Recap – Inglis Island Field Trip

By Fred Hileman

The morning began dismally. The overcast gave us little hope of sunshine. We still took about one and a half hours at the beginning of the trail waiting for a glimmer of sun to break through the haze. Finally, a ray grudgingly showed up, but time was catching up with us as we had a long trek to go. We decide to move on. We did get several species from the parking lot up to this point. Lisa got a photo of a Cape May.

The first stop was at the Boy Scout camp where the Bald Eagles were building a nest. The eagles did not disappoint as both were alight in the branches near the nest. The nest was very small. I contacted the ranger later to inform him that we had seen them and of the appearance of the nest. He said that he was glad to know that the storm had not torn it completely down. It appeared that they were not going to abandon the site. We had observed a Merlin and a Cooper Hawk by this tim
The next leg of the trip was through the canopy and along the wet marsh land along side. This proved to be a no stopping area. The marshy area was the full length of the overhanging tree route. This was in the past a very active warbler area. The mosquitoes were relentless. They appeared large enough to carry away two humans and an elephant in one! I have never seen such large and furious clusters since the bay area in the Everglades. This was a lost opportunity to see some of the smaller tree inhabitants.
The sun had finally broken through but the rest of the journey was rather uneventful. The highlight was the Baltimore Oriole that I recorded and spotted as we came out of the canopy. The beautiful day made up for any disappointment of fewer species. But, the total species was not too shabby as we did tally 37. We then went to a local restaurant, Mama Sally’s, for lunch, a recap of the sightings and some enjoyable conversation. The eBird list is here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S199994137

Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Bella Moth