My next target bird was the Thick-billed Vireo on the mainland near North Palm Beach, which was about a 3-1/2-hour drive from Islamorada. I wanted to get there in the morning, so I got up real early in order to miss most of the rush-hour traffic in The Keys and Miami area. There were several slow-downs along the way, but I got to John D. MacArthur Beach State Park at 9:30. I started searching the U-shaped parking lot where the bird had most often been seen. About a half-hour later, an SUV parked next to my car and Richard Crossley and Holly Merker got out! Richard was the one who had originally found the bird back on January 25th. It was totally bizarre that we happened to show up at that spot on the same morning. The three of us searched for the bird and, not surprisingly, Richard spotted the
Thick-billed Vireo among a Blue-headed Vireo, a Northern Parula, and a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. It was a great relief to see this bird since the area was densely forested and it probably would have been tough to find it on my own. The bird stayed near the top of the trees, making it difficult to get photos, but I was lucky to get several fairly in-focus photos of the distinctive facial pattern. Note the yellow lores in front of a dark eye with an eye ring that encircles only the back half of the eye.
I walked out the boardwalk to the beach area of the park. A few Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones were feeding in the wrack line.
Two Piping Plovers were also there. One had a green tag on its left leg that read "EAH", but I was unable to get a photo of it before a beach walker scared it off.
A long line of gulls stretched along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline, including about 175 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 100 Herring Gulls, and 2 Ring-billed Gulls.
A Northern Gannet floated pretty far offshore and eventually flew off to the north.
From the park, I drove to Palm Beach Lakes where I would spend the next three nights at the Best Western.
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