Wakodahatchee Wetlands Field Trip
Sunday, April 14, 2024 • Wakodahatchee Wetlands • Report and photos by Kirsten Hines
Sounds of clacking bills and chirping chicks filled the air even as our group of 25 women gathered at the base of the Wakodahatchee Wetlands boardwalk for our Phoebes outing on April 14. We were greeted by Blue-winged Teal, Mottled Ducks, and Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks as we rounded the corner to catch our first glimpse of water. A few steps further and we were surrounded by the source of the sounds that had greeted us in the parking lot and the reason to visit this amazing treatment wetland in spring – pond apples covered with wading bird nests.
Wood Stork nests dominated, including one with an unusual group of 3 adults preening one another and behaving as if they intended to maintain the nest as a trio. Other nesting species included Great Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Glossy Ibis, Anhinga, Cattle Egrets, and Great Blue Herons, some incubating eggs while others tended chicks of varying sizes. Nest-watching was definitely one of the morning’s highlights but by no means the only highlight.
Purple Martins crisscrossed the sky. A Lesser Yellowlegs and small group of Solitary Sandpipers probed the shallows at the back of the property. Roseate Spoonbills, White-winged Doves, and Monk Parakeets all made fly-bys. A Common Gallinule paraded chicks across the grass while a mother Mottled Duck rested with her young in nearby shade. A small flock of warblers filled a patch of canopy, including a beautiful Yellow Warbler in its spring finery. A Purple Gallinule acrobatically fed on alligator flag flowers. A Wood Stork stood sentinel on the boardwalk rail, posing with our group as we worked our way back to the parking lot at the end of our outing – an appropriate farewell!
BIRDS WE SAW
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)
Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)
Mottled Duck (Anas fulvigula)
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) (Columba livia)
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)
Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica)
Gray-headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus)
Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
Wood Stork (Mycteria americana)
Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)
Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum)
Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)
Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)
Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
Merlin (Falco columbarius)
Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus)
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus)
Purple Martin (Progne subis)
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major)
Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia)
Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina)
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana)
Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)
Palm Warbler (Western) (Setophaga palmarum palmarum)
Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor)