Goodbye, Florida

An Osprey perched in Mangroves on Sugarloaf Key.

Our last day in Florida started much like our first day - in the warm darkness of the early morning. This time, though, the lifting darkness was punctuated by the song of a retiring Chuck-Will's-Widow in the nearby pinewoods of Big Pine Key. It seemed a world and ages from the wailing Limpkins of Kissimmee.. After stowing our luggage in the trunk of our car, we turned west to Sugarloaf Key to look for Mangrove Cuckoos.

We arrived there after the sun was already up, greeted cheerily by Cardinals' and Prairie Warblers' songs. A mixed flock of warblers moved through the trees, including our only bright male American Redstart of the trip. The grassy verges of the road hosted Indigo Buntings, and Red-bellied Woodpeckers noisily made their breakfasts while squabbling with each other over the table scraps.

No Mangrove Cuckoos, however, showed themselves. A single bird called quietly in the distance once, but we never saw it. This was disappointing, as this was our last chance for the birds. As the morning warmed we got back on the road to Key West, hoping for some migrants in the parks there.

We decided to try Key West Indigenous Park, as it had had a Thick-billed Vireo reported about a week previously. There, among the many feral chickens that call Key West home and the hordes of Gray Catbirds, we found our only Red-eyed Vireo of the trip. There was also another Worm-eating Warbler, which was only our second ever. But in general it was pretty quiet. This was the first place in Florida we saw Green Iguana, which was interesting. Several of these giant lizards were hanging out over a pond in the park. And, on the grass, there was a Florida Box Turtle. I'm not sure if it was wild or not.

Alas, we soon had to go. We were flying out of Fort Lauderdale early in the morning, and so we had to get back on the road to make the long slow drive out of the Keys. We did have one last significant bird on the way out, though. Just off the Seven Mile Bridge was a smallish, bright white tern. Its long tail, white wings, and thin bill all marked it as a Roseate Tern - a lifer! Unfortunately we were zipping by at freeway speeds, so it was far from satisfactory. We'll see another one someday, I'm sure.

It was getting to be late afternoon by the time we arrived at our next destination. Since a bit of a storm seemed to be blowing up (it sprinkled that evening and rained the next day after we left), we decided to go back to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park again, just off of Miami. We were hoping to get lucky and see some more migrant landbirds, or luckier and see the Western Spindalis we had missed earlier.

Well, there wasn't any sort of fall-out due to the weather. It was dead there, except for the one fruiting tree the Spindalis had been visiting earlier. We didn't see that bird, but we did see our first ever female Black-throated Blue Warbler and our first ever male Cape May Warbler. So, that was nice.

We finished our trip in style by eating Cuban-style seafood at the grill in the park before heading to our hotel for the night. The next day around noon we were walking out of LAX into California's blessed weather. It was in the high 50s, cloudy, and an ocean breeze was refreshingly cold as it caressed our faces. It was good to be home.

Just a couple of pictures on Flickr.