A Stroll Through Green Cay

On our most recent outing to Green Cay, we had lots of of great looks, but no real surprises. We did a bit of warbler-watching, and found Black-and-white, Palm, Myrtle, Yellow-throated, and Common Yellowthroat. We also found a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovering by some cabbage palms, and a single Painted Bunting. But mostly it was a heron and duck day, which was alright with us.

Lots of ducks on the water. Among the Blue-winged Teal and Mottled Ducks was a lone Mallard hybrid. This was the first Mallard that I can remember seeing at Green Cay, which gave us cause for consternation, given it's proclivity for hybridizing with other species, particularly the threatened Mottled Duck. Hopefully he keeps to himself, but he seemed like a shady character to me. It looks like he already had a Blue-winged Teal playing coy with him.

We had one Northern Harrier sighting, which flew low over the marsh for a couple of minutes before disappearing behind a row of cypress trees.

Despite it's best efforts, we found this American Alligator lurking in some camouflage. He looked he might rise out of the water à la Apocalypse Now, but instead stayed put and waited for his avian Kurtz to come to him.

We found a Sora in exactly the same place that we found it previously, leading me to suspect that it's the same individual. Once again, s/he stayed close to the edge of the reeds for a minute, before running back inside.

The herons were especially photogenic. Maureen got lots of great shots as they posed for us both on and just off of the boardwalk.