I started the month with a regular
Boston Public Garden visit but was rewarded with a site-tick
Cooper’s Hawk soaring over the city on
Wednesday 4th.
A couple of weeks later I was off to Florida again for Thanksgiving with the family. Although on this trip I had less time to spend at some of the fantastic places there, I was still able to get out a few times.
I visited
Venice Rookery for an excellent selection of resident and some migrants/over-wintering species, including a flock of very argumentative and noisy
Black-Bellied Whistling Duck.
Saturday 21st, Venice Rookery, FL, USA.
A few days a later I went to
Shamrock Park and was rewarded with some excellent close views of a favourite of mine:
Florida Scrub Jay. A couple were in close attendance of a
Loggerhead Shrike on both sides of the inter-coastal water. They were so engrossed they didn’t really seem to notice me at all. Along the waterway I also saw an immature
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON stalking through the mangrove roots, which was a nice life-tick.
Tuesday 24th, Shamrock Park, FL, USA.
On the way home I stopped by a little drainage pond on
Bowdoin Road and saw more
Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks as well as
American Coot and
Common Gallinule/Moorhen.
Tuesday 24th, Bowdoin Road, FL, USA.
On Thanksgiving day, as the turkey cooked, I managed to run out to
Cedar Point Park, a new place to me. I went on the off-chance of seeing a reddish egret but did not, however it was a good walk and I saw a
Bald Eagle nest with apparently recently fledged youngsters still in the area with the parents.
Thursday 26th, Cedar Point Park, FL, USA.
