Graham's Birding Blog: Florida 6

So, after spending some time in Marco Island, Florida and then Santa Cruz, California, both for conferences, I managed to get a four days birding in Florida. My plan was to head down to the Keys to see a couple of vagrant Caribbean birds and then stay flexible as to where I went. On the whole it was a bit disappointing with me seeing only one of four potential new birds I tried for.

Day one (6 Mar) found me heading down to Long Key State Park to try and see Key West Quail-Dove. The park didn't open until 8am, so I birded the very north edge of the park, along Long Key Lake Drive. The sun-lit bushes and trees were really good for migrant warblers with Cape May, Palm, Black-throated Blue, Black-and-White, Northern Parula and Olive-crowned all showing well.
I headed into the state park at 8am, but despite searching for 4 hours I failed to see the Quail-Dove, so I headed south along the keys to the camp-site at Bahia Honda State Park for a Black-faced Grassquit that had been seen for the past week or so. Unfortunately, some idiot had put seed down in the Grassquit's favourite (and only know) feeding site. This had attracted a load of larger birds like Red-winged Blackbirds, Collared Doves, Catbirds, etc, which obviously had put the grassquit off visiting the area. The bird wasn't seen that day or any subsequent day. Shame the enjoyment of all the birders present was spoilt by the actions of one clueless idiot who obviously knows nothing about birds.
There were still quite a few birds around the campsite such as Great Crested Flycatcher and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. I spent the rest of the afternoon back at Long Key State park looking for the Quail-Dove, but to no avail, despite claims of sightings whilst I was there. I did have a lovely surprise whilst driving back to my hotel in the way of an American Flamingo which flew high across the highway on the west side of Fat Deer Key. Although I pulled over to see if it had landed offshore, there was no sign of it.

Grey Catbird, Bahia Honda State Park

Great Crested Flycatcher, Bahia Honda State Park

Black-throated Blue Warbler, Long Key State Park

Brown Anole, Long Key State Park

Day two (7 Mar) found me back at Long Key State Park and this time I had better luck! The bird was found by Angel and Mariel of Nature is Awesome Tours (who I'd met the day before and were really helpful and who I'd definitely recommend as guides if you need one) next to the path and although I didn't see the bird with them, it returned to the same spot 30 minutes later and both myself and all other assembled birders managed to get really good views of the bird.

Key West Quail-Dove, Long Key State Park

I spent the rest of the day birding various sites along the keys as far south as Big Pine Key. Here is a list of sites that I visited along with the key birds at each site:
Long Key State Park - Key West Quail-Dove, Common Ground-Dove, White-crowned Pigeon, Prairie Warbler.

Lake Edna - The only freshwater area on the keys and the only place that had any notable numbers of shorebirds. Northern Waterthrush, Pied-billed Grebe, Black-necked Stilt (10), American Coot, Black-bellied Plover (10), Short-billed Dowitcher (200), Greater Yellowlegs (1), Lesser Yellowlegs (4), Least Sandpiper (10) Semi-p Plover (45), Bald Eagle and Northern Harrier.

Big Pine Key - Birded the shoreline south of Long Beach Drive. It was pretty quiet and Ovenbird was the only migrant I saw, but the shore was good for waterbirds such as Red-breasted Merganser and Magnificant Frigatebird.

Reddish Egret, Lake Edna, Grass Key

Magnificent Frigatebird, Big Pine Key

Red-breasted Mergansers, Big Pine Key

Day three (8 Mar) found me in the Everglades. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of migrants on the keys, so I thought I'd focus my efforts elsewhere. I arrived at the Flamingo campground at dawn and headed out into the open area just north of the Coastal Prairie Trail, supposedly a good place for both Nelson's and Saltmarsh Sparrow. Although I spent about three hours searching the best area, I couldn't find any Nelson's Sparrows, although I did flush a couple of Saltmarsh Sparrows on my way back to the trail. There were quite a few nice birds out in the open area including Common Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrow, Northern Harrier, Swallow-tailed Kite and Eastern Meadowlark.

Saltmarsh Sparrow, Everglades

My next stop was a walk around Eco Pond. This was very good for herons and egrets with lots of Roseate Spoonbills, Snowy and Great White Egrets, Little Blue Heron, Tricoloured Herons and Great Blue Heron, plus Black-necked Stilts,
In the bushes around the pond were White-eyed Vireo, Black-and-White Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Great Crested Flycatcher, Painted Bunting, Common Ground-Dove plus some really nice butterflies.

Julia butterfly, Eco Pond

Gulf Fritillary, Eco Pond

Roseate Spoonbill, Eco Pond

Little Blue Heron, Eco Pond

Common Ground-Dove, Eco Pond

Swallow-tailed Kite, Eco Pond

My next stop was the Flamingo Visitors Centre. By now the rain had become quite constant, but the visitors centre provides good covered viewz over some tidal mudflats and the tide was just starting to drop. The best bird on the mudflats was and adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, but there were plenty of other birds to see there too. Caspian and Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Willets, Least Sandpipers, both pelicans, plus plenty of other common species. An American Alligator swimming around the dock provided lots of interest from all present. Lots of Turkey Vultures and Ospreys also gave good views as they attempted to dry off in between rain showers.

White Pelican, Flamingo Visitors Centre

Turkey Vulture, Flamingo Visitors Centre

Osprey, Flamingo Visitors Centre

American Alligator, Flamingo Visitors Centre

As the weather was starting to deteriorate, I started my journey back to Miami early afternoon, stopping at Mrazek Pond and Paurotis Pond. Mrazek Pond was pretty quiet, but Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals were both present. Paurotis Pond was a bit more lively with lots of Wood Storks and Anhinga, plus a few migrant birds around the edges and a nice flock of about 10 White-crowned Pigeons in the area. Night Heron and Crested Caracara were two nice roadside birds on the way out of the park.

Great Blue Heron in rain shower, Mrazek Pond.

Pair of Blue-winged Teal, Mrazek Pond

Female Green-winged Teal, Mrazek Pond

Wing-tagged Black Vulture, Paurotis Pond

White-crowned Pigeon, Paurotis Pond

Northern Mockingbird, Paurotis Pond

Day 4 (9 Mar). I stopped overnight in Miami and intended to look for migrants and then gulls at a few places in the north of the city. Unfortunately, I found very little of either. I started off at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park and then headed up to Pompona Landfill. The landfill had very few gulls around it (about 100) and most of those just seem to spend all their time circling really high in the air. Taylor Birch State Park had a couple of birds. Nanday Parakeet and Eastern Phoebe were new for the trip. My last visit of the day, before I headed back to the airport for my flight home was to Pembroke Pines to look for Purple Swamphen. Although there was no sign of the swamphens the Southwest Regional Library Wetlands (park in the big car park on the east side of the 'Academic Village') was quite good with Purple Gallinule, Glossy Ibis, Green Heron and alligator. The nearby Silver Park Lakes North had White-winged Dove and a very obliging Limpkin finished the trip off nicely!