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

Birding the Florida Keys and Miami - Day Two

Tuesday June 10th

Dry Tortugas National Park

Yankee Freedom at Bush Key

The Yankee Freedom left its dock in Key West around eight o'clock for the two hour, seventy mile trip out to the Dry Tortugas National Park with a full compliment of passengers.  Most of the visitors to the park were there to sight see the remains of Ft Jefferson on Garden Key and to snorkel the waters surrounding the key,  Seems Bob and I were the only passengers looking for birds.

Loggerhead Key and Lighthouse

As spring migration has concluded, the attraction for taking all the trouble to reach this remote location for us is the active seabird rookeries. That is why we are here to see the thousands of  Magnificent Frigatebirds, Brown Noddy and Sooty Terns nesting on Bush Key, and the Masked Boobies on Hospital Key. This is the only location within the United States were these birds nest.

As we neared the Tortugas, the various keys could be seen and as we passed Hospital Key a very distant look at the Masked Boobies roosting there could be seen. And the air is now filling with terns and noddy.

As we are approaching the landing our sightseeing guide tells us that the Coast Guard Cutter Sawfish was probable here to collect refuges. This did seem to be the case. As the Coast Guard was leaving with their refuges, seaplanes were arriving with more visitors to the park.

Coast Guard Cutter Sawfish receiving refuges

Refuges being loaded aboard Coast Guard Cutter

Sea Plane arriving from Key West

Bob stayed busy photographing birds the entire five hour stay and was thrilled with this opportunity and is making plans to return soon.  He would wade out into the water with his camera to try for that right shot.                                                                       I left him to his work as I explored the site.Walking the moat I marveled at the sea life like the reef fish, jellyfish, sea fans etc that could be seen.  I envied the folks snorkeling as they were enjoying these sights up close. The fort was once converted to a military prison and one famous prisoner was Dr Mudd, who was convicted of treason for treating the broken leg of the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth.

Bob and Friend

Magnificent Frigatebird

Sooty Tern

Brown Noddy

The only land birds I could find were a pair of Eurasian Collared Doves and about two dozen Cattle Egrets. Other birds seen were a lone Laughing Gull, a lone Royal Tern and a Brown Booby seen resting on a buoy just off shore.

The moat surrounding the fort

Interior view of Ft Jefferson

Yours Truly - Photo courtesy of Bob Pelkey

The tired and sun-burned passengers disembarked from the Yankee Freedom back at Key West about five o'clock. For us it was time to head back the motel in Marathon to rest up from the long day. But we made an additional stop at the Sombrero Beach Country Club golf course in Marathon, because of reports of Shiny Cowbirds and Burrowing Owls. So to top off the day we were successful in seeing a pair of Shiny Cowbirds and a brief sighting of a Burrowing Owl as well as a flew-over of a noisy Nanday Parakeet. This completed a successful day of birding the Keys.
















Yankee Freedom


Dry Tortugas National Park


Fort Jefferson


Dr Samuel Mudd


Bob's Blog

Birding the Florida Keys and Miami

June 9th

Day One - The Keys

Bob Pelkey picked me up at Three AM for our annual birding trip to the Florida Keys.  This year we added a day to visit Dry Tortugas National Park. Our goals for this trip were for birds primarily found in the Keys including White-crown Pigeon, Rosette Tern, Antillean Nighthawk, Black-whiskered Vireo, Brown Noddy, Masked Booby and Shiny Cowbird.

Card Sound Road

White-crowned Pigeon

Our early start was timed for an arrival at sunrise at the Card Sound Road toll booth. This location can be an excellent location for finding Black-whiskered Vireo and Cuban Golden Warblers.  This warbler is a Caribbean subspecies of the Yellow Warbler and its only U.S. range is in the mangroves of the Florida Keys. So we expected to find and photograph these birds, but upon arrival found that the location had been taken over by KZK Productions for filming a new series forNetflix. We did manage to hear Prairie Warbler and a Black-whiskered Vireo as we moved on.

The next stop was three down the road just before Sound Card Road meets 905. Here we were looking for a neotropic cormorant that had been reported at this location for the past three days. We didn't see any cormorants at all, but had good showings of White-crowned Pigeon, Green

Common Nighthawk

Herons, Gray Kingbird and a very cooperative Common Nighthawk.

Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park 

Next stop was on Key Largo near were 905 intersects with Highway 1. Dangy Johnson can be a good location for Mangrove Cuckoo and Black-whiskered Vireo.  I've seen both here in the past, but not today. Did sight White-crowned Pigeon,

A young White-eyed Vire

White-eyed Vireo and heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Bob also located an interesting lizard called a Bark Anole.                                                                                                                                  

Bark Anole

                                                                                           

Marathon Government Buildings

Nesting Rosette Terns along with nesting Least Terns can be found this time of year around the Marathon Government Complex. We were succesfull, finally, in locating a targeted species with seeing the Rosette Terns. Magnificent Frigetbirds, Least Terns and Laughing Gulls were also seen here.

Rosette Terns in Marathon

Curry Hammock State Park

Curry Hammock is a small park with access on Little Crawl Key and is know for the annual Fall Hawk Watch located here. We did not see much on our stop. A Gray Kingbird posed for us and a couple of Ground Doves were active, but mostly the activity we saw were the basking Green Iguanas.

Gray Kingbird

Adult Green Iguana

Juvinile Green Iguana

Large Green Iguana

Key West and Ft Taylor State Park

Arriving in Key West around noon we scouted out the island and stopped at Ft Zackary Taylor State Park.  Found the park fairly quiet. A few White-crowned Pigeons, Least Terns and Common Grackles. Would have been nice to find some Caribbean vagrants but mostly found more Green Iguana. On the island we saw lots of the Key West chickens, Gray Kingbirds, White-crowned Pigeons and White-winged Doves.

A scene from Ft Taylor

White-crowned Pigeon

Green Iguana

Middle Torch Key

Made a stop on Middle Torch Key Road, after leaving Key West as we were returning to Marathon, to look for Black-whiskered Vireos, which we did find along with more Gray Kingbirds and a Key Deer.

Key Deer in velvet

Black-whiskered Vireo

Marathon Airport

Bob Pelkey waiting for the nighthawks to arrive

After checking into the motel in Marathon and getting some rest, we headed over to the nearby airport to await the arrival of any Antillean Nighthawks at sun down. As we waited several Laughing Gulls passed by, plus more White-crowned Pigeons, Kingbirds, Least Tern and even an unidentified parrot. Finally at seven forty-five we first heard then spotted a lone Antillean Nighthawk soaring above the airport runway. But it quickly left the area toward the northeast. By eight o'clock a pair of Antillean Nighthawks appeared, again, briefly, which ended the day's birding.

Barred Owl

Friday May 30th

 It has been a treat for me when the rainy season starts-up in south Florida, because the local Barred Owls will hang out at night at the water treatment plant were I work. Well they have returned to visit with us again as the seasonal rains begin.  They will hang around until September-October, when the weather dries up.

Some Vagrants are Still Hanging Around

Friday, May 30th

Recently Charlie Ewell posted that the Cape Coral Eurasian Wigeon was still to be found on its pond on Del Prado.  Had expected that the duck would have been drawn northward to seek a mate. I suppose it is possible that it has bonded with a resident Mottled Duck, which are not migratory.  I did check the pond last Monday and found it in the company of several mottled ducks, mallard-mottled duck hybrids and several pekin ducks. A Pied-billed Grebe was also on-site. Maybe the wigeon will stay the summer.

Pekin Ducks located on Wigeon Pond

Tuesday I birded Babcock-Webb in Charlotte County. I quickly located the Big Three - Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman's Sparrow and Brown-headed Nuthatch.  Other interesting sightings included Eastern Bluebirds with their fledglings, a Sandhill Crane with a colt and a late Eastern Kingbird.

After visiting Babcock-Webb I elected to retry for the Tropical Kingbird at St Armand's Circle in Sarasota County. Seems that it frequents the parking lot area mat Adams and Monroe Streets. Here we have another vagrant in the tropical kingbird, who seems uninterested in migrating to its normal breeding range. It has been posited that this individual has been on-site here since back in 2013.

Tropical Kingbird at St Armands

Ponce Inlet Pelagic Trip

Saturday May 17th

Tomorrow I am going to participated in Michael Brother's sponsored pelagic birding trip out of Ponce Inlet. Michael is director of the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet and sponsors three or four of these trips a year as fund raisers for the Center.  This trip was scheduled to travel, aboard the 'Pastime Princess', a hundred miles out into the Atlantic to the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream. Lots of pelagic bird species were expected including white-tailed tropicbirds. I got to see one on last years trip.

Bahama Mockingbird at Leffis Key. Photo by Dr Jose Padilla

 Today I am driving over to the East Coast, but first is a required stop near Longboat Key in Manatee County to locate a reported Bahama mockingbird. I arrived at Leffis Key around 2 pm and joined with three other groups of birders seeking both the vagrant mocker as well as a reported black-billed cuckoo. For an hour we searched without success for either bird. We did get a yellow-billed cuckoo and noted at least 60 Magnificent Frighatebirds soaring above. The mockingbird appears to have been an easy sighing for many observers including my friend Dr Padilla who photographed the bird early this morning.

Sunday May 18th.

Arrived dock-side at 2:30 am after a short rest in my hotel room. We have forty-three participants plus the trip leaders heading out today. But there is some bad news. The weather conditions, though were expected it to be nice, are actually a bit windy. The sky will be clear and the temperature somewhat comfortable. But the seas will be too rough to venture out past the Gulf Stream. This will effect the quality of the day's birding.

Heading out on time we slowly pass through the inlet, were the first bird of the day for me was Black-crowned Night-heron staking out a spot at the draw bridge. We soon enter the Atlantic and travel east for forty or fifty miles. Come dawn the search for pelagics starts.  But it is a slow start. A few unidentifiable phalaropes are spotted cruising low above the waves. And eventually the chum-line attracts a few birds. First to appear are a couple of Black-capped Petrels.   Then we see a steady show of Wilson's Storm-petrels. A band-tailed storm-petrel and an audubon's shearwater are seen, but not on our side of the boat.  We get to see a single Cory's Shearwater and a Lifer for me in a Sooty Shearwater. An Artic Tern and a Pomarine Jaeger put on a show circling the boat.

Pomarine Jaeger

We stayed out on the water till late afternoon before heading back to the dock. Our counts aren't very high. Dipped on tropicbirds and few other targets, but we did get a few very good birds. As we travel west toward shore a few Common Terns pass by.  We originally called them sooty terns, but photographs determined that they were actually common terns. Its kinda nice to have instant replay while birding. Later a pair of juvenile Northern Gannets pass behind the boat. Only other marine life we encountered was a loggerhead turtle or two and a few dolphins. As for fish, there was a claim of a sailfish following the chum-line, but I only really saw were the flying fish bouncing atop the waves.

As the sun was setting we reached the jetty at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, were our attention was on drawn to an Arctic Tern working the waters along the jetty. But a bigger surprise was that a Purple Sandpiper was spotted and seen by all of us. This bird is very late in returning north as was a common loon seen floating below one the bridges we passed as we neared the dock. We landed about eight-thirty and we all headed home. I returned to my hotel room for a good nights sleep

The tiny spec is a Wilson's Storm-petrel

Monday May 19th

Today was a travel day with options on were stop to done some more birding. I elected to head straight back to Leffis Key for the bahama mockingbird. Got there about one pm and again dipped on the bird. I do believe early morning is a much better time to arrive. I did get a Lifer in a pair of Blue-crowned Parakeets at nearby Ann Marie Island.

A Loggerhead Turtle

Next tried for the tropical kingbird at St Armand's Circle in Sarasota. I'll have to go back for that one too,

Next stop was at the Celery Fields. Best birds there would be the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and a Limpkin. Then home for some rest.

Trip List - (73)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Muscovy Duck, Mottled Duck, Mottled-Mallard hybrid,

Blue-crowned Parakeet on Anna Marie Island

Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-capped Petrel,  Cory's Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Magnificent Frigatebird, Northern Gannet, Anhinga, Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Swallow-tailed Kite, Snail Kite,  Bald eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Coot, Common Gallinule, Sandhill Crane, Limpkin, Killdeer, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Great Horned Owl, Pomarine Jaeger, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-dove, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Nanday Parakeet, Blue-crowned Parakeet, Loggerhead Shrike, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, House Sparrow

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Spring Migration is Winding Down

Wednesday May 7th

Black-bellied Plover molting into summer colors

We are the point were the spring migration is winding down. Many of our wintering shore birds are heading north to there breeding grounds are far north as the arctic. Our piping plovers, based on the banded birds we've seen, are heading back to the Midwestern states to breed along the Lake Michigan shoreline and along the Missouri River. Many of the shore birds still here are sported their breeding colors, which is a nice improvement over their drab winter molts

Dunlin at Bunch Beach

Sanderling in breeding splendor

Some shore birds are still passing through our area from, South America, on the way to breed. Such as an unexpected sighting of Upland Sandpipers. We don't usually encounter the species locally, but just yesterday Dr Padilla reported  resighting an uplands, first seen by Keith Laakkonen on Monday on Big Hickory Island near Lovers Key State Park in Bonita Beach. I twitched after it and dipped, but it was seen by several birders.

Upland Sandpiper - photo posted by Keith Laakkonen

Another migrant I dipped on were bobolinks.  For the past three years they could be found at Harns Marsh in Lehigh Acres on or about May 1st. This year I visited the marsh eight days in a row in search of the birds. But they were a total no-show. A few were seen earlier at Ding Darling on Sanibel Island.  Reports on ebird noted that the Celery Fields up in Sarasota was the place to seek them out this year. Just as my records showed May 1st as a good date, they also show that on or around September 30th they should be passing us on there way south to Argentina. Will have to try again later.

Scarlet Tanager seen at Six-Mile

A few neotropical migrants are still passing through. Found a Scarlet Tanager at Six-mile Cypress Preserve the other day. A couple of days ago I found a trio of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds frequenting the butterfly garden at Bowman Park on Ft Myers Beach along with a having a Yellow-billed Cuckoo pop-up.There is still time to find a few more migrants at our local hotspots.  But the action is definitely shifting to the north. 

Northern Rough-winged Swallows have arrived

Great Crested Flycatchers have become very numerous these days