The Green Cay weekly bird count went really well yesterday. The highlight was seeing not one, not two, but THREE Painted Buntings at the first habitat island, a First Of The Season bird for Green Cay. We just filled our cage feeders up last week for the first time since we lost our assistant animal caretaker to budget cuts and what do you know, the buntings came in just in time. I watched the male/female pair for about 15 minutes before exploring the rest of the island where I found another bright plumage male.
After meeting a few visitors and pointing out the buntings I continued on my way and finished the bird count with some good numbers. We had 28 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks including three familes. A lone Roseate Spoonbill was on the half mile trail. Also we had 69 Blue-winged Teal, which is evidence that their numbers are steadily increasing as the season progresses. The other big FOTS of the day was two Palm Warblers that were found on the Cypress Island. They were hanging out with some Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a female American Redstart.
All photos taken by Bill Kominsky at Green Cay, used with permission. All in all, it was a great day of morning birding. My only complaint was the hot temperatures but hopefully this will be the last heat wave before the cooler winter temps arrive and we have cold days in the 70s.
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