2005 Tour Narrative
Weather played a major role in our South Florida in Winter: Birds & Butterflies tour this year, with cool temperatures and occasional rain early in the week keeping butterfly numbers down. We found, however, a respectable 35 species of butterflies, including many prized South Florida specialties. We also had an excellent diversity of birds including virtually everything we hoped to see plus a surprise or two. One noteworthy ornithological event was the presence of many facultative migrants such as Killdeer, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Yellow-rumped Warbler and American Goldfinch. These species all moved farther south than usual due to cold weather up north.
We began at Wakodahatchee Wetlands Preserve, a water recycling facility where birds are amazingly tame. What better way to begin the tour than with scope-filling views of such birds as Pied-billed Grebe, Anhinga, Mottled Duck, Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, Purple Gallinule and Sora, not to mention Florida Softshell. A little searching at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge was rewarded by close views of our only Limpkins of the tour as well as our first butterflies, Zebra and Gulf Fritillary, braving the cold air. The long drive to Sebring was broken by stops for Snail Kite, Crested Caracara and Sandhill Crane, and supremely rewarded in the evening by some of the finest bread pudding any of us have ever tasted!
Our morning in the pine flatwoods at Avon Park was plagued by chilly temperatures and rain squalls but we found exactly what we hoped to find: Common Ground-Dove, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Florida Scrub-Jay, Pine and “Eastern” Palm Warblers, and Lincoln’s and Grasshopper Sparrows. Some of the more memorable sights of the tour were the roughly 50,000 Tree Swallows swarming over fields north of La Belle and the wonderful solitude of a stroll through giant bald cypress at Corkscrew Swamp.
Day three began at Marco Island’s Tigertail Beach, one of the finest and most underrated shorebird sites on the East Coast. Here we had wonderful comparisons of Piping, Snowy, Semipalmated and Wilson’s Plovers along with a fine diversity of other shorebirds and a surprise fly-by Cave Swallow. The latter was probably of Mexican origin, a population that has been expanding rapidly and wandering widely in recent years. Nearby, we left our footstool as a new perch for a lonely-looking Burrowing Owl. The remainder of the day was highlighted by our first good butterflying along Jane’s Scenic Drive, our first Short-tailed Hawk at a rest stop, a quiet visit to Sweetwater Strand (broken only by the echoing hoots of a Barred Owl), a visit with the Snail Kites at Shark River Slough, and Eric’s fine catch at dinner.
Our two days at Everglades National Park hardly seemed like enough to enjoy this rich, pristine area. We began outside the park at “Lucky Hammock” which lived up to it’s name by offering fine views of three Painted Buntings and a nice selection of other passerines. An American Bittern was just one of the many birds that allowed prolonged scope views at Anhinga Trail while the warbler flock along Gumbo Limbo Trail produced fine views of Black-and-white, Black-throated Green, Worm-eating and Ovenbird. When we arrived at Flamingo we finally had a dose of good South Florida butterflying. Highlights there, among hundreds of Great Southern Whites, included Silver-banded Hairstreak, Eastern Pygmy-Blue, Mangrove Buckeye and Mangrove Skipper. A scan of Florida Bay from behind the lodge yielded an impressive abundance of herons, terns and skimmers and a beautiful sunset over Eco Pond was enlivened by several Roseate Spoonbills and a dozen Lesser Nighthawks. Perhaps the single highlight of the Everglades experience was our early morning walk down Snake Bight Trail. Even with chilly temperatures slowing them down, mosquitoes kept us moving along the two-mile trail. To our delight, our trek was rewarded by a flock of 40 Greater Flamingos, distant but clearly identifiable by their improbable silhouettes as they walked with awkward gaits and flew in a tight line from one spot to the next.
Day six was a fine day spent in the Florida Keys. We began at Windley Key where the White-crowned Pigeons were perched obligingly in the treetops and the hammock trail helped us sort out tree identification. We then made a brief stop at Long Key State Park on the off chance that the female Western Spindalis reported nearly three weeks earlier would decide to make a reappearance. Indeed it did, and we enjoyed leisurely views as she feed voraciously on pigeon plumb, seemingly oblivious to us. With our spirits high, we moved on to Bahia Honda and turned to butterflies. We quickly found our primary target, the very rare Miami Blue, a species on the verge of extirpation in Florida. This population seems to be doing well, however, and we were heartened to find five individuals. Other highlights at Bahia Honda included Ceraunus Blue, Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak and Magnificent Frigatebird. As we headed north, we found our only Great White Heron and had nice looks at perched and soaring Broad-winged Hawks. Our last stop of the day was at Settler’s County Park where we were pleased to find our only Hammock Skipper, despite it being well past prime butterfly time.
On our last day we enjoyed the nicest weather of the tour. We began in the lush gardens of suburban Kendall where we had good luck with most exotics including one incredible corner where we saw Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Hill Myna and Spot-breasted Oriole. Then we had a lovely stroll around the grounds at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Highlights there included Florida White, Atala, Ruddy Daggerwing, Baracoa Skipper, more Cave Swallows and three stunning Blue-and-yellow Macaws. We ended the day with two targeted “bird chases”, neither successful but both entertaining. First, we visited Perimeter Road by Fort Lauderdale airport to look for the Smooth-billed Anis that had been reported there. We also looked for a Bananaquit which had been seen recently in the courtyard of a Fort Lauderdale hotel. Despite a thorough search of the area we failed to locate the Bananaquit but did see a beautiful male Cape May Warbler, our best view of Yellow-throated Warbler, and a small colony of House Finches, a rare species in southern Florida.
Michael O’Brien