Florida Highlights from Rich Hoyer
The first of our two Florida tours this spring was full of memorable sightings and showed how much Florida has to offer the birdwatcher and naturalist. From resident southeastern specialties like Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the state's endemic Florida Scrub-Jay, to abundant migrants such as Cape May Warbler returning from their winter haunts in the Caribbean, to the real south Florida specialties like Black-whiskered Vireo and Mangrove Cuckoo, we really packed in the sightings in our six days of birding. We also searched for and found many of the established exotics, such as Mitred Parakeet and Spot-breasted Oriole, and took advantage of rare bird alerts and a network of observers to see an exciting Bahama Mockingbird. But the overall highlight of the tour was the day trip to the Dry Tortugas National Park, a world unto itself. The teeming Sooty Tern and Brown Noddy breeding colony was a spectacle, we managed to find a few scarce Bridled Terns, and the bird of the trip was a mega-rare Cuban Pewee that was there for its ninth day, one of the most confiding birds of the whole tour. The American Alligator, West Indian Manatee, dragonflies, and butterflies, and other critters rounded out a fantastic natural history experience.
