Spring Break '12 - Florida Keys

Wow. That's about all I can say. If you've never been to the Keys, GO! It's beautiful and surrounded by everything you could want in a vacation spot. Needless to say, most of my interests had to do with finding lifers. It was a tough week on that front, though. I put in a lot of time searching but only got 6 and 4 were on the Dry Tortugas boat trip. Not my best total, but still got to see lots of great birds.

Day 1: Upon leaving the airport, Michelle and I headed out to look for Red-whiskered Bulbul and Spot-breasted Oriole. Drove to a couple of well-publicized spots but came up empty. Did see some Mitred Parakeets, though.

Day 2:
  Today was snail kite day. I drove to Shark Valley on Rt. 41 and got to the Indian Restaurant roost site at 7am. Unfortunately I never saw the kites there. I think I was too far east. I did hear my lifer Chuck-Will's-Widow calling right next to me, though. As the sun came up bird activity increased. I had these guys in the parking lot.

                                      Purple Gallinule

                                            Black Vulture

As the park opened, I sought the wisdom of one of the park rangers who told me that my best chance of seeing a kite was to walk the levee and look into the miles of sawgrass. So this I did. After about 15 minutes I saw this lovely female:

                                          Lifer SNAIL KITE!

Day 3:
Michelle and I took a day trip to the Everglades today. Unfortunately we got rained on a bit and the deer flies were so bad that we didn't do much trail walking but we still saw some good birds:

                                       Lifer Swallow-tailed Kite

                                  Common Gallinule

                                       Black-necked Stilt

                                         Roseate Spoonbill
Day 4:
  Today my goal was to find a White-crowned Pigeon in Key Largo. I went to the Botanical Garden, which is supposed to be a great spot for them. Unfortunately there were 15-20mph winds so birds were staying low. Consequently I saw nothing......except lots of Northern Cardinals.

Day 5:
Today was our trip by boat to Dry Tortugas National Park. It's a series of keys with lots of birds. One of the top 5 birding destinations in the country. And once again it rained on us. This time for a significant period of time, say 2 hrs. So birding/snorkeling time was severely diminished. I did get 4 lifers out of the trip, though:
1. Masked Booby- Hospital Key
2. Sooty Tern
3. Brown Noddy
4. Magnificent frigatebird

Also saw some other cool birds:
1. Cave Swallow
2. Worm-eating warbler
3. Hooded Warbler
4. Black-and-White Warbler
5. Am. Kestrel

                                                  Brown Noddy

                                    Sooty Terns

                                  Magnificent Frigatebird

Day 6:
Our last day in the Keys I spent looking for shorebirds, which I found, and a Wilson's Plover, which I did NOT find. Had the following shorebirds:

6 Black-bellied Plovers
12 Western Sandpipers
7 Willets
4 Semipalmated Sandpipers
8 Ruddy Turnstones
6 Semipalmated Plovers
15 Least Sandpipers
16 Short-billed Dowitchers

     It truly was a little slice of heaven. Can't wait to get back and get those birds I missed :)!