Start of Transect Counts at Long Key!

By Rafael Galvez

If you ever desire to see plenty of Prairie Warblers, make sure to visit Long Key State Park during mid-September. There were dozens of Prairies all around the coastal transitional area of the park today, actively feeding through the mangroves and coastal underbrush. Not surprisingly, there were also many Blue-gray Gnatcatchers moving through the area. At first light, it was great to see small bands of them making landfall into the surrounding Black Mangroves buffering the shoreline. All photos taken with a Leica V-Lux 4.

Most of the expected early migrants were found at the State Park today, including Yellow-throated Warblers, enthralled primarily by insect around Avicennia blooms – as featured in the photo below – and plenty of Northern Parulas, found mostly in mature Rhizophora growth along the boardwalk.

Today’s highlights included:

10 Northern Parula
32 Prairie Warbler
5 Yellow-throated Warbler
6 Worm-eating Warbler
3 Common Yellow-throat
1 Louisiana Waterthrush
7 Northern Waterthrush
5 Ovenbird
2 Black-and-white Warbler
20 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
4 Red-eyed Vireo
4 Blue Jay
10 Eastern Kingbird
2 Gray Kingbird
8 Cave Swallow
174 Barn Swallow
567 Bobolink
2 Solitary Sandpiper
and much more!

It was a pleasure to spend time during the first transect count of the season, accompanied by a Leica V-Lux 4 camera. With the casual ease of a point-and-shoot camera and an excellent zoom capability, I was able to take many photos of songbirds at distances over 30+ feet, and get very nice results. All this in a very light and portable camera. Very much looking forward to what the season will bring!