Ani-one Want To Go Birding?

Groove-billed Ani

One of the great things about retirement is the fact that I can indulge myself in impulse-birding.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  I had errands to run yesterday morning, so I had no plans to bird.  However, on the way to the first task I made a sharp left and ended up at Paynes Prairie.  What the heck?  Why not?  The errands would still be there later in the day, but the birds may not.  Specifically, I couldn't count on the Groove-billed Ani to hang around forever.  I'd seen one in Alachua County in 2010, so I hadn't hurried out to find the bird when it showed up this year.  Still, it's a great bird, so, again, why not!

My tardiness got me to the prairie close to 9:30.  Along the trail I met four different groups of people, all with the same message.  They had seen the Ani, but each group had found it farther to the west than the previous group.  Also, each group told me they had seen the bird move even farther west as they left.  This was not a trail that I had often hiked in the past, and never much farther than below the Sweetwater Observation area along the Hawthorne Trail.  This time I had already walked beyond that area, past the old fence line, and over a small stream.  Finally, two young guys told me they had seen the bird fly south and pointed to a tall tree in the distance.  Fortunately, after the trail entered some deciduous woods it too turned south toward that tree.  I kept the tree in my sights and continued hiking.  Suddenly the trail turned into what can best be described as a mud bog.  I believe this is the area that is planned to become a water-treatment area with a series of ponds, marshes and boardwalks.  Now it's just mud.  I could go no farther, and still no Ani.  Frustrated, I stood there grumbling when I heard the Ani calling.  Quickly I used my phone to play the Ani call from the Sibley app.  After just a few seconds, the bird flew into a bush just in front of me.  I attached the phone to my scope, turned to the camera app, and got the photo that you see above.  It's not the best, but you can tell from the bill that it is an Ani, and the call was diagnostic. 

White-crowned Sparrow

I hauled myself out of the mud and headed back on the trail.  I got all the way back to the area just west of the horse barn when I saw a lot of movement in the vegetation on both sides of me.  In about ten minutes I added three sparrows to my day list: White-throated, White-crowned and Field. It was a nice end to the day.  Two of the White-crowned Sparrows are pictured at right and below, left. 

Today was very different.  I had planned to go to Progress Park looking for sparrows.  I found one Song Sparrow who refused to be photographed, perhaps because the of the American Kestrel hanging out in the area (bottom, right).  Nothing else showed itself and I ended up with under 10 species for two hours of walking around in what once had been a sparrow-rich field.

Maybe I ought to stick to impulse-birding?

Immature White-crowned Sparrow

American Kestrel