 
|
 |
|
 |
|
You Are Here: Home » Things to Do » Nature and Parks » Birder's Paradise »
Warblers Converge on Fort De Soto Park
Spring is the time of year when tropical migrant songbirds come back to beautiful Fort De Soto Park on the Gulf of Mexico.
Like swallows coming back to Capistrano, these tropical nomads -- warblers, grosbeaks, orioles, tanagers, buntings, vireos and more come back to American soil, hungry, thirsty and close to death after flights of up to 5,000 miles from as far away as Brazil, Argentina and Peru.
Avid birders from around the country visit Fort De Soto Park between mid-April and mid-May to watch for and listen to the songbirds.
The park is huge, so the colorful guests have lots of trees to choose from to rest their weary wings. But for many, the roost of choice appears to be on the limbs of a certain mulberry tree loaded with dark ripe berries and buzzing with insects.
"I'm not sure why they gravitate to this one specifically," said Bill AuCoin, a local outdoorsman and birdwatcher, who gathered with dozens of other admirers on a recent April morning to witness the dizzying display of color and song coming from the tree.
"it's kind of odd that they seem to have made this one mulberry tree their official stopover gathering spot," he said "It's like going to a parade of tropical birds, which is a truly spectacular sight," he added.
Ann Paul of the Audubon Society points to the fact that this mulberry tree is especially large, has lots of ripe mulberries, and is an especially "buggy" tree so it has food for both fruit eaters and insect eaters.
In other words, it's the perfect drive-through for a quick bite---if you're a bird.
After gorging on these berries and bugs, the migrating masses take off again, flying north to their favorite summer spots, including many backyard bird feeders with a window view.
"A lot depends on the weather and the winds but traditionally the early birds arrive during the night when winds are most likely to be light and favorable," said Jackie Williams, who organized an April 15 "welcoming committee" of fellow members of Clearwater Audubon to scan the trees of the 1,100-acre Pinellas County park for arriving warblers and others.
"This is like the old song about when the swallows come back to Capistrano except these are songbirds and, so far, nobody has written a song about them. But it is still a very big deal," said Mike McGoff, a naturalist for Pinellas County Parks.
"April 15 is known as the traditional early-bird arrival day but sometimes they come in a few days before that or a few days later. It's hard to pin it down exactly."
Fort DeSoto Park is not the only landing area for America's migratory songbirds but it's one of the most favored for those returning from the Caribbean, the Yucatan, Central America and South American countries.
Birders say this is because the beaches of the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area reach out into the Gulf of Mexico and this makes their over-water flights shorter.
Fort DeSoto Park, at the mouth of Tampa Bay, is known for more than the arrival of migratory songbirds. It is a gateway for the Great Florida Birding Trail and features a variety of habitats hosting approximately 280 different species in a year's time including wading birds like reddish egrets and roseate spoonbills as well as wintering shorebirds like the whimbrel and a variety of sandpipers.
The entire county, including the Clearwater and St. Petersburg metro areas, checks off more than 375 different species -- residents, winter snowbirds, and migrants-- including notable populations of birds listed as endangered, threatened or of special concern. They include the American oystercatcher, least tern, snowy plover, black skimmer, peregrine falcon, merlin, snowy egret, little blue heron, tricolored heron, reddish egret, bald eagle, brown pelican and white ibis.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Copyright ©2009 St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. All rights reserved.