As has been the case, it was a full house with over 50 Tropical Audubon and Fairchild birders joining us for our fall Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden bird walk. This also served as the kickoff to Fairchild’s fall weekly bird walks. We were also joined by Glenn Huberman and Adair Reeve who lead the weekly Fairchild walks.
As we were gathering at the parking lot, we had the Orange-winged Parrots calling and flying overhead and a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers with one landing on a sun lit pine for all to get great views.
In the Garden, we split into two groups, one led by Louis Gonzalez and the other group by me. My group headed across the Garden House Lawn and to the overlooks observing waders along the lake shore. With Norther Cardinals and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers along the way, our first warbler was a Black-throated Warbler at the Butterfly Garden. We continued into the Arboretum and loosely followed the Arboretum Loop of the Kushlan Bird Trail where we found more activity. One of our young-eyed birders noted a bird working the leaves at the base of the nearby trees. It was quickly identified as a Swainson’s Warbler. Also seen in the Arboretum were several Ovenbirds, Black and White Warbler, Northern Parula, and a Brown Thrasher. Heading back up to the Kushlan Bird Trail some in the group found a Ruby-throated Humming bird which are just arriving in south Florida. After alerting the other group of our find (I believe they dropped everything to look for the Swainson’s), we continued down to Pandanus Lake and then onto Lowland loop where we added Pied-billed Grebe, Northern Waterthrush, and a flyover of Barn Swallows and Laughing gulls.
We added a few more warblers in the Bahamas Collection and with the heat and the number of mosquitos we looped around Center Lake and headed by the Pine Rockland planting and headed back home. Meanwhile the report from Louis’s group going back to see the Swainson’s Warbler, they also found a Louisiana Waterthrush, and a Blackpoll Warbler. Some great finds for this time of year. Also added by Louis’s group was a Merlin, an Eastern Kingbird, & Blue-winged Teal. Everyone enjoyed the walked and had great looks at the birds. Thank you to Fairchild to hosting our walk yearly. Thank you to all the birders who attended including the Glen, Adair, Louis Gonzalez, and the Three Paez brothers, Alex, Omar, & Steve all of who helped leading the two groups and a BIG thank you to Brian Rapoza who organizes all of the Tropical Audubon Society walks each year.
Check out the ebird list for all of our sightings
The eBird checklist for the Fairchild walk can be viewed at eBird Checklist - 24 Sep 2022 - Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden - 50 species