2009 Tour Narrative
In Brief: South Florida is always a wonderful location to travel to in the spring. While the northern United States is still transitioning from winter to spring (and can still be quite cold and rainy), Florida is very tropical at this season, with temperatures in the 80s and a nice tropical breeze off the ocean. South Florida is known for a number of specialties that can not be seen elsewhere in the United States, and we saw virtually all of them. Add to that a very nice selection of migrants and water birds, and the week was quite enjoyable.
In Detail: We began the tour with a morning around Miami searching for exotics. We easily found a stunning pair of Spot-breasted Orioles, as well as a Red-whiskered Bulbul and Monk Parakeet. We then stopped in Pembroke Pines, where we had a wonderful close experience with a pair of Burrowing Owls. It was then off to Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge for close studies of a Snail Kite, great views of a Limpkin, a close Purple Gallinule, and other nice birds including Red-shouldered Hawk and Pileated Woodpecker.
The following morning was spent at Wakodahatchee, a wonderful wetland chock full of birds to look at and photograph. It was fun seeing at least eight Soras walking around out in the open, and we had very satisfying views of Least Bitterns. Purple Gallinules were quite evident, as usual, as were a number of egrets and herons. It’s always exciting to see birds nesting up close, this time including Anhingas with downy white young begging for food. Locally on the increase, a few Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were present. An amazing sight was the giant Florida Alligator that decided to switch ponds and walked across the one of the dikes: huge!
After a relaxing morning and lots of nice photos, we headed north, with our first stop at Jonathan Dickenson State Park and our first views of the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay. Then it was off to Three Lakes Wildlife Area, south of Orlando. As we approached the area through the pastures, we saw lots of Sandhill Cranes and had good views of Crested Caracara. Our goal for the afternoon was to find all of the “pine specialties,” particularly Red-cockaded Woodpecker. We’d allowed ourselves the entire afternoon and the following morning to find this sometimes difficult bird, but as we arrived, we found a female Red-cockaded dust-bathing in the middle of the road, 50 yards away! We eventually saw a total of three individuals, and also found all the other specialties we were searching for, including Brown-headed Nuthatch, the “white-eyed” Florida race of Eastern Towhee, Bachman’s Sparrow, Pine Warbler, and Eastern Bluebird. What a great afternoon!
On our way to the Corkscrew Swamp area, we spent the early morning at Brinson Park in Kissimmee, where we were delighted again by Snail Kite and Limpkin. Near Avon Park we searched unsuccessfully for Short-tailed Hawk (tough this time of year), but did see an amazing family group of Barred Owls: a very responsive adult flew right towards us, then we heard the begging calls of a young owl, and we spotted first one juvenile, then the other, perched right next to the road.
Continuing south toward Naples, we passed by the Archibald Biological Station where luck led us to a biologist who gave us a very informative presentation on the life history of Florida Scrub-Jay—while we watched a small nesting unit. Corkscrew itself was drier than usual, but the walk was lovely, and we saw some migrants, numerous Wood Storks, and more Pileated Woodpeckers.
Tiger Tail Beach is one of the last remaining natural sand spits in southwest Florida, and we spent the morning here searching the estuary and mudflats for shorebirds and waterbirds. Highlights included our first Reddish Egret, lots of Least Terns, a few distant Northern Gannets, and a nice variety of shorebirds that included Black-bellied Plovers, Wilson’s Plovers, lots of Short-billed Dowitchers and Dunlin, and a Whimbrel. It was fun watching a Peregrine swoop over with a shorebird in its feet: nature in action! After lunch we crossed the Tamiami Trail, checked into our hotel in Florida City, and spent the remaining part of the afternoon in Everglades National Park. Our highlights here were nice views of Roseate Spoonbill, numerous nesting Wood Storks nesting, and a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron at Flamingo, where we also saw an American Crocodile.
We spent two days working our way to Key West, seeing a number of the “Keys” specialties en route. We saw the local race of Yellow Warbler, sometimes referred to as Golden Warbler, as well as a nice roost of White-crowned Pigeons, a few Gray Kingbirds, Black-whiskered Vireo, and everyone’s favorite bird of the trip, a stunning Mangrove Cuckoo.
Key West was hopping with migrants, and we managed to see 14 species of warblers during our day there. The big highlight at Key West was a beautiful male Western Spindalis. Other interesting birds at Key West included a Louisiana Waterthrush, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a late female Painted Bunting, and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Our day trip to the Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson was one of the best parts of the tour. We saw the five main specialties: Brown Noddy, Sooty Tern, Masked and Brown Booby, and Magnificent Frigatebird—some of them in staggering numbers. Our best bird at Fort Jefferson was a Black Noddy. Migrants were scarce this year, but we still saw a nice variety of warblers coming in to the fountain.
Our last day was spent back at Key West. On our return trip to Miami, we stopped at Marathon, where we had a wonderful experience with Roseate Terns. Then it was on to Cutler Ridge for Cave Swallow, then cleaning up our views of Monk Parakeet. The last bird of the trip was a White-winged Parakeet near the Miami Airport. At our farewell dinner, we determined that the bird of the trip was Mangrove Cuckoo, followed closely by the very beautiful Roseate Terns we’d seen earlier in the day. This was a very successful Florida tour—made even better by such a fun group of participants.
- Gary Rosenberg
Updated: May 2009