Just a scant 9 days after my return from the trip to Texas and New Mexico, which are covered in my last two blog posts, I made a trip to Florida for birding. This was a trip that I planned with Rob Bowker, another talented birder in the Phoenix area. Both of us needed to visit that state to snag some new life birds and planning the trip together helps to defray some costs, plus it is great to share navigation duties and share information on where to go and what to search for. It also never hurts to have an additional set of eyes when birding. We focused on the southern areas of Florida since we only had 8 days planed. Our target lists were very similar, but with a few differences. As our departure date drew near, we started getting reports of some Caribbean rarities that started showing up in southern Florida. Of course one wants to focus on those rarities because they are not always seen in the US every year and you need to get them when you have a chance.
Some of the Caribbean species that were on our radar as being reported prior to our visit was Key West Quail-Dove, Bahama Mockingbird, La Sagra's Flycatcher, and Western Spindalis. The Key West Quail Dove was being seen at a location that was less than 5 miles from the Ft Lauderdale Airport and also our motel for that night. As soon as we got our rental car, we headed to the location where we met a good friend of mine, Jeff Kietzmann, who happens to live in southern Florida. Jeff has been birding with me a couple of times in Arizona and it was great to have him assist us. He knew exactly where what trail to get on. When we arrived, other birders were there and they informed us that the bird had been seen about 20 minutes to our arrival. It took about an hour and a half for someone to refind the bird and we all got in on the action. This bird probably bred and nested in the Key West area in the 1800's, but no longer. In fact it is only a rare visitor to Florida now and it walks quietly on the ground in dense cover and is usually difficult to see. Photos were tough to get, but just seeing the bird was spectacular. I have seen this bird listed in the many field guides all my life and was intrigued by its name and its markings and colors. Chunky like a quail, but with dove features, with a bold white facial stripe and iridescent green and purple in its plumage, it is so unlike all the other doves found in the United States.
Key West Quail-Dove
Our next chase was going to be the Bahama Mockingbird, which was north of where we were staying and we headed there early the next morning. This bird was first discovered about 3 days before we arrived in Florida and at least stuck around until after we got to see it. We arrived at the location and was the first vehicle to arrive and as soon as we opened the doors, we heard this bird singing. It was right in the parking lot about 20 yards from where we parked. So this was about the easiest rarity to chase. Very similar in appearance to our much more common Northern Mockingbird, it is still a rarity in Florida and much more widely distributed in the Bahamas and many other Caribbean Islands.
Bahama Mockingbird
The La Sagra's Flycatcher was not on our radar when we arrived in Florida, but it was discovered about 2 days before our departure back to Arizona, so we made a trip to its location. We arrived early in the morning and ran into a handful of birders that had seen it about 15 minutes prior to our arrival. We met up with a handful of other birders that were there, still looking for it as well and we split up looking for it, but not before we exchanged cell phone numbers to communicate if someone discovered it. One of those people was Edge Wade and she was the person to eventually find it and quickly got all of us notified where she was and we all were able to see it and add it to our life bird lists. This bird, like the Bahama Mockingbird, are not the most colorful birds, but for listers, they are most desirable to add to a life list, especially since we are reporting them in the United States.
La Sagra's Flycatcher
One of the bonuses we had was finding a Spot-breasted Oriole at the same location as the La Sagra's Flycatcher. This bird is an introduced species in Florida from the late 1940's, and both of us had this bird on our target list. Its normal range is southwestern Mexico and Central America. It was was established in the Miami and West Palm Beach area, but recently its numbers have fallen a bit. Nevertheless, it has been accepted as an ABA countable species for many years.
Spot-breasted Oriole
The only rarity that we dipped on was the Western Spindalis. But that was not for the lack of trying; we visited the spot twice without luck. Three out of four is still a pretty good percentage for those rarities that are not normally found in Florida.
Those rarity targets were great, but I had several other life birds that I was also looking for and many of them were regular Florida resident birds. My next two blog posts will cover many of the additional life birds, including a special trip to the Dry Tortugas! The rest of this blog post will highlight some of the many other fauna that I got to see. This includes insects and reptiles.
Phaon Crescent - New to me.
Fiery Skipper
Horace's Duskywing - New to me.
Zebra Heliconian - New to me
White Peacock - Seen in captivity, but new to me in the wild.
Halloween Pennant -New to me.
Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant
Needham's Skimmer - New to me.
Four-spot Pennant - New to me.
Eastern Amberwing - New to me.
Eastern Pondhawk - New to me.
Eastern Lubber Grasshopper
Alligator
Alligator
Northern Curly-tailed Lizard - New to me.
Peter's Rock Agama - Female - New to me.
Peter's Rock Agama - Male
Green Iguana - Juvenile
Green Iguana - Adult
Peninsular Cooter - New to me.
Florida Softshell Turtle - New to me.
As you can see, there is a lot more to see and document than just birds alone. While I primarily started out documenting birds, which is still my main focus, there is a lot more life to be found in this world and in the natural world a lot of this different fauna are many times inter-related.
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