Natural History Wanderings

Updated with photos

Wetland Birding in Southern Florida

I had  the opportunity to go birding, with the Audubon Society of the Everglades (the Palm Beach County, Fl  chapter of the Audubon Society)  We went to Green Cay Wetlands which is in Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County in southern Florida.

Although I have been to Green Cay before I have never gone with a birding  group or at this time of year. I saw 32 bird species, even though this is not high season, including seven birds that were new for my life list including Yellow-crowned Heron, which was probably the bird of the day for much of the group, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Purple Gallinule ( see previously but never recorded on a list), Limkin, White-winged Dove, Red-eyed Vireo, and American Redstart. I also saw butterflies, dragon flies, native flowers and several alligators. My best guesses on the butterflies are Palamedes Swallowtail, Viceroy, Zebra Longwing, and Julia. Some dragonflies were identified as a Halloween Pennants

Green Cay Wetlands  is the old Green Cay Farm, originally owned by Ted and Trudy Winsberg. When the farms around them were converted into housing developments they preferred to restore their land to open prairie with wetland similar to how it had been previous to farming.

There is a 1.5-mile elevated boardwalk through the wetland and a nature center.  Here is the visitor’s center  Bird Checklist and old Bird Count links (which include monthly and often weekly bird counts starting on April 2007 and going through 2010).

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Click Read more to see my complete bird list for today.

Green Cay Wetlands, Palm Beach, US-FL Sep 9, 2012 7:30 AM – 9:45 AM

32 species

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Mottled Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

Double-crested Cormorant

Anhinga

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

Green Heron

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

White Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Purple Gallinule

Common Gallinule

American Coot

Limpkin

Eurasian Collared-Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

American Redstart

Red-winged Blackbird

Boat-tailed Grackle

Related articles

• Birding Green Cay Wetlands  (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Birding The Bay Trail 8/27/12 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Abbotts Lagoon: Birds and Wildflowers 8/25/12 (naturalhistorywanderings.com)