Seventeen birders joined John Hutchison yesterday for some early spring birding in southern Broward County. The trip began at Markham Park in Sunrise, where we explored the park’s nature trail and butterfly garden, as well the levee overlooking the marshes of adjacent Everglades Wildlife Management Area. Birds seen along the nature trail included White-winged Dove, Wood Stork (overhead), Northern Flicker, Loggerhead Shrike and House Wren. At the levee, we found lots of Gray-headed Swamphens, plus Osprey, Swallow-tailed Kite, Northern Harrier and Monk Parakeets, among many others. We next headed to the radio-controlled airfield at the east end of the park, along the way spotting a total of eleven Burrowing Owls.
We then drove to Tree Tops Park in Davie, stopping first at Westridge Park in adjacent Pine Island Ridge Natural Area to see if we could find more Burrowing Owls. This location has lots of burrows, but only a couple of owls were visible, most likely due to time of day. We stopped for lunch in Tree Top Park’s picnic area, then explored the park’s nature trail and marsh boardwalk. Activity was very slow, but we did add a few birds, including Mottled Duck, Limpkin and Green Heron, before calling it a day.
An eBird trip report, including checklists for all three stops, is here.
Burrowing Owl photo by Luis Gonzalez.
