At sunrise, I took this photo from my motel room before taking my gear down to the car.
Since I nailed some decent photos of the Caracara, I decided to make the very short drive up to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and look for the Bananaquit. The bird preferred the flowers of the Firespike plants in the Butterfly Garden. Roughly half the blooms had died off, but there still seemed to be plenty of blooms there to keep it happy. During the morning, a warbler flock worked its way through the area. It was comprised of 3 Yellow-rumpeds, 2 Northern Parulas, a Yellow-throated, a "Western" Palm, and a Prairie, plus 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a Blue-headed Vireo.
There was no sign of the Bananaquit. The only thing coming to the flowers was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I was there from sunrise to sunset, only taking a 5-minute bathroom break, and there was no sign of the bird. I assumed it must have found a better food source at another location.
There were some interesting butterflies flying around. I took a few photos of some of them. Hopefully, I identified them correctly. Bird identification is challenging enough; butterflies are beyond my pay grade.
I understand that the Atalas were once thought to be extinct but are making a big comeback. There were a fair number of them flying around while I was there.
At sunset, I drove back to my motel room near Deerfield Beach, contemplating my plan for tomorrow. Since the Bananaquit appeared to be gone, I decided to leave at 4:00 AM and drive the four hours across the state to try for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher.
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