Florida Trip ~ February 7-8, 2019

Since way back in November, I had been reading reports about an American Flamingo that had made the Florida Panhandle its home. I had never tried to see the flamingos that are occasionally spotted in the Snake Bight area of the Everglades because of my huge dislike of mosquitoes. Now I know most people hate mosquitoes, but I hate them a lot because I get raised welts wherever I get bit by them. So when I saw that this bird wasn't at the end of the infamous Snake Bight Trail and the drive would be a few hours shorter, I was really interested. I had also been unlucky at finding the Nanday Parakeet during the few times I was in areas of southeast Florida where they were possible. Last week, I finally had the opportunity to drive down there and, hopefully, see both. I called Jason Horn and asked if he'd be interested in riding along. He had already seen both birds, so to spice up the deal a little, I told him all he'd have to pay for was his food. It would have been a long drive by myself, so I was happy when he said he would come along.

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Thursday, February 7th

A little after 9:00 AM, I picked up Jason at his house and we headed south for St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, south of Tallahassee, Florida. While driving through South Carolina, Jason was checking his phone and read that a cuckoo found at the West Delray Regional Park near Delray Beach, Florida on Wednesday had just been identified as a Dark-billed Cuckoo! The Dark-billed is a South American bird that, to my knowledge, had only been recorded once before in North America through a specimen, so this bird would represent only the 2nd North American record. Unfortunately, birders showed up at the spot on Thursday and couldn't refind the bird. We discussed whether we should take the chance and drive directly there for a Friday morning search or whether we should just stick with the original plan. Since the bird hadn't been seen all day on Thursday, we decided to head west from Jacksonville and head for St. Marks as planned.

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Friday, February 8th

At around 2:00 AM, I pulled into a rest area along I-10 where we grabbed a few hours of sleep. After a little "shut-eye", we drove two exits farther east on I-10, grabbed some breakfast, and pulled into the refuge's entrance a little after 6:00 AM. At dawn, we gathered our gear and started walking out the dikes towards Stony Bayou 2. Luckily, in the southeastern corner of the impoundment stood the American Flamingo. Even luckier was the fact that the fog lifted for about an hour and gave way to the early morning sun just long enough to get some fairly good distant photos.

On the south side of the dike, opposite from the flamingo, several wrens were calling. I got some decent photos of a cooperative Sedge Wren.

I didn't fair as well with the Marsh Wren, which always seemed to be either behind something or a little out of focus.

As we worked our way back to the car, a Brown-headed Nuthatch clung to a palm tree next to an area of pines.

Pine Warblers were also in this area. Other birds of note from the dike included Pied-billed Grebe, Anhinga, Snowy Egret, Little Blue and Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, American Wigeon, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Clapper Rail, Common Gallinule, and Forster's Tern.

Farther south along Lighthouse Drive, we found American White Pelican, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Canvasback, and Red-breasted Merganser. We continued down to the end of Lighthouse Drive where, you guessed it, the lighthouse is. The shoreline was full of Dunlin and several Brown Pelicans sat on pilings. On the way back out, we saw a pair of eagles perched in the vicinity of their nest.

An American Alligator rested along one of the channels.

At "Stop 2", the Vermilion Flycatcher that was spending the winter there allowed me to get some photos.

We left the refuge around 11:00 AM and headed for the St. Petersburg area to look for Nanday Parakeet. In the town of Perry, we decided to stop at a KFC for lunch. As soon as I parked, Jason got a message from Ross Gallardy that the Dark-billed Cuckoo had been refound! Ross and his wife just happened to be vacationing in Florida and he had just seen it. Once again, we contemplated what we should do. We did a quick calculation and figured that even if we drove straight through to the spot, we'd only have about a half hour before dark to look for the bird. So we decided to once again stick to the original plan but put ourselves in position to be at the spot at first light Saturday morning.

Along the way, we stopped at the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area. Back in October, a Double-toothed Kite was spotted there. We drove in to take a look around. Some of the birds seen there included Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, White-eyed and Blue-headed Vireo, and warblers that included Pine, Palm, Yellow-throated, Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white.

We continued south and ran into rush-hour traffic as we got closer to St. Petersburg. We only had about an hour of light left and were still about 20 minutes away from one of the favored parakeet sites, Largo Central Park Reserve. Luckily, while I was staring at traffic, Jason spotted a few Nanday Parakeets in a tree at the intersection of Fulton Drive and East Bay Drive in Largo. I pulled into a parking lot on the corner and got some photos of my second life bird of the trip.

I even got a photo of two Nandays trying to make more Nandays.

I reserved a motel in the town of Clewiston and then headed out of St. Petersburg, crossing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge at sunset. From there, we headed south towards Fort Myers and then east to Clewiston for some badly-needed sleep at the Plaza Travel Inn.

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