Birdwalk Highlights for 5/2: Florida Lake Park and Leon Gorman Park, Freeport.

Today's incredible highlights bookended a rather slow-for-the-date visit to Florida Lake Park. First, on our way to Florida Lake, I spotted 6 SANDHILL CRANES flying over the interstate. I pulled over for a second after exiting, and my car spotted them in the distance, flying north, heading straight up I-295.

Then, after the underwhelming visit to Florida Lake, we dropped by Leon Gorham Park to see if we could catch up with the territorial LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH that has made its summer home here for quite a few years now. Upon hearing it would be a life bird for some members of the group, we simply had to try. And it didn't take long! First, we heard it from the parking lot, then slowly worked our way down the streamside trail. In only a few minutes, we found him singing, in the relative open, sitting still on an exposed small tree. We watched him sing for nearly 10 minutes, then drop down into the stream to forage, before he return to song. It was a really extraordinary view, and about as good - and prolonged - of a look at a Louie as you will ever get, especially with a sizeable group! It was a heckuva way to end the walk.

Meanwhile, it's not like Florida Lake Park was "bad," it was just disappointing for the date as warblers and warbler food remain behind schedule. In fact, we only had 3 species today, but the light rain mostly kept things low and eventually we enjoyed great views of about 30 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, 7 BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS, and 2-3 PALM WARBLERS. Other migrants included 4 EASTERN PHOEBES, 3 tarrying RING-NECKED DUCKS, 3 SAVANNAH SPARROWS, 1 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and our first SPOTTED SANDPIPER of the year. An OSPREY dropped in, and a smaller than average swallow swarm included 4 NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED and 2 BARN among the 15 or so TREE SWALLOWS. Four EASTERN PHOEBES struggled to find flying insects, we were treated to decent looks at a couple of SWAMP SPARROWS, and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES were particularly conspicuous today.