Final Day in the Keys

The four target birds I hoped to photograph in the keys were Gray Kingbird, White-crowned Pigeon, Black-whiskered Vireo, and Mangrove Cuckoo.  I had photographed the first two and knew the Mangrove Cuckoo would be the most difficult.  It is secretive by nature and very difficult to observe so that many aspects of it's biology is unknown to science.  I had not found any sign of this cuckoo and decided to concentrate on the vireo which had eluded my camera so far.  Since I had heard the most vireos on No Name Key, I concentrated my efforts there.

Driving through Big Pine Key and No Name Key before sunrise definitely keeps you on your toes.  Even at 25 mph the tiny Key Deer (about the size of a large dog) keep jumping out in front of you.  They are very stupid about vehicles vs tiny deer and considering how my truck has acted as a deer magnet in the past I was as jumpy as they were.  The number hit and killed this year is already pushing 50 and I did not want to add to this total.  When I parked my truck and hauled out my equipment they continued to walk up and down the road like tame pets. 

After about 20 minutes, I located a fairly cooperative Black-whiskered Vireo pair which played peek-a-boo with the camera for enough time to get the following images.

The Black-whiskered Vireo is very similar to the common Red-eyed Vireo but is a little browner and has the "whiskers" or lateral throat stripe.

Black-whiskered Vireo with an unfortunate katydid.