How do you get to an island?
An island far away?
You have to cross the water...
'Cuz that's the only way!
Well, for the Florida Keys there's a bridge - so that's settled.
Wet set out from the Miami area early on Thursday morning for the drive across said bridge. Actually, though, we took the back route to Key Largo. Instead of taking Highway 1 for free, we shelled out a buck and took the Card Sound Road route. Because Card Sound Road has birds. I'll wait for you to pick up your jaws. Ok, now we can continue.
Our first stop of the trip was at the actual toll booth. Well, just before it. The mangroves in this area are supposed to be a reliable place for the Cuban subspecies of Yellow Warbler. Despite the fact that we arrived in the early morning, they weren't singing. It was just quiet. That was sort of a theme for the day's birding.
Key Largo's best feature is that the state has preserved extensive stands of West Indian hardwood forest. While much of it is inaccessible, Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park (how's that for a place name?) provides access to some of its habitat. The place is also known as a somewhat reliable place to find Mangrove Cuckoos.
Well, I really wanted to see some Mangrove Cuckoo, but we didn't have any luck. We birded our way down Card Sound Road to the Park, stopping here and there at cuts in the forest to look for cuckoos and other songbirds, but nothing much was singing besides Prairie Warblers and Cardinals. Still, it was fun to see White-crowned Pigeons winging overhead. The pigeons were pretty common throughout the Keys, if you had your eye open for them. Usually you'd just see them streaking overhead as they scurried from one fruiting tree to another.
Once in the park we enjoyed good looks on the entrance road of Northern Cardinals and White-eyed Vireos. Then we pressed on further into the park where there were no birds doing anything. At least, if there were birds doing things they were doing them quietly where we couldn't see them.
On the way back out we ran into a couple of birders from New York City. We joined forces, and they pointed out this neat butterfly:
A JuliaI think it's really fantastic. They were great people, and gave us good advice on other places to visit in the Keys since it was our first time down. And they gave us their phone number if we ever need a place to stay in Queens. So, we're talking really nice people.
While we were talking and walking, I heard a singing vireo. We tracked it down and found it was a Black-whiskered Vireo! Not only a lifer, but a Florida specialty. We went through all the sometimes comical but often frustrating motions of getting everybody a chance to see the bird as it flitted about unconcernedly behind leaves above us, but I think maybe half of us got really satisfying looks. Since we were craning our necks anyway, it was convenient we also found a couple of cool tree snails.
Eventually we got back on the road. We stopped at a bird restoration place where Brown Pelicans were walking around at your feet, or perching ominously above your head. I heard Yellow Warblers singing in the mangroves here, but we couldn't see them. But we did see our first ever Great White Heron. In the Keys and the far southern tip of Florida, Great Blue Herons are white. In a fitful exercise of someone's powerful imaginative faculty, they've been dubbed Great White Herons.
Anyway, then we drove for a couple of hours down to Big Pine Key. As we drove, we oohed and ahhed at the beautiful shade of blue the ocean around us was wearing. It was just incredible. We stopped and took some pictures with Drago, but none of them really show the awesome color.
We stopped in Marathon to look for Roseate Terns on the roofs of the government buildings, which weren't showing, before we headed off over the seven mile bridge. While on the bridge we had one of our coolest and least expected experiences in the Keys. A Brown Booby flew right over our car! This is a pretty unusual bird for North America, period, and we were thrilled to see one so close. We saw more later at the Dry Tortugas, but none as close as the glimpse we got of this one. Of course, we were going by it at 60 odd miles per hour, and what with it going the other way it was a brief look, but still very nice.
Anyway, we stopped next at a Bahia Honda State Park, where it was really hot and the water looked really good. Since the birds weren't doing anything, we hurried on to our motel, checked in, changed, and came back to go swimming! Which was fun. Although it was sort of weird swimming in an ocean without waves. What do you do?
That night we had awesome food at Coco's Diner on Big Pine Key. Shrimp and fried Yellow-fin Snapper (whole!) were both very tasty, the hot sauce was all habenero based, I got fried plantains as a side (very interesting), we had Cuban bread for starters (excellent), and Libby's shrimp was just absolutely the plumpest, juiciest, best tasting shrimp we've ever experienced.
So that was alright. Oh, and then, because Coco's Diner was closing already, we skipped on the chance for Key Lime Pie there and went over to the Winn-Dixie to find a slice. Which we obtained through monetary exchange, and then ate. Our first Key Lime pie of the trip. It was good.
And, since the best time of day in South Florida is the early morning or late evening, we took a nice walk in mangrove habitat looking for Mangrove Cuckoos. Nothing happening, but it was very nice. Seeing Key Deer was nice, too. We saw quite a few that evening both on the roads and on our walk.
Pictures on Flickr.
Next day? Dry Tortugas!
While we were talking and walking, I heard a singing vireo. We tracked it down and found it was a Black-whiskered Vireo! Not only a lifer, but a Florida specialty. We went through all the sometimes comical but often frustrating motions of getting everybody a chance to see the bird as it flitted about unconcernedly behind leaves above us, but I think maybe half of us got really satisfying looks. Since we were craning our necks anyway, it was convenient we also found a couple of cool tree snails.
Eventually we got back on the road. We stopped at a bird restoration place where Brown Pelicans were walking around at your feet, or perching ominously above your head. I heard Yellow Warblers singing in the mangroves here, but we couldn't see them. But we did see our first ever Great White Heron. In the Keys and the far southern tip of Florida, Great Blue Herons are white. In a fitful exercise of someone's powerful imaginative faculty, they've been dubbed Great White Herons.
Anyway, then we drove for a couple of hours down to Big Pine Key. As we drove, we oohed and ahhed at the beautiful shade of blue the ocean around us was wearing. It was just incredible. We stopped and took some pictures with Drago, but none of them really show the awesome color.
We stopped in Marathon to look for Roseate Terns on the roofs of the government buildings, which weren't showing, before we headed off over the seven mile bridge. While on the bridge we had one of our coolest and least expected experiences in the Keys. A Brown Booby flew right over our car! This is a pretty unusual bird for North America, period, and we were thrilled to see one so close. We saw more later at the Dry Tortugas, but none as close as the glimpse we got of this one. Of course, we were going by it at 60 odd miles per hour, and what with it going the other way it was a brief look, but still very nice.
Anyway, we stopped next at a Bahia Honda State Park, where it was really hot and the water looked really good. Since the birds weren't doing anything, we hurried on to our motel, checked in, changed, and came back to go swimming! Which was fun. Although it was sort of weird swimming in an ocean without waves. What do you do?
That night we had awesome food at Coco's Diner on Big Pine Key. Shrimp and fried Yellow-fin Snapper (whole!) were both very tasty, the hot sauce was all habenero based, I got fried plantains as a side (very interesting), we had Cuban bread for starters (excellent), and Libby's shrimp was just absolutely the plumpest, juiciest, best tasting shrimp we've ever experienced.
So that was alright. Oh, and then, because Coco's Diner was closing already, we skipped on the chance for Key Lime Pie there and went over to the Winn-Dixie to find a slice. Which we obtained through monetary exchange, and then ate. Our first Key Lime pie of the trip. It was good.
And, since the best time of day in South Florida is the early morning or late evening, we took a nice walk in mangrove habitat looking for Mangrove Cuckoos. Nothing happening, but it was very nice. Seeing Key Deer was nice, too. We saw quite a few that evening both on the roads and on our walk.
Pictures on Flickr.
Next day? Dry Tortugas!
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