Birding the Florida Keys and Miami - Day Three

Wednesday June 11th

Ibis and Greylag Geese at Kendall Baptist

Wednesday morning we again had an early start, leaving Marathon and heading back toward home. Stops were made to recheck for the neotropic cormorant and golden cuban warblers along Card Sound Road with the same results as on Monday. Before reaching the city environs of Dade County, we made a quick check in the Lucky Hammock area outside of the Everglades National Park with idea of maybe sighting white-tailed kite.  no kite but we a look at a strange lizard that was later identified as a basilisk lizard, which is native to Central and South America. It bolted before we could get photos.

We passed through Florida City where we added Common Myna to our exotics list of birds. There is a long list of exotics living in the Miami area and this was our next leg on the trip. We made the required visit to the Kendall Baptist Hospital campus and the neighborhood to the north.  We actually found only a few species of exotics here to include the large flock of Mitred Parakeets that reside here and several Muscovy ducks and a family of Egyptian Geese. We did add a pair of Coopers Hawks too.

Egyptian Geese

that reside here and several

Next we visited the Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami.  A couple of years ago we had an excellent experience here.  Today we had to work a bit harder to find and succeed in finding a large flock of Red-masked Parakeets was seen. Not much else was seen.

With rain moving-in we elected to cut the day short to one last stop. Caribbean Cave Swallows were reported nesting in over-passes across the Snapper Canal in Kendall. We headed over the intersection of SW 72 St and Snapper Creek Drive.  At first it appeared to be another miss. But then one appeared, then another, then a couple more as they zipped in and out of the under-pass. From here we ended the trip and headed back to Ft Myers. But I'd say I need to revisit Dade County.

A juvenile Cave Swallow

Mitred Parakeet

 Trip List

Mitred Parakeet

 Egyptian Goose, Muscovy Duck, Mallard (Domestic type), Red Junglefowl,  Magnificent Frigatebird, Masked Booby, Brown Booby, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Brown Pelican,  Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis, Osprey, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Common Gallinule. Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Laughing Gull, Brown Noddy, Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Least Tern, Roseate Tern, Rock Pigeon, White-crowned Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Burrowing Owl, Common Nighthawk, Antillean Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Monk Parakeet, Mitred Parakeet, Red-masked Parakeet. Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Kingbird, Loggerhead Shrike, White-eyed Vireo, Black-whiskered Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Purple Martin, Cave Swallow, Northern Mockingbird, Common Myna, European Starling, Prairie Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Shiny Cowbird and House Sparrow.

Mitred Parakeet