I was in the beautiful state of Florida for much of last week, officially to visit a college, but of course it turned into more of a birding trip. The college I was visiting is in Collier county, which is not wanting in the birds department by any means. The trip started on a definite positive note, with about 50 Roseate Spoonbills (lifer!) seen from the plane just before touching down in Fort Myers. After driving down to Naples, my dad and I decided to take a late afternoon walk at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, which I'd heard many good things about. I was really hoping for a Painted Bunting or a Limpkin, but no such luck. But--I did get my lifer Wood Stork, a bird I'd wanted to see for a long time. Sadly, though, it was a flyover and I didn't get any photos.
I did, however, get quite a bit of photos of other random things in the swamp:
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| The greatest of egrets |
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| A strangler fig on a bald cypress |
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Close to the end of our walk, I got one of the most welcome lifers I've had in a while: Palm Warbler (in a palm tree, appropriately). There are no words to describe the frustration these warblers have given me in the past, as they were my long-time nemesis.
Finally, I emerged victorious. And proceeded to see about 54782397318 more of them in the following days. Ah, well. 'Tis the nature of nemeses.
The next day I took a tour of the college and found that its campus was not too shabby as far as nature goes. I saw two Loggerhead Shrikes just hanging out, an alligator in the canal next door, a Tricolored Heron in one pond, and many, many Anhingas. I could take four years of that.
After completing my college visit, my dad and I headed down to the beach at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park. I was happily photographing the Willets, Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers, and Ruddy Turnstones when I happened to glance up at the sky and saw nothing other than a Magnificent Frigatebird! I almost squealed out loud. I remember reading about MAFRs when I was about ten years old and dreaming of some point in the far future when I would actually see one. Six years later, I was looking right at a beautiful male.
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| Willet |
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| Black-bellied Plover |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Magnificent Frigatebird!! |
The next day, Thursday, my dad and I drove over to the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area because my dad had a meeting there on Friday. We were surprised to find our hotel was right on the beach, whereas we had thought it was a block or two away. We weren't complaining.
Walking along the beach yielded large numbers of Laughing Gulls, Willets, Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderlings, and Ruddy Turnstones. (And let's not forget the pigeons. Pigeons everywhere.) Also present were Royal Terns, Western Sandpipers, and a lone Herring Gull. To close out our walk, who should make an appearance but another Magnificent Frigatebird!
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| Brown Pelicans |
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| Ruddy Turnstones |
Friday morning meant sitting on the balcony in my pajamas while my dad was at his meeting, scanning the beach with my binoculars. As well as the usual suspects I had counted the day before, I saw Eurasian Collared-Doves, Boat-tailed Grackles, and two flyover Monk Parakeets (lifer!). There was also an American Kestrel perched on the hotel next door, and I probably creeped out the people staying there because I was staring at it through binoculars. It wouldn't be the first time.
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| Look at all those shorebirds |
That afternoon, before our flight home, we decided (or I decided, and my dad complied because he's nice) to check out a local park called Tall Cypress Natural area, which had a lot of good data on eBird. Sadly, however, we went in the middle of the day when not much was out except a multitude of Gray Catbirds and grackles of both the Common and Boat-tailed varieties. While I didn't see the birds I wanted, I was impressed by the rich habitat and biodiversity it had to offer.
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| Golden-Orb Weaver |
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| Cuban Brown Anole |
Florida was cool. I want to go back now.
