The Florida Keys

The Florida Keys have a reputation for having birds that are very difficult to see anywhere else in the United States.  I was hoping to pick up several that I personally had never photographed before.  I decided to make Long Key State Park my base of operations for several days since it was somewhat centrally located and was easier to get into than sites closer to Key West.  The 60 camp sites are in one long row.  There is not a bad one available since all are on the water.  The restrooms are quite nice and everybody is pretty laid back with the evenings being quiet.  The spring bird migration is probably not noticed by most of these relaxing campers but the few that are carrying binoculars were finding migrants trickling through all the time.

Site 45- Home base for four days

The first morning I hiked the Golden Orb Nature Trail located in the eastern end of Long Key State Park.  This was rather disappointing since I only heard Prairie Warblers and Northern Cardinals.  This was not the start I had hoped for.  I decided to drive west to Edna Lake on Grassy Key.  Edna Lake is one of the few freshwater ponds in the Keys. Calling it a lake is a huge exageration but it did produce Least Terns, Black-necked Stilts, Reddish Egrets, Laughing Gulls, and a Great Egret.  A site guide said that many Least Terns roost there in late summer, but the eight birds there were paired up and I wondered if a few stayed around to actually nest. 

Least Terns

Least Tern wing flap

Towards noon I drove to Curry Hammock State Park, paid my $4.50 admission and parked for lunch.  On the way in the attendant told me White-crowned Pigeons were on the property down a road I was not allowed to enter but that I could stand on the side of the road because sometimes they fly over.  Since it was 88 degrees that was not very appealing to me so I pulled into the beach parking lot to eat lunch and to see just how accurate her information was.  I never saw any in the hour and a half I was there, but I did hear some Gray Kingbirds, one of the target species I was after.  I did get my first photo of this species and counted the day as a success. 

One of my target birds.  The Gray Kingbird is distinguished from the familiar Easter Kingbird by having a gray head (rather than black) and a much larger bill.

 As I ate my lunch I noticed a lot of movement in the bushes in front of me.  As I continued to watch I saw a half dozen exotic green iguanas crawl out of the shrubbery.  One was close to six feet long.  Their populations have exploded recently to the point they are becoming quite a pest and competing with local wildlife.  Called "bamboo chickens" and eaten in some countries the taste is said to be similar to chicken but with a reptile flavor.  I am not quite sure what "reptile flavor" is but I would like to see a "Man vs Food" segment at an Iguana cookoff. 

After lunch I checked out Big Pine Key along Long Beach Road and found some more Gray Kingbirds.  I stopped at the National Key Deer Refuge Visitor Center located in the Big Pine shopping Plaza.  There was nobody there that was into birds so I drove up to the Blue Hole, a small fresh water pond, but being the warmest part of the day there weren't any visitors or birds to be seen.  I returned to Long Key and found that a nice wave of warblers were feeding in the trees there.  Northern Parula, Cape May Warbler, Prarie Warbler, and Blackpolls were all present, with the majority being Cape Mays.

Male Cape May Warbler

Female Cape May Warbler

The following morning I arrived at No Name Key in the National Key Deer Refuge.  I immediately found White-crowned Pigeons- one of my target birds.  These birds are fruit eaters, often quite spooky and usually nest on small islands returning to feed during the day on the mainline keys.  I worked this area most of the day finding more Gray Kingbirds and locating Black-whiskered Vireos which would not cooperate for the camera.

White-crowned Pigeon