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Florida trip!
Apr. 16th, 2023 11:53 pmI went to Florida to go birding and enjoyed myself a lot!
Birds I saw!! Oh my gosh so many. I am still tallying, because I came across a lot of shorebirds and by then was so hot and sweaty and tired I couldn't actually do the ID, and just snapped a picture to look at later. I saw 130+ species, though. So many birds! I give an approximate number because I'm still working through the photos I took with shorebirds I had trouble with (plus when I saw the black skimmers they were so far off I didn't even realize they were there till I looked at photos and zoomed in.)
*Trying to come up with highlights is hard. I saw roseate spoonbills! The first was at Shark Valley while on the tram. They are fabulously pink, with soft pink primaries and a deeper pink-red on the coverts, while the juveniles are just soft pink all over. But their heads are scaly and dinosaurian. I think they look like dinosaurs dressed up for a ball! Swallow tailed kites are so sleekly white-black-grey and their deeply forked tails help them maneuver so deftly in flight. I saw painted buntings several times and the males just burst with a rainbow of colour; the female buntings are greenish (instead of the usual brownish tone that females/juvenile buntings usually are). This might be easier if I talk about experiences instead of individual birds.
*I hired a guide for the first time. It was a pretty good experience and I think she under-charged me, considering how many hours we went. I met up with her and she did the driving (ALREADY WORTH IT) and of course she was a local so she knew the birds, but also knew where to go. We went into the Everglades, though not super deeply, and also drove around outside it, including a very productive few hours at the Miami General Aviation airport, which is tiny and therefore actually lets you inside. Lots of airports are great for birding - my local gets snowy owls and horned larks and rough-legged hawks and many other cool rare birds - but of course you cannot get anywhere near. People scope it from either the north or south side, across the water. No burrowing owls here but there was a smooth-billed and groove-billed ani who had taken up with each other - both of them rare for here - and you should look up these birds because they look like cartoon dinosaur birds. I finally saw shrikes - loggerhead shrikes. They love the airport and there were so many! The northern shrikes that are supposed to be where I live appear to be moving out and so sightings are rare and usually impossible for me to go to, so I've never seen one. They are the cutest raptorial songbirds with the fanciest little bandit masks, perched on wires and fences. She was excellent at raptors which are tough because they fly so quick, and good to hang out with too. It was an incredibly long day though. I think I did 15 checklists (unique locations) and some of them I skipped, if I'd done one every time we stopped I don't even want to think about how many I'd have.
*I also went to Shark Valley, which is an accessible point in the Everglades in Miami. The tram was informative and also had shade so it was nice to cruise through. So many alligators! Purple gallinules, which are glowingly beautiful! Baby alligators! Wading birds absolutely everywhere! Spoonbill!
*The day after I went to a Tropical Audubon walk, which was supposed to go from 8am to 4pm. It was really hot that day though, 30C+, and so it actually disbanded pretty early around 11am, though we did get to see some birds, including a ton of waxwings, which for some reason I haven't seen in ages. But the nice thing was that the group was pretty chatty and friendly and so when I proposed going to somewhere else after, a couple other people were like yeah let's go! We first went off to try to see a bald eagle nest - could hear them but not see them, but we did get a good look at a Cooper's hawk staring straight at us as it sat in the tree cover. We then went to Vista View Park, and saw so many excellent birds, despite it being the hottest part of the day (and in my past days' experience, usually a dead zone). Burrowing owls just sitting on posts, looking around (they are so cute). Savannah sparrows let us get good looks at them, one poor bird was standing in the shade like I wanted to. At the top of the hill there were some trees so we stood under the shade as we looked at cattle egrets and then a northern harrier flashed in and started hunting along the hillside below us. They are so big and yet maneuverable. They hunt in marshes and listen for prey, so they fly low and you could really appreciate the beauty of the plumage and how instinctively it understood the wind and could change directions as easily as thinking.
*I then did a day where I started out from Homestead (where the big entrance to the Everglades is) and drove all the way to Flamingo, FL, which goes to the southern tip of the Everglades and indeed the mainland of Florida itself. I of course couldn't make it in one shot, despite it being a mere 30 miles - I pulled over almost immediately after entering the park to photograph the mist coming off the marsh as the sun came up. I stopped at Nine Mile Pond and there in the sparse grass by the pond's edge was a Louisiana waterthrush. I've seen northern waterthrushes, their close cousins, about eight or nine times, but never a Louisiana, and here it was just picking its silent way along the shoreline. They bob their tails continuously as they go, like they can't help it. They are so tiny (smaller than a sparrow) and so cute. White-crowned pigeon as I finally stood up and went to my car. I did eventually make it to Flamingo, and on the sea shore I ran into a bunch of shorebirds that let me get unbelievably close. I actually have nice photos of them, instead of just "I cropped hugely and can tell what species it is but it's a foul picture". And then in the little walk down the trail, I finally saw a Cape May warbler! I was actually looking at a white-eyed vireo - heard plenty, but they're hard to see as they like dense vegetation - when it flew through my field of view. And it was a male in breeding plumage too, so unmistakable with that orange cheek patch. It's a bird I should be able to see at home, but haven't managed, and they're so beautiful and brightly coloured. Even got some photos!
I started driving back, but stopped at Eco Pond, ate a bit. There was shade on a bench with a view of the pond which was lovely. Lots of wading birds, and I got to see more spoonbills. I pished a bit and one of the prairie warblers I had heard singing came to investigate. They're so bright yellow and tiny - all the warblers are tiny - and I got one photo before he decided he was done. Then I walked down the incredibly boring trail at Snake Bight, which is dead straight and graded smooth, but there were some shorebirds at the end and I had a nice conversation with a couple that were biking around the Everglades. And there were brown thrashers on the way back as well as palms and common yellowthroats!
*On the day I drove to Naples I figured I was passing through Miami anyway so I took the chance and went to a place that had reported a few rare bird sightings and a bunch of exotic parrots as well. When I arrived it was absolutely pouring rain, so hard that when I cracked open the door I started getting soaked. I hung out in my car for a bit but I eventually needed the bathroom so I drove off to the most expensive smoothie place I have ever been in (yikes). Anyway the rain fortunately did not go all day, stopping about three hours or so later, and I went back and saw parakeets and macaws. I think they are all escapees that have breeding there, so there's full on chestnut-fronted macaws and mitred parakeets and other South American parrots. Two other birders were there, a father and son duo, and were trying to see the red-legged honeycreeper. Oh man. I would never have seen it on my own. But with other birders looking, we finally did - both because there were more eyes, and sharper eyes, but also just the psychological effect of having other people to help. I'd probably have given up after 30 mins but we hung on for an hour and finally did spot it. It's a female honeycreeper, so very camouflaged, and it is very small and does not forage actively, so it's really, really hard to spot. And it was a bit windy too so looking for movement wasn't very effective.
*Corkscrew Swamp Audubon!! Oh my god. Naples side is way less humid than the Miami side so worth it for that alone, but this sanctuary is insane. It preserves old growth bald cypress, among other habitats, and has a huge 2mile boardwalk. And the birding. It was like being in a zoo, to see so many wild birds all over. It had been quite dry so the water had all shrunk down to a few ponds, and here the wading birds congregated, as well as the alligators and everyone else that needs water - everyone, basically. And they congregated right next to the boardwalk. I could have touched a northern parula that sang next to me in the tree, it was so close. The first day I went I stayed for 4 hours and saw 40 species. Every wading heron/egret that lives in Florida was there (OK except reddish egret which I never did see). Closeup and prolonged views of an American bittern, who are invisible in reeds usually. Barred owl literally roosting on the ground - the volunteers think it just fledged. Brown headed nuthatches that sound like tiny squeaky toys. I really regret I didn't get the timing right to go to a night-time walk or indeed any of the programming, which was all sold out or had skipped the week I was there. Entry is very tightly controlled, you have to buy a ticket, earliest admission is 8am, last is 1pm, and access to the boardwalk is through a building. But it was amazing. I actually came back again the last day to do it again.
*Met up with a friend in Sarasota (from discord) to bird! Which was also great, I had such a good time. Got to hang out and point at birds excitedly! Friend is great at humorously anthropomorphizing birds, so we traded excitable comments, we looked at insects and found a gigantic shed snake skin, and we did get to see Florida scrub jays, which was a victory. And purple martins! In the middle we went to lunch and honestly it was needed. It was so much food but also in AC. I tend to overdo things and just try to muscle through lunch or whatever, but it's not a good strategy here because it's so hot in the midday that not only am I physically miserable but also the birds are quiet when it's very hot.
Things I would do differently!
*From a birding perspective I don't think the 2 days I spent in the Florida Keys was really worth it. I drove all the way down to Key West, just to see what it was like. Answer: the area where I passed over the ocean, or along state parks, was beautiful. The water is turquoise and the greenery is gorgeous. There are nice beaches. But in the actual keys (islands), it's all built up and it's all strip mall style building along Highway 1. No I don't want to go to the Sandal Factory! And perhaps I just picked bad places/bad times, but I didn't have a ton of luck birding. I arrived at Ft Zachary at the worst possible time - mid-afternoon - and it was blistering and full of people, besides; I did Bahia Honda similarly later in the day. I tried for a Swainson's warbler (rare) at the Botanical Garden in Key West early in the morning, but couldn't get in till 8am, whereas sunrise is 7:15; it wasn't super successful either. 7 Mile Bridge, which I did hit at sunrise, not much luck. It's logistically complicated because if you stay on the mainland you have to drive some distance, so you either arrive later or else have to start much earlier, like 4am to catch sunrise in Ft Zachary, or have to stay midway (which I also did, I couldn't face that much driving). Plus, Highway 1 is one lane in either direction for major stretches. The night before and morning I drove down, I checked the trip length and it told me 7 hours, instead of 2 and change; presumably there had been a pretty bad accident.
( more things I should have done differently )
Birds I saw!! Oh my gosh so many. I am still tallying, because I came across a lot of shorebirds and by then was so hot and sweaty and tired I couldn't actually do the ID, and just snapped a picture to look at later. I saw 130+ species, though. So many birds! I give an approximate number because I'm still working through the photos I took with shorebirds I had trouble with (plus when I saw the black skimmers they were so far off I didn't even realize they were there till I looked at photos and zoomed in.)
*Trying to come up with highlights is hard. I saw roseate spoonbills! The first was at Shark Valley while on the tram. They are fabulously pink, with soft pink primaries and a deeper pink-red on the coverts, while the juveniles are just soft pink all over. But their heads are scaly and dinosaurian. I think they look like dinosaurs dressed up for a ball! Swallow tailed kites are so sleekly white-black-grey and their deeply forked tails help them maneuver so deftly in flight. I saw painted buntings several times and the males just burst with a rainbow of colour; the female buntings are greenish (instead of the usual brownish tone that females/juvenile buntings usually are). This might be easier if I talk about experiences instead of individual birds.
*I hired a guide for the first time. It was a pretty good experience and I think she under-charged me, considering how many hours we went. I met up with her and she did the driving (ALREADY WORTH IT) and of course she was a local so she knew the birds, but also knew where to go. We went into the Everglades, though not super deeply, and also drove around outside it, including a very productive few hours at the Miami General Aviation airport, which is tiny and therefore actually lets you inside. Lots of airports are great for birding - my local gets snowy owls and horned larks and rough-legged hawks and many other cool rare birds - but of course you cannot get anywhere near. People scope it from either the north or south side, across the water. No burrowing owls here but there was a smooth-billed and groove-billed ani who had taken up with each other - both of them rare for here - and you should look up these birds because they look like cartoon dinosaur birds. I finally saw shrikes - loggerhead shrikes. They love the airport and there were so many! The northern shrikes that are supposed to be where I live appear to be moving out and so sightings are rare and usually impossible for me to go to, so I've never seen one. They are the cutest raptorial songbirds with the fanciest little bandit masks, perched on wires and fences. She was excellent at raptors which are tough because they fly so quick, and good to hang out with too. It was an incredibly long day though. I think I did 15 checklists (unique locations) and some of them I skipped, if I'd done one every time we stopped I don't even want to think about how many I'd have.
*I also went to Shark Valley, which is an accessible point in the Everglades in Miami. The tram was informative and also had shade so it was nice to cruise through. So many alligators! Purple gallinules, which are glowingly beautiful! Baby alligators! Wading birds absolutely everywhere! Spoonbill!
*The day after I went to a Tropical Audubon walk, which was supposed to go from 8am to 4pm. It was really hot that day though, 30C+, and so it actually disbanded pretty early around 11am, though we did get to see some birds, including a ton of waxwings, which for some reason I haven't seen in ages. But the nice thing was that the group was pretty chatty and friendly and so when I proposed going to somewhere else after, a couple other people were like yeah let's go! We first went off to try to see a bald eagle nest - could hear them but not see them, but we did get a good look at a Cooper's hawk staring straight at us as it sat in the tree cover. We then went to Vista View Park, and saw so many excellent birds, despite it being the hottest part of the day (and in my past days' experience, usually a dead zone). Burrowing owls just sitting on posts, looking around (they are so cute). Savannah sparrows let us get good looks at them, one poor bird was standing in the shade like I wanted to. At the top of the hill there were some trees so we stood under the shade as we looked at cattle egrets and then a northern harrier flashed in and started hunting along the hillside below us. They are so big and yet maneuverable. They hunt in marshes and listen for prey, so they fly low and you could really appreciate the beauty of the plumage and how instinctively it understood the wind and could change directions as easily as thinking.
*I then did a day where I started out from Homestead (where the big entrance to the Everglades is) and drove all the way to Flamingo, FL, which goes to the southern tip of the Everglades and indeed the mainland of Florida itself. I of course couldn't make it in one shot, despite it being a mere 30 miles - I pulled over almost immediately after entering the park to photograph the mist coming off the marsh as the sun came up. I stopped at Nine Mile Pond and there in the sparse grass by the pond's edge was a Louisiana waterthrush. I've seen northern waterthrushes, their close cousins, about eight or nine times, but never a Louisiana, and here it was just picking its silent way along the shoreline. They bob their tails continuously as they go, like they can't help it. They are so tiny (smaller than a sparrow) and so cute. White-crowned pigeon as I finally stood up and went to my car. I did eventually make it to Flamingo, and on the sea shore I ran into a bunch of shorebirds that let me get unbelievably close. I actually have nice photos of them, instead of just "I cropped hugely and can tell what species it is but it's a foul picture". And then in the little walk down the trail, I finally saw a Cape May warbler! I was actually looking at a white-eyed vireo - heard plenty, but they're hard to see as they like dense vegetation - when it flew through my field of view. And it was a male in breeding plumage too, so unmistakable with that orange cheek patch. It's a bird I should be able to see at home, but haven't managed, and they're so beautiful and brightly coloured. Even got some photos!
I started driving back, but stopped at Eco Pond, ate a bit. There was shade on a bench with a view of the pond which was lovely. Lots of wading birds, and I got to see more spoonbills. I pished a bit and one of the prairie warblers I had heard singing came to investigate. They're so bright yellow and tiny - all the warblers are tiny - and I got one photo before he decided he was done. Then I walked down the incredibly boring trail at Snake Bight, which is dead straight and graded smooth, but there were some shorebirds at the end and I had a nice conversation with a couple that were biking around the Everglades. And there were brown thrashers on the way back as well as palms and common yellowthroats!
*On the day I drove to Naples I figured I was passing through Miami anyway so I took the chance and went to a place that had reported a few rare bird sightings and a bunch of exotic parrots as well. When I arrived it was absolutely pouring rain, so hard that when I cracked open the door I started getting soaked. I hung out in my car for a bit but I eventually needed the bathroom so I drove off to the most expensive smoothie place I have ever been in (yikes). Anyway the rain fortunately did not go all day, stopping about three hours or so later, and I went back and saw parakeets and macaws. I think they are all escapees that have breeding there, so there's full on chestnut-fronted macaws and mitred parakeets and other South American parrots. Two other birders were there, a father and son duo, and were trying to see the red-legged honeycreeper. Oh man. I would never have seen it on my own. But with other birders looking, we finally did - both because there were more eyes, and sharper eyes, but also just the psychological effect of having other people to help. I'd probably have given up after 30 mins but we hung on for an hour and finally did spot it. It's a female honeycreeper, so very camouflaged, and it is very small and does not forage actively, so it's really, really hard to spot. And it was a bit windy too so looking for movement wasn't very effective.
*Corkscrew Swamp Audubon!! Oh my god. Naples side is way less humid than the Miami side so worth it for that alone, but this sanctuary is insane. It preserves old growth bald cypress, among other habitats, and has a huge 2mile boardwalk. And the birding. It was like being in a zoo, to see so many wild birds all over. It had been quite dry so the water had all shrunk down to a few ponds, and here the wading birds congregated, as well as the alligators and everyone else that needs water - everyone, basically. And they congregated right next to the boardwalk. I could have touched a northern parula that sang next to me in the tree, it was so close. The first day I went I stayed for 4 hours and saw 40 species. Every wading heron/egret that lives in Florida was there (OK except reddish egret which I never did see). Closeup and prolonged views of an American bittern, who are invisible in reeds usually. Barred owl literally roosting on the ground - the volunteers think it just fledged. Brown headed nuthatches that sound like tiny squeaky toys. I really regret I didn't get the timing right to go to a night-time walk or indeed any of the programming, which was all sold out or had skipped the week I was there. Entry is very tightly controlled, you have to buy a ticket, earliest admission is 8am, last is 1pm, and access to the boardwalk is through a building. But it was amazing. I actually came back again the last day to do it again.
*Met up with a friend in Sarasota (from discord) to bird! Which was also great, I had such a good time. Got to hang out and point at birds excitedly! Friend is great at humorously anthropomorphizing birds, so we traded excitable comments, we looked at insects and found a gigantic shed snake skin, and we did get to see Florida scrub jays, which was a victory. And purple martins! In the middle we went to lunch and honestly it was needed. It was so much food but also in AC. I tend to overdo things and just try to muscle through lunch or whatever, but it's not a good strategy here because it's so hot in the midday that not only am I physically miserable but also the birds are quiet when it's very hot.
Things I would do differently!
*From a birding perspective I don't think the 2 days I spent in the Florida Keys was really worth it. I drove all the way down to Key West, just to see what it was like. Answer: the area where I passed over the ocean, or along state parks, was beautiful. The water is turquoise and the greenery is gorgeous. There are nice beaches. But in the actual keys (islands), it's all built up and it's all strip mall style building along Highway 1. No I don't want to go to the Sandal Factory! And perhaps I just picked bad places/bad times, but I didn't have a ton of luck birding. I arrived at Ft Zachary at the worst possible time - mid-afternoon - and it was blistering and full of people, besides; I did Bahia Honda similarly later in the day. I tried for a Swainson's warbler (rare) at the Botanical Garden in Key West early in the morning, but couldn't get in till 8am, whereas sunrise is 7:15; it wasn't super successful either. 7 Mile Bridge, which I did hit at sunrise, not much luck. It's logistically complicated because if you stay on the mainland you have to drive some distance, so you either arrive later or else have to start much earlier, like 4am to catch sunrise in Ft Zachary, or have to stay midway (which I also did, I couldn't face that much driving). Plus, Highway 1 is one lane in either direction for major stretches. The night before and morning I drove down, I checked the trip length and it told me 7 hours, instead of 2 and change; presumably there had been a pretty bad accident.
( more things I should have done differently )
