PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

pine island rookery at sunset

2003-04-14 - 11:11 a.m.

The last event of Bird Fest was another amazing spectacle on a private property called Pine Island located a short way outside of Madisonville.

Here we enjoyed a wine and cheese party while observing a huge rookery of the various white Egrets, mostly Great Egrets, with fluffy youngsters begging and elbowing each other for food.

At sunset, hundreds of White Ibis adults and young dropped in to roost in the cypress trees thick with Spanish moss, six or a dozen or two dozen birds at a time, in a mini-tornado of Ibis that was breath-taking against the pink sky.

Here and there, the lighter bodies of Ibis and Egret were accented by a posing Anhinga.

Note: All photos © 2003 by Roger Williams, all rights reserved.

Here's the list, with italicized birds seen roadside rather than on Pine Island proper:

1. Anhinga
2. Great Blue Heron
3. Great Egret
4. Snowy Egret
5. Tricolored Heron
6. Cattle Egret
7. White Ibis
8. Plegardis, sp. -- 4 seen together
9. Black Vulture
10. Rock Dove
11. Downy Woodpecker -- female
12. Great Crested Flycatcher
13. Eastern Kingbird
14. Fish Crow -- vocalizing
15. European Starling
16. Northern Parula - heard
17. Yellow-Rumped Warbler - "Myrtle"
18. YELLOW THROATED WARBLER
19. Prothonotary Warbler
20. Red-Winged Blackbird

Notable: This morning, I observed my first Ribbon Snake of the season lounging on the brush pile.

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All Rights Reserved, Copyright © 2002-200- by Elaine Radford