Green Key
The seasons at Green Key are defined by the warblers seen
there.
Oct 17th. Winter roosting is already
underway as 35 Palm Warblers flew in at
sunset last night accompanied by one Merlin that sat on an electric wire waiting
for an easy catch. In fact this is one of the easiest places to see
Merlins up close, one evening last winter I had 4 on the electric poles. They
will be here every evening now until March at sunset feeding on the roosting
warblers. I have seen as many as 1200 warblers fly out of the mangroves in the
early morning in the winter. Usually a mix of Palm and Yellow-rumped. I have not
gotten an exact count but will this winter.
Spring is when the Funnel is active, with
this spring out of 20 species of warblers counted the Blackpoll won out with 940 seen.
Summer we only have the nesting Prairie Warbler here. The most singing males
heard at one day this summer was 6, my guess would be 6 to 10 nesting pair on
the key.
Fall was very active on
the key the past 2 1/2 months with 16 warbler species documented, Yellow Warblers won the high count with 711
seen.
Ken Tracey
New Port Richey
October 2007