Re: Florida Wish List

Gregory B Miller (gregorym@erols.com)
Sun, 11 Oct 1998 23:20:07 -0400 

Joe,

That was a big wishlist, but interesting!  From the bar charts in the
Pranty book for the 2nd week of November, here's a grouping of selected
species (with my own personal thoughts on locations--I've listed
locations where I've seen most of these birds--use the Pranty guide):

VERY COMMON
 Eurasian Collared-Dove - Homestead telephone wires; sits on telephone
poles (you'll be hard-pressed to miss this one <grin>)

FAIRLY COMMON
 Wood Stork - Central FL; St Cloud, Corkscrew (often sailing around up
high)
 Limpkin - Central FL; Shark Valley, Rainey Slough, Loxahatchee NWR,
Corkscrew
 Monk Parakeet - South FL; Baptist Hospital in Kendall
 Canary-winged Parakeet - Royal Palm Tennis Courts in Kendall
 Red-whiskered Bulbul - Royal Palm Tennis Courts in Kendall
 Bachman's Sparrow - North & Central FL; Gainesville, Three Lakes, Venus

UNCOMMON
 Masked Booby - Keys; Hospital Key in the Tortugas
 Least Bittern - Central & S FL; Loxahatchee, Shark Valley, Merritt
Island
 Short-tailed Hawk - Central FL; Copeland, Corkscrew Swamp, Venus (dark
morphs are more common)
 Purple Gallinule - Central & S FL; Merritt Island, Loxahatchee, Shark
Valley
 White-crowned Pigeon - S FL & Keys; Snake Bight in Everglades, Key
Largo (you'll see a lot before getting a good look--many will fly across
the road--you'll hear them fly out of the trees at dawn on Snake Bight
Trail)
 Budgerigar - Central FL; St Petersburg to Hernando Beach
 Spot-breasted Oriole - South FL; Kendall
 Shiny Cowbird - S FL; feeders at Briggs Nature Center S of Naples (you
didn't include this in your list, but I'll bet you still need it)

SELECTED RARITIES
*Greater Flamingo - S FL; end of Snake Bight Trail in the Everglades
 Mangrove Cuckoo - S FL; (a dawn bird) Snake Bight Trail, Eco Pond,
upper keys
 Cave Swallow - N & Central FL; dispersed, difficult to find
*White-tailed Tropicbird - S FL; Tortugas (decreasing rpts), bad time of
year
*Masked Duck - S FL; best bet is Loxahatchee (RBA bird)
 Bridled Tern - Keys; boat trip to Tortugas, bad time of year
 Sooty Tern - Keys; boat trip to Tortugas, bad time of year
*La Sagra's Flycatcher - S FL; Miami to upper keys (peaks in late Dec)
*Stripe-headed Tanager - S FL; Ft Lauderdale parks (peaks in late Dec)

* denotes species which I have never seen in Florida (the last 2 birds
would be lifers for me, as well as the Flamingo)

-Greg Miller
Lusby, MD