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| Prairie Warbler, Evergreen Cemetery, Ft Lauderdale, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
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| Palm Warbler 'western', Evergreen Cemetery, Ft Lauderdale, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
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| Northern Parula, Richardson Park, Wilton Manor, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
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| Black throated Blue Warbler, Richardson Park, Wilton Manor, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
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| Common Yellowthroat, Green Cay Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
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| Pine Warbler, Green Cay Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 5, 2017 |
Just back from a week or so in sunny, warm Florida and the Bahamas. I'll split up the trip into two separate posts with the first being the Florida section of the trip. We took a flight down to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday the 5th arriving there midday. After a quick bite to eat we made a couple brief stops to look for
some unusual warblers being seen in the Fort Lauderdale area (including a Black throated Gray Warbler and Hooded Warbler). The first stop was
at Evergreen Cemetery to try to find the Black throated Gray Warbler which I
eventually found traveling with a mixed species flock but I missed getting a
photo of it after a brief look and never managed to track it back down. Lots of
other warblers in the cemetery including Yellow throated, Prairie, Palm (both
western and eastern) and Yellow rumped Warblers plus Northern Parula. Our next
stop was a bit more to the north at Richardson Park where I managed to hear the
Hooded Warbler but never could get a look at it. While looking around the park I did find one more warbler species, a female Black throated Blue Warbler. Our final stop in the afternoon was further north up
to the Green Cay Wetlands in Boynton Beach. We
spent a couple hours there and added two more warblers for the trip with Common Yellowthroat and Pine Warbler. Overall for the afternoon of the first day I had a total of ten species of warbler with three of those being new for my Florida list (Black throated Gray, Hooded and Black throated Blue Warblers).
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| Black and White Warbler, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 6, 2017 |
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| Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 6, 2017 |
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| Prairie Warbler, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 6, 2017 |
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| Orange crowned Warbler, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Boynton Beach, FL, Feb 6, 2017 |
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| Yellow throated Warbler, Evergreen Cemetery, Ft. Lauderdale, Feb 6, 2017 |
The first full day of vacation we spent hitting a few new spots as
well as repeat visits to a couple others. We started at Wakodohatchee Wetlands
in Boca Raton. The man made wetlands there are a smaller version of the Green
Cay Wetlands we visited yesterday and held a few new species. I ran across a mixed flock containing a number of warblers including my
first American Redstart, Black and White Warblers and Orange crowned Warbler.
We left the wetlands late morning and made it over to the Gumbo Limbo Nature
Center along the coast. Very quiet bird wise due to the crowds but still
managed to add one more new warbler, a Northern Waterthrush. Even without many
birds it was still interesting to see work being done there on sea turtle
research as well as sea turtle rescue. After a brief stop for lunch we returned
to Richardson Park once again but I missed on finding the Hooded Warbler but it was a bit breezy. Our final stop for the day was another repeat visit, this time to the Evergreen
Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale. My goal here was to try to get some photos of the
Black throated Gray Warbler there. Despite much effort I never managed to find
the bird but did have another nice mixed species flock and got some additional
photos. Overall I found 14
species of warblers in the first couple days in Florida. We headed out early the next morning for the ferry ride over to Grand Bahama...more on that in a future post.
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| Northern Parula, Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP, Key Biscayne, FL, Feb 12, 2017 |
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| Cape May Warbler, Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP, Key Biscayne, FL, Feb 12, 2017 |
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| Cape May Warbler, Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP, Key Biscayne, FL, Feb 12, 2017 |
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| Northern Parula, Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP, Key Biscayne, FL, Feb 12, 2017 |
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| Prairie Warbler, Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP, Key Biscayne, FL, Feb 12, 2017 |
Our vacation got an unexpected extension with the arrival of another major winter storm in the northeast that cancelled our flight home on Sunday the 12th. After spending some time rebooking our flight home, finding a hotel and extending our rental car for another day we had another sunny, warm day in Florida. I noticed a sighting from Saturday of a very out
of place Kirtland's Warbler in a park on Key Biscayne south of Miami and after
seeing video of the bird there was no doubt on the identification. This very
range restricted and endangered warbler breeds in Michigan and winter in the
Bahamas with no known records of the species in the US during winter. The
timing points more toward an overwintering bird instead of an early migrant.
Thankfully we were looking for a place to spend the day and it didn't take much
convincing to make the 45 minute drive down to Bill Baggs Cape Florida SP and
try to find the bird. We didn't arrive until late morning and the reports from
multiple birders already there all negative but I was still hopeful. We checked
the area where the bird had been seen but we also had no luck so we decided to
start searching the many nearby areas that also featured some decent habitat.
Although we ran across a number of mixed species flocks none of the them
featured the sought after bird. After a brief stop for lunch I continued the
search once again and covered some of the same areas as well as new ones but
still came up empty. As we were making our last run down another trail we ran
into some other birders from earlier and found out they also had no better luck
than we did finding the bird but they did point us toward a location that
featured a number of warblers including a Cape May Warbler and a number of Northern Parula. We had much better
luck with these species and got some decent photos. It
would have been nice to see the Kirtland's Warbler again as I have only seen
them once before up in Michigan and never got photos but no luck this time. I'm
certain the bird is still in the area and will hopefully be relocated, perhaps
once there are less crowds around. Looking at reports from Florida after we left on Monday the Kirtland's was relocated on Wednesday and was seen in the area for the next several days. With my bookend stops in Florida I managed to find a total of 15 species of warblers there with four of those new for my Florida list (Black throated Gray, Hooded, Black throated Blue and Cape May Warblers).
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