On Saturday, March 2nd, we took a birding trip to Stormwater Treatment Area 5 (STA-5) in Hendry County, south of Clewiston. The event was sponsored by the Hendry-Glades Audubon Society. We were hoping to add five new birds to our life list on this trip, we scored six. A "Big Day" for us, bringing our life list to a total of 177 different species.
There were over 100 birders present on site. Each vehicle entering the area was given a walkie-talkie and birders were asked to "call out" if they saw any interesting species. We were less then five minutes on the trail when the lead vehicle in our group spotted a Peregrine Falcon atop a power pole. Everyone stopped, got out of their cars, and quickly began setting up their spotting scopes. It seemed as though we were the only photographers on the trip. We took as many photos of the Peregrine as we could, then moved on.
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| Peregrine Falcon (in poor morning light at a distance) |
STA-5 is a very large area created to filter water flowing into the Everglades. It is an extensive system of levees, dikes and canals, creating very large impoundment ponds (cells). Driving atop the levees overlooking the water, hundreds of birds are visible in every cell. The majority of birds are those typically found around water. Wading birds, diving ducks, dabbling ducks, shorebirds, gulls and terns were all abundant. A few warbler species were spotted along with grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds. On one particular stop, we scored three life list birds. A pair of Snail Kites were foraging for apple snails on a grassy patch next to a pair of sleeping Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. A pair of Purple Swamphens were foraging at the edge of the tall grass and reeds. Here are photos taken on this stop. An impressive array of optical equipment can be seen.
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| Snail Kite on the wing. |
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| Fulvous Whistling-Duck (we spotted over 30 of them) |
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| Purple Swamphens (this pair spotted with their chicks) |
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| Our Group (one of many at STA-5 on March 2nd) |
Later, at another stop, we spotted (through someone's scope) a male Ruddy Duck. We couldn't find him in the vast sea of American Coots and other duck species, so we didn't get a photo. We missed out on spotting the Gadwall (a duck species) even though it was "called out" several times.
As we were leaving the area heading for home we spotted a Western Kingbird, scoring our sixth new bird of the day. We traveled over 280 miles, the temperatures were in the low 50s and the winds were brisk and steady. Nevertheless, we had a fantastic birding day. In all, we spotted 63 species. We hope you enjoy these photos of our trip.....tweet....tweet!!
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| Western Kingbird (a rare bird in the east) |
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