Jan 21 - to STA 5/6 Birding the Canals in central Florida

We had our earliest start today, leaving the hotel at 6:20 am with a stop at MacDees and gas up. We had a drive of about 50 miles into central Florida and miles and miles of farmlands. Immokalee was the closest place to stay to get there for the 8:15 am meet-up. It was extremely foggy going through the dark and then the morning light.  I drove behind a tractor trailer following his lights but at a distance. Another tractor trailer was driving behind us not too close but close enough. Barbr took some lovely shots as the sun was rising. But with all the farm fields there was a lot of fog, mist or whatever.











In a split second a wild boar or hog, a huge black sow-size pig (250 pound size or larger) climbed out of the ditch and ran in front of our car. I managed to slam on the brakes and then I saw the tractor trailer behind us swerve and he almost jack-knifed around us. We were so lucky he didn't swing into us on this narrow two lane road. After a quick stop, we laughed out of relief and we just kept going but I felt like we had used up one of our nine lives! I just knew I could not hit this big fat hog, it would be worse than hitting a deer. I had no idea that this big huge black pig could dart out so fast, whew! The rest of the drive was pretty but I was continually scanning the roadsides.

Once we arrived at the Storm Treatment Area 5/6 site, we signed in with the Audubon volunteer and waited for the group. We had room for one more in the car and it was a car pool so we offered a young fellow the seat. The fellow turned out to be a very sharp birder who worked in the birding field the last couple of years. We saw Eastern Meadowlark, Boat-tailed Grackles and Tree Swallows. There were lots of birds around. We started down the canals and stopped many times to bird. We all had a walkie talkie and with the 10 cars it worked well. We heard what the leader was seeing and where. This place is huge and I never got a sense of direction driving around. We had great looks at a Tropical Kingbird, Peregrine Falcon and many other wading birds. We also had the unexpected also, a Short-tailed Hawk and a Gray-headed Purple Swamp Hen or Purple Swamp Hen. This is an introduced bird from Asia which is eating up the habitat of the Purple Gallinule and is multiplying in the region. This is a bird that looks double the size of the Gallinule except the nose tab is all red (no blue in the tab like the Purple Gallinule) and has red legs. It is almost comical looking but it is also so pretty.



















We also met these fishermen who were in the canal

We talked with people and did not get any leads about Barn Owls in the area.  With all these fields around for miles there should be Barn Owls around.  Then we met a pair of birders who offered to bird with us for the afternoon and look at various local specialties. We followed them and ended the day with a Barn Owl!! So a sweet day!



The drive back was uneventful but I scanned the roads for critters. We are chilling out tonight after doing laundry. We have had our splash to toast the birds, had supper and now are just having our evening tea and coffee.


Barbr's bird of the day was the Crested Caracara!!! She loves that bird and we had great looks again.  Coleen's bird of the day was the Purple Swamp Hen. My favourite was the Barn Owl and second was the Purple Swamp Hen. Here is a selfie of the happy trio.






Barbs & Colleen