Florida Trip for Yellow-headed Caracara ~ December 13, 2024

Since the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center was close, I decided to give the Bananaquit one more try. I saw the same group of birds move through the Butterfly Garden as I did on the 11th. I got a few more photos of the Prairie Warbler.

Prairie Warbler

There was still no sign of the Bananaquit. The best bird to show up was a light morph Short-tailed Hawk that perched in the dead snag above the garden.

A light morph Short-tailed Hawk.

It stayed there for about fifteen minutes before flying off to the north.

A light morph Short-tailed Hawk.

While I was there, I also got mediocre photos of a Giant Swallowtail and another of an Atala.

Giant Swallowtail

Atala

I had to be at the Fort Lauderdale Airport by 6:00 PM. Since Oleta River State Park was fairly close to it, I drove there for another chance at seeing the Caracara. That didn't happen, but I did get some photos of a Eurasian Collared-Dove that was there.

Eurasian Collared-Dove

I returned the rental car with 592 more miles on it, flew back to Newark, drove home, and pulled into the garage at around 1:00 AM. I ended up with 58 species for the trip. More photos can be found in my Florida Photo Album.

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Florida Trip ~ December 10-13, 2024

1) Pied-billed Grebe
2) American White Pelican
3) Brown Pelican
4) Anhinga
5) Double-crested Cormorant
6) Tricolored Heron
7) Little Blue Heron
8) Western Cattle Egret
9) Snowy Egret
10) Great Egret
11) Great Blue Heron
12) Wood Stork
13) Glossy Ibis
14) White Ibis
15) Turkey Vulture
16) Black Vulture
17) Osprey
18) Northern Harrier
19) Bald Eagle
20) Short-tailed Hawk
21) Red-tailed Hawk
22) Yellow-headed Caracara*
23) American Kestrel
24) Merlin
25) Common Gallinule
26) American Coot
27) Sandhill Crane
28) Killdeer
29) Willet
30) Wilson's Snipe
31) Laughing Gull
32) Ring-billed Gull
33) Lesser Black-backed Gull
34) Caspian Tern
35) Rock Pigeon
36) Mourning Dove
37) Eurasian Collared-Dove
38) Common Ground Dove
39) Ruby-throated Hummingbird
40) Belted Kingfisher
41) Eastern Phoebe
42) Fork-tailed Flycatcher
43) Loggerhead Shrike
44) Blue-headed Vireo
45) Blue Jay
46) Fish Crow
47) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
48) Northern Mockingbird
49) European Starling
50) Northern Parula
51) Yellow-rumped Warbler
52) Black-and-white Warbler
53) Yellow-throated Warbler
54) Prairie Warbler
55) Palm Warbler
56) Northern Cardinal
57) Red-winged Blackbird
58) Boat-tailed Grackle

* Denotes a 'life bird'.

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