Single-Tree Birdwatching

I've lots of friends and colleages who are avid birdwatchers. By avid, I mean drop-what-you-are-doing and rush-off-to (insert far-flung state or country) in pursuit of a storm-blown or accidental sighting of a single rare bird that has yet to be checked off from their life list.

I'm truly a more what's-around-in-my-daily-travels sort of birdwatcher. Not quite "backyard" watcher, since my daily travels take me, during a week or month, to just about every corner of the county I live in, and to every variety of habitat and natural system that is present in the area. I get a chance to see native and soon-to-be developed tracts that few have the opportunity to walk and observe in.

So today, upon hearing an avian commotion in a laurel oak tree near Clog House, Est. 1935, I and my huge black tomcat Buffalo (He, with the longest cat-tail I've ever seen) investigated. We observed a lively mob of chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, and ruby-crowned kinglets; a pair of black-and-white warblers, a few northern parula warblers, and a single cardinal - all in a huff about an unseen something-or-other. Might have been a snake. Might have been the single cardinal that outsized everyone else. We couldn't determine what caused them to become so agitated. But it was a great 5-minute break to notice the birds in the area. You should do the same in your little corner of Paradise.

Florida, birds, birdwatching, warbler, kinglet, titmouse, chickadee, chipping sparrow, parula, buffalo, clog