bird of the day was dancing around the mulberries. A bright male Summer Tanager! The fruits are not yet ripe there but in a couple weeks time these trees will be full of black berries and very hungry birds.



Wish I could be there, but...