The way you can tell this bird is through the breast streaking. An adult would have horizontal solid barring, as opposed to this fine, vertical streaking.
A Little Blue Heron was having success fishing, and I watched it catch a pretty big frog. It didn't seem to know exactly what to do with it, and awkwardly maneuvered it around until- gulp! Right down it's gullet! I'm sure it has lots of experience doing this, as frogs seemed to be everywhere!
You can just see the legs disapearing...
I walked over to the next pond, and to a spot that had seemed quite birdy the day before. I noticed a small bird heading vertically up a tree. Black-and-white Warbler? Yellow-throated Warbler? Yes! I was very happy to see the latter of the two quickly making its way up a dense tree. It proved very hard to photograph, and I only managed a few IDable shots:
Might not be the best shot, but hey! I'm definitely not complaining!
Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers made up the majority of the rest of the flocks, as well as the ubiquitous Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Carolina and House Wrens, and even a few Grey Catbirds. I found a tree that seemed to be filled with birds, and I saw many warblers flitting around. I pished (yes, that's a verb) a bit, and a ton more birds flew in! I kept doing it, and while getting some weird looks from early morning walkers, I noticed something different flitting about. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet! And then right next to it, a White-eyed Vireo!! I couldn't believe my luck! It was fairly cooperative, but the sheer amount of movement, and large amount of foliage made it hard to track, especially with the camera.
Beautiful bird! I love the little accents, like the yellow lores, bold wingbars and the olive to bluish back. My favourite Vireo now!
A male Prairie Warbler also came up in the flock, along with a few Pine Warblers, and a single Black-and-white Warbler. I was ecstatic! And now for Apopka!
The drive there was pretty uneventful, although I did pick up a trip bird Sharp-shinned Hawk. We soon were on the shore of Lake Apopka, and the habitat change was instant. Big trees, dripping with spanish moss everywhere, big water with small reed stands, and tons of little sloughs by the road. Once we got to the gate, the habitat had sort of reverted to more marshy habitat, but there was still a few open spots of water. One of the main birding areas of the wildlife drive, is actually the entry gate. In the week leading up to the trip, Long-tailed Duck, Yellow-breasted Chat, Ash-throated Flycatcher and a few other really good birds had been seen right at the gate. When we got there, we were told that the Long-tailed Duck was tucked into a culvert under the road, that was unviewable! I literally must have been within 2 meters of the duck, but I couldn't see it! After a bit of waiting, and poking around for the other birds, we decided to move on, but not before getting a couple Common Ground Doves, and a handful of Swamp Sparrows, a trip bird. We slowly drove to the next checkpoint, keeping a close eye out the window. Most of the same stuff as before was present, but with a much larger presence of Gallinules, and also a good number of Coots. All of the same herons as before were present, but I noticed that Limpkin was lacking, as well as Wood Stork. Blue-winged Teals were also quite numerous amongst the winter vegetation.
It was really nice to see these guys in breeding plumage again!
The habitat I found was noticeably different than Circle B Bar. Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive used to be a massive expanse of farmland, but the government purchased it back, let it return to it's wetter state, and than introduced some native plants, so the habitat was pretty linear. The next checkpoint supposedly contained the legendary female Vermilion Flycatcher, which had been frequenting the road for some time now. There was several signs around asking people to keep their distance, as the bird had apparently become very used to people. We walked up the little side road, pretty much just a lump of gravel and dirt piled in a line, surrounded by water, with powerlines running up the side. There was lots of confiding Yellow-rumped Warblers, and someone noticed a Wilson's Snipe all tucked in out in the marsh.
Pretty well camouflaged, and nearly impossible to notice from far away!
Someone farther up the road called us over, and said that they 'had the bird' (kind of a weird saying I think). We hurried up, and sure enough, she was flitting around at the back of the section of marsh, catching insects!
The strawberry red is really nice, and sticks out quite a bit in the middle of browns and grays!
She really didn't seem to be having that hard of a time, at least compared to what Ontario's Vermilion Flycatcher had to go through... And speaking of that bird (and my missing it by a day), this one was a much appreciated consolation. And this I think would have been a lot nicer to watch, no matter how rare something is, I still don't like the feeling of getting enjoyment out of something that I know is ultimately going to die... Like pretty much all of Ontario's winter rarities.
A little taste of the habitat, multiply this by a million, and you got Apopka!
Just up ahead from there was the historic pump house, which was directly next to the actual Lake Apopka. Here there was a trip bird Forster's Tern cruising around the more open marshes. There was also a few gators in the area, including a young one right next to the road with a tail injury- it must've gotten too close to a car at some point. Here's a closeup of it's head:
This was as zoomed out as I could get it- that's how close it was to the car! Also how big my lens is I suppose...
The rest of the drive was relatively empty, as we (fairly) quickly sped to our next location. On the way we saw quite a few more Fish Crows, and also some Cattle Egrets.
Maybe it's just me, but Fish Crows seem so much slimmer and glossier than their American counterparts. I'm going to have to keep my eyes more peeled in Ontario...
Another species I need to watch for more in Ontario, Cattle Egrets also seem to be expanding North, so in a few years we may be getting them even more regularly!
And before I knew it, we were to the end! All in all I was a little... not exactly unimpressed, just a little bit surprised, of course I would have gone even if it was just for Vermilion, but still, between Circle B Bar and Apopka, I'd choose Apopka without a second thought! After going there, I think that Apopka is a little overrated, and Circle B Bar is definitely underrated. So if you're ever given those two choices, I'd definitely recommend Circle B Bar. So in total, Apopka added 8 species to my state list, bringing it up to a cumulative 86 species. Not bad for two days! And with another trip that day, and one day left, I thought I had a good shot at the rest of my targets (except Snail Kite)!
More to follow soon (hopefully), before I leave to Mexico, in four days!
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