Mangrove Cuckoo—Yes!

Friday, February 17, 2017

Finally, a break in the weather (a very short one, though). It cooled significantly overnight and was 54° when we woke up from a good sleeping night. This also meant that the mosquitoes were cold and we were not initially bothered by them.

Ellen, Sally and I took Speedy over to the visitor center for the Friday morning ranger-led birdwalk. Ellen and Sally were looking forward to this one as it was being led by Ranger Bob, one of the best birders in the park. At first it seemed as if we three would be the only attendees, but just as we were about to head out another couple showed up.

In the small-world category, it was Kent and Lynn, volunteer colleagues of ours from our winter at Aransas NWR in Texas, also avid birders. They live full-time in their motorhome and volunteer every couple of years and travel other times. This was one of the other times. We had seen them last spring when they were going west as we were driving east outside of Marfa, Texas. Their giant Class C RV and massive double-decker trailer were unmistakable (old Speedy was just another Roadtrek, so they didn't notice that it was us). We spent some time on the walk catching up.

The birding was quite good. I think that Bob was pleased that he had a small group of interested birders along, so all of the time could be spent birding rather than explaining about the Everglades to novices.

We started off at Eco Pond, which was filled with all of the wading birds that we'd seen on previous days, but we also had quite a bit of activity in the bushes and trees along the road at the entrance with several warblers that we hadn't yet this year including a Northern Parula. From there we went across the road to the old lodge site. The lodge was a resort that was destroyed by a hurricane (I think it was Wilma) and the buildings were removed. There are roadways going through the site, but it is all overgrown. We were hoping for more warblers, but the best we could do were a few catbirds.

Back into the cars (and Speedy) we drove to Mrazek Pond. There were all the ducks that I'd seen on my bike rides out to the pond and, of course, the usual wading birds. On my last ride here, there were four ducks swimming alone that I didn't think were teal, but couldn't identify. One was still out there today. It turned out to be a Ring-billed Duck (a hard identification problem as it was in its non-bleeding plumage). There was also a little crocodile who occasionally harassed a Great Egret standing next to it. It would have been quite the catch, had it succeeded, since the egret was about twice the size of the crocodile.

From Mrazek we went to West lake in search of the Mangrove Cuckoo. Sally had seen it but no one else had, including Bob, who'd been out to look for it at least three times since Sally's initial report. We got on it within about a minute of arriving, right in the spot Sally had seen it. It was initially quite deep in the mangroves and we could only see a bit of its head, but it obliged us by popping out onto an isolated branch for a great view. A life bird for Ellen. She had left her camera in the van but was happy to get such a great look and not spend the time fiddling with camera or phone. (The old birding saying "look at the bird" not the book, camera, phone, etc., was certainly true.)

We spent a little time looking at the rafts of coots then left for our furthest stop, Paurotis Pond. Hundreds of Wood Storks were flying back and forth building nests and the Roseate Spoonbills and most of the egrets and herons were about as well. It was definitely a show.

We finished by going back to the visitor center to look out on the flats now that the tide was out. Lots of shorebirds, terns and skimmers among the wading birds, cormorants and pelicans. By the end of the walk, we'd seen 61 species, certainly a high for a walk on this visit to the Everglades.

After lunch, Ellen and I went back to the visitor center and marina store. She wanted to buy me a Buff, a bug-proof neck gaiter. I was the only one without one of these sun and insect-resistant neck and head covers. Ellen, Sally and Harry (and even Nina) were wearing these to deter the mosquitoes. I'd been using lots of insect repellent, but Ellen thought I could use one as well.

While we were there we also bought ice cream bars for all of us to have after dinner to celebrate the Mangrove Cuckoo sighting. We'd brought along aluminium foil and a towel to insulate them enough to get back to Speedy's freezer before they melted. It worked.

We didn't end up having them with tonight's dinner though. We couldn't figure out why Harry and Sally were running their generator in the late afternoon. When they came over to the screen house with dinner, Sally had a molten chocolate cake that she'd baked in their microwave oven. That topped ice cream bars (those are being saved for tomorrow).

After dinner we all went to visit Lynn and Kent in their RV. They had gone to Alaska the summer after we were all at Aransas and they offered to answer any questions we might have. We got lots of good suggestions about roads, fuel and camping. We had a good time and it was great to see them again.