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| Yellow-throated Warbler - Green Cay |
I was browsing
the internet one morning and a super deal materialized before my eyes. Southwest
Airlines was advertising a flight to Fort Lauderdale for
$68 round trip. So I told Sharon and we pounced on the opportunity to skip the winter weather for a brief period time. Having done some research ahead of time on
eBird, we knew we had to head north to a little place named Richardson Historic
Park and Nature Preserve. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale around 10:30AM and
immediately drove to the park. This was the location of a Bananaquit that has
been hanging around for about 3 weeks. When we arrived we met two women birders who were searching for birds but didn't know about the Bananaquit. We all walked the park, which was quite small and
found very little activity.
I had seen
recent reports that the bird was also seen near the bordering condos, so Sharon and I
headed back to the parking area. As we walked out of the park a gentlemen asked
if we were looking for the Bananaquit and he told us it was over near the
condos. We promptly hoofed it to the housing development. Upon our approach we observed a multitude of birders spread out along a
very thick hedgerow.
We quickly merged with the
crowd and picked our spot to start ferreting out the little rascal. We lingered about five minutes then suddenly I saw a little bird traisping around the inside of the bushes but couldn’t get
a decent view. For the next five minutes the birders kept getting little peaks here
and there but nothing to confirm that this was our bird. Finally, the bird
landed in the open on a large flower and started picking at the stem of the
flower. This was our bird. It was a tiny, warbler sized individual and had a
bright yellow breast. It also sported a broad white stripe over it eye.
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| My photo of Bananaquit (Bad) - Top and slightly left |
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| Bananaquit - Internet photo - what it really looks like |
This was an ABA
life bird for me and we found it within an hour of landing in Florida. As I
looked around at the other folks who were giving out high fives, I noticed a
familiar face. Standing right next to me was Greg Miller. You might remember
him from the movie “The Big Year” where his character was played by Jack Black.
I introduced myself and we started chatting. I found out that this was a life
bird for him. However, unlike Sharon and I who got to see the Bananaquit
on our first attempt, this was his tenth try at seeing this bird. Needless to say,
he was real pleased.
As we sauntered
back to the parking lot, I heard and quickly found my first flock of parakeets.
A quick study of the flying flock revealed them to be Mitred Parakeets, a species I have only seen once before in the San Diego area. It was nice to see
them again even though they are an introduced species.
After this
sighting we headed to lunch and planned the next portion of the day. We would
drive south to Key Biscayne, an island just south of Miami. On Key Biscayne was
a marina that reportedly held a Common Eider. We spent 20 minutes perusing the
marina but dipped on the Eider. This, we would later find out, was a costly 20
minutes. Crandon Park was the next stop on the key and was only three miles
away. We stopped here in search of our second lifer today. We were hoping to find
the Western Spindalis, a Caribbean tanager that occasionally is seen in
Florida.
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| Brown Pelican at Crandon Marina |
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| Black-crowned Night-Heron waiting for handout |
