A Veery Birdy Day

San Felasco (Millhopper) Moonshine Trail at the First Bridge

I'm back in Gainesville following my terrific trip to Texas. You can't get much better than eight lifers, five days with my son, and a Gator victory over Texas A&M.  I was too busy yesterday to get outside, so I was happy to head off to San Felasco (Millhopper Road entrance) this morning and walk the Moonshine Creek Trail on the south side of the road.  I didn't find as many warbler species as I had hoped, but it was a great day nonetheless.

Almost the first bird to pop up was a very noisy - and not very shy - Acadian Flycatcher.  I've had too many days when I could hear the little critter but could never lay eyes on him.  Today he couldn't be more obvious as he flew across the trail ahead of us repeatedly while chipping away.  I think "Peet!" can be loosely translated as "Look at me!"

Veery at San Felasco Millhopper

Soon after the Acadian left us we saw the first Veery of the day.  There would be many more to come (left).  It seemed that a Veery lurked in every tree and bush, and even minimal pishing brought one or two curious birds to check us out.  I've never seen so many of them in one day.  Ovenbirds (at bottom, left) were also plentiful as were the ubiquitous Red-eyed and White-eyed Vireos.

But I was looking for warblers and having no luck at all.  Of course there were Northern Parulas at every turn, but for a while I thought they and the Ovenbirds were the only warblers I would see all day.  Eventually we took the turn onto the Creek Sink Trail.  About 10 yards along the way we saw a Black-and-white Warbler and, while we were watching it, up popped a beautiful Worm-eating Warbler (below, right).  Later on we added an American Redstart and a Yellow-throated Warbler.   Unfortunately, the trail was flooded so we returned to our original path.

Worm-eating Warbler

It was only six warbler species for the day, but I'm not complaining.  Any day that combines an Acadian, a Veery, an Ovenbird, and a Worm-eating Warbler is a good day in the field.  Throw in a few good laughs with friends and it's a great morning.

Ovenbird