Birdapalooza – January 2017

This was our first time attending the Lake Apopka Wildlife Festival and Birdapalooza sponsored by Orange Audubon Society. The festival offered both free and paid birding tours along with music and other entertainment. It’s one of the few birding events we have attended that had a bird banding station.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and attended the keynote dinner presented by Greg Miller. Those of you who have been reading our blog know that he was an inspiration for us during our Big Year. The primary message in his speech is that he is just a regular guy that did something he loved and that is birding. It was great to hear about how the book became a reality and how everyone was rooting for Greg as the underdog who had a chance to beat the people with the unlimited resources and time. Greg also served as a consultant on the Big Year movie and shared his behind the scenes memories. Now we need to watch it again to look at all the details we missed.

Sunday morning we met our tour group at the McDonald Canal Pavilion. Our leaders were Greg Miller (Greg Miller Birding), Gallus Quigley (FL Ornithological Society), David Simpson (Birding with David Simpson) and Deborah Green (Orange Audubon). We met at 7:30 a.m. and broke into carpools where our passengers were a very nice couple from Quebec, Diane and Jean. We have birded the Lake Apopka Wildlife drive many times and were excited to bird the restricted areas that we haven’t seen before. The leaders let us know that our target birds were a Groove-billed Ani and Ash-throated Flycatcher.

The wind was blowing around 15 – 25 mph which meant it was not going to be easy to find small passerines. Our first three stops were for the Ash-throated Flycatcher that did not make an appearance. We did see several good birds including a female Painted Bunting and Sharp-shinned Hawk. One of the next stops was for the Groove-billed Ani and Sharon was the first to spot the bird. It was an unbelievable week where she saw a Smooth-billed Ani at Ft. DeSoto Park the weekend before.

We continued our tour of Lake Apopka and found six duck and four hawk species along with all the usual herons and egrets. Limpkins, Glossy Ibis, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and a flyover of Wilson’s Snipe made it a great day. After a splendid lunch we went back out to explore new areas. The highlight of the afternoon was a Barn Owl in an abandoned building and Joe Dunn was nice enough to share his photo. A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk posed nicely for our group.

We saw so many great birds but missed some too. This is definitely a festival we recommend and will attend again. Here is the checklist of the 100+ birds seen during Birdapalooza.

It was meaningful to bird with Greg Miller after our Big Year and exchange stories about all the same places we went. We look forward to the next time our paths cross.

Next up: Miami Parrots

Trip Birds: 64   Life Birds: 0