America's Fake Ocean

Last night after resting a bit, Bill and I went to his softball game. They won 22-1. After, we got a few beers with his teammates, which includes two very good local birders. We talked over what Bill and I should do today. When we got home, Brook, who lives in Bill's artist community, came over and chatted for a bit about her upcoming trip and future move to NYC.


This morning, I got my latest start of this trip, waking up at about 8:15. We headed to Antelope Island State Park, which is a huge island, connected by a causeway, in the Great Salt Lake. We came across some great birds on the causeway. This included a hunting PRAIRIE FALCON, BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, CALIFORNIA GULL, EARED GREBE, an injured RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, LONG-BILLED CURLEW, BLACK-NECKED STILT, and AMERICAN PIPITS walking along the rocks.


We headed onto the island and checked out the Garr Ranch. This was a pretty cool place that was settled by Mormons, and now the Utah DNR has the site set up as it likely was, and allow visitors to use the tools, go into rooms, and pretty much have free access to amazing stuff. There is a wood pile on the ranch that someone had reported a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW two days ago, but due to wind, and probably the bird's location, I was not able to relocate it.


Bill and I wanted to check out the water, so we went to White Rock Bay, where we had to walk about a mile to get to the shore. While we were walking there, we thought we saw some people way off on the beach. Upon binocing them, we realized it was some of the island's bison. The water was covered in brine shrimp, but it was so hot and tempting, we had to get in. Walking out into the water didn't get very deep, but I did get to try out the science experiment of floating in the high density super-saline water. It was incredible.

"At Altitude"

Friday night, I had good beer with dinner, a Blue Paddle Pilsener. I was pretty dehydrated, and I got a headache. It got worse, to the point that I went to bed at about 7:30. Luckily I woke up about 11 hours later, and felt great. Saturday morning, I left Boulder, after a typically awesome breakfast with the Chase-Jacobsens. When leaving town I stopped at Lookout Mountain. While it wasn't too birdy, I did come accross a lifer PYGMY NUTHATCH cleaning out a hole for himself in a pine.


After another hour or so of driving, I diverted from I-70, and went out on Loveland Pass. This place was incredibly beautiful. I attempted to find a WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN and BROWN-CAPPED ROSY-FINCH on a mile or so hike through about 6 inches of snow, but with no luck.


I arrived in Grand Junction, which was a very different environment than where I started the day, at about 5pm. I met with Mike from couchsurfing, and we headed to the Breckenridge Brewing Co. for dinner and a few beers. I went to bed pretty early to get a good start on Sunday morning.

At about 8am, I headed to the Colorado National Monument. Immediately, I came accross tons of WHITE-THROATED SWALLOWS, roosting in the walls, and flying around the canyon. During the ~30 mile drive through the park, I saw a number of other southwestern specialties, that'll give me a headstart on some of the species that I'll be searching for in the spring. ROCK WREN, BUSHTIT, and JUNIPER TITMOUSE all presented themselves to me here.

I then drove about 5 hours to Salt Lake City and met up with Bill. We hung out at his house for a bit, then headed over to Carl and Britt's house, which is a loaner home for Carl's volunteer work with HawkWatch International. We talked birds most of the night over bean burritos, and Carl gave Bill and I some tips of where to go birding today.

We woke up at about 7 to head to Wasatch National Forest. The hike took us to a couple nice lakes, and over a pretty large peak. It wasn't all that birdy, but we repeatedly got excellent looks at a calling CLARK'S NUTCRACKER.


Exhausted, we have just come back to his house for a celebratory Pabst.

The view from 12,000 ft.: Loveland Pass

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Rocky Mountain High

I couldn’t sleep well Wednesday night. I was way too excited about the birds and sites I was about to see in my new location. I finally got up at about 6am and got going before the Chase-Jacobsens awoke. As soon as I left the house, two COMMON RAVENS were flying and squawking overhead.

My first stop was a Boulder Mountain Park- Shadow Canyon. The minute I got there, I was hearing odd things. As I hiked the foothills, I started picking up some birds that I new from the east- EASTERN TOWHEE, DARK-EYED JUNCO (but the grey-headed subspecies), and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. It wasn’t too long before new things started jumping out. At this point, I was equal times looking at the birds as scanning my Peterson Western Birds field guide. By about 30 minutes into my hike, I had seen GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE, STELLER’S JAY, MOUNTAIN and WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, and the beautiful Audubon’s YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER. Much like the DICKCISSEL from the other day, I spent far too long in the sparrow section before finally identifying a lifer PINE SISKIN. After about a two-mile walk, I decided to head back to my car, since I had no water. On the way back, a ROCK WREN presented himself and started singing to me.

I then headed up to the mountains, and stopped in the Roosevelt National Forest, at the where it was lightly snowing on me. I went for a short hike on the Ceran St. Vrain trail, where I came across a MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH in my binoculars at the same time. While looking at a pack of YELLOW-RUMPED WARLBERS, I asked myself if it was worth methodically checking them. Within a minute, it decidedly was. I noticed an awesome looking male TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.

After a long day, I headed back to the house and planned out my next day. At about 6pm, Mark and Jaylynne invited me out to an Asian stir-fry restaurant with, which reminded me of Mama Fu’s. After that we stopped at Trident for a coffee, and we walked along the downtown Pearl Street Mall.

This morning I couldn’t sleep well either, but managed to stay in bed until about 6:30. After an awesome breakfast of oatmeal with fresh peaches, pecans, dates, and flax, I headed to another Boulder Mountain Park, this time it was Gregory Canyon. I started birding in a riparian area, where I noticed two WILSON’S WARBLERS gallivanting, if birds can do that. Then I headed up the hill, which was pretty steep. At the “Amphitheater”, there was a calling BROWN CREEPER, creeping. I headed back down the same way I came, and although it may have only been about a half mile each way, I started to sympathize with how Rosana and the gang felt in the Grand Canyon.

I drove out to the Boulder Reservoir, which I had quickly looked at yesterday in the wind and rain. Today was much better, and I went to a birdier part of it. Along the shore were tons of gulls. Someone had posted a FRANKLIN’S GULL here from the other day. I came guns blazing ready to try to separate him from the LAUGHING GULLS, but didn’t have to. After looking over all of the gulls with black heads, there were no LAUGHING GULLS! They were all FRANKLIN’S, which made my life easy.

In a pasture in the reservoir’s park, I saw something that looked like a robin, but was unsure. When I got closer, I tried to make him a TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE, but it just was not. He let me get really close, and I was able to determine his reality to be that of a SAY’S PHOEBE, a lifer for me.

In the afternoon, I headed to the Walden Ponds, where one of the ponds was filled with geese and ducks. The lighting and distance was great for being able to identify all that was in there, which included PIED-BILLED GREBE, CANADA GOOSE, AMERICAN WIGEON (males in fantastic plumage), REDHEAD, and RING-NECKED DUCK.

I’m a bit sun and wind-burned and pretty tired. Since it’s been a few days since I’ve had a beer, and I’m in the hotbed of microbrewification, I may have to have a celebratory one before bed.

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Kansas

Before getting to my couch for the night in Hutchinson, I briefly stopped at the local Dillon Nature Center. While I didn't see any new species, I did come across this diminutive CANADA GOOSE, which is either a Richardson's or Lesser subspecies. I thin that's the first time I've ever noticed a significant size difference, which was obvious since it was hanging out with Common ones.


When I got to Kalene and Jason's house, they were maing a tofu stir fry for me and their pastor's family. They home was an old farmhouse which they were restoring- with the upstairs still being incomplete. I had an awesome night talking religion and politics with my new Mennonite friends.

This morning I headed to Quivira NWR, which was about a 45 minute drive. It was pretty unproductive in the beginning, until I came across the Big Salt Marsh. There were tons of ducks and shorebirds, amny of which were difficult to identify for me because I don't have a scope. I was able to pull out some of the more obvious birds here for my list, which included AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, AMERICAN COOT, WHITE-FACED IBIS, and WILSON'S SNIPE.


On my way out of the refuge, I noticed a juvenile SWAINSON'S HAWK in a field that was currently being plowed. He took off right after this picture.


At Cheyenne Bottoms, kind of the kid sister refuge to Quivira, there was an unbelievable amount of shorebirds. I was getting pretty frustrated with my skills and physical resources for this mission. I was able to pick out BLUE-WINGED TEAL, AMERICAN AVOCET, and NORTHERN SHOVELER, but not any of the little dudes. I found an elderly gentleman sitting with a scope at one of the ponds, with his wife sitting bored in the car. I parked near him and struck up a conversation with him. He let me take a look at the SNOWY PLOVER that he had picked out of the pile of SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS on one of the banks. I felt a little better.

At about 2, I headed west. While driving the long, flat ride in the rain, I switched some plans around. Since it was 30ish degrees with possibilities of snow in Colorado Springs, I decided to wait on camping there for a different night. I came instead to Boulder, to stay with Rosana's friend Emily's family. Now I'm clean and ready to do my research for tomorrow.

It's time to put the Eastern Sibley away.

Little Yaris on the Prairie

I got into Lawrence at about 5pm yesterday, and met up with Taylor, a new friend from couchsurfing, at his house. His back porch overlooks the KU football stadium, which was incredible! After showing me around his house, we headed out to check out the town for a bit. It reminded me a lot of Tallahassee. We got a delicious and cheap beer at the Free State Brewing Company. Taylor had to head to a meeting, so I met up with his neighbor Kim at Johnny's Tavern for some pizza. I let it slip to Kim that it was my birthday, so she ended up making chocolate chip brownies, which between 5 of us, we completely demolished.


This morning I woke up at about 6:30, and got going to check out the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. While it was cloudy and off-and-on rainy (for the 3rd day in a row), I ended up fiding some great stuff. In a tree near the parking lot, there were several LARK SPARROWS, a lifer for me. When I headed out on the trail, I flushed several NORTHERN BOBWHITES. I spent some time attempting to ID a very cooperative sparrow-looking bird. It had a yellow breast, and I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. After 10 minutes, I tried pretending that the yellow was just goldenrod that had stained its feathers. Still no luck. 5 minutes later I looed in other categories of birds desperately. As soon as I saw the DICKCISSEL in my book, I knew I had found it, and grabbed another lifer on the day.


After Tallgrass, I headed back east a bit to the Flint Hills NWR. On my way to the preserve, I came across a SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER on a post on the side of the road. In the refuge, I attempted to track down both a BELL'S VIREO and SORA, with no luck on either. Now I'm heading to heading to Hutchinson, KS for the night.

Bir(d) Day

I headed into St. Louis on Saturday, hoping to put an end to my nemesis bird in Dogtown. the last time I was there, about a year and a half ago, I was not able to see this invasive/exotic bird that happens only to be in St. Louis suburbs. This time, I had luck seeing the EURASIAN TREE SPARROW within 10 minutes of scanning the neighborhood. That night, I stayed at Kimarsh's friend Bob's house. He showed me around town, including a stop at the Shlafly Brewpub. In my mind, St. Louis is no longer a town of crappy beer.


Friday morning, I woke up to severe rain, which was not forecasted at all the night before. I decided it was birdable anyway, and boy was it ever! I headed to Powder Valley, and came across some good stuff. Immediately after getting out of my car, I saw a NASHVILLE WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER and easily determined a LEAST FLYCATCHER. On the trails there, I encountered a red fox crossing my path. Great place.

Then I headed to Castlewood State Park, and came across a few flocks of warblers, including another NASHVILLE WARBLER. A lifer twice in one day. They must be in droves at this time of the fall. I got lost in a number of the flocks, as there were so many CEDAR WAXWINGS around. Still raining, I decided to make the long haul for Lake of the Ozarks State Park. I camped there, enjoying the provisions that anyone would need on their birthday eve: canned beans, bread, whiskey and Diet Coke, cloves, and a book by Kingsolver about eating locally.

This morning I woke up and birded the campground. Not too much was happening, but I did see a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER, new for my list. I headed out at about 9:30. A couple hours into my drive, I was coming across prairie conservation areas, and decided to stop into one: Paint Brush C.A. I didn't come across any groundbirds, but did get a lifer HENSLOW'S SPARROW. Thanks Kimarsh, for deeding it to me.

Gas-hawks

Wednesday night, I went out with Lindsay and her crew of soil scientists. We drank at a microbrewery in town, which was pretty sweet. We loaded up on the beers that coast $2 between 8 and 9pm. Delicious, but I felt it a bit the next day for the 9 hour drive to the Lantz's house.


The last couple of days there were a lot of fun. On Thursday, I took Joshua, Nathan, and Brittanie out to Refuge that Carl works at, Crab Orchard NWR. We had a pretty productive go at it, seeing 37 species. We came across 3 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS, and some good flocks of warblers. In one of the flocks, we saw a MAGNOLIA WARBLER as well as a GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER.

That night, I had heard a BARRED OWL. We played screech owl and barred owl tapes, and called them in. Carl brought out a spotlight so we were able to see the BARRED OWL quite well.


Friday, the whole gang went to a local castle playground that looked like it would be a great site for the 43rd Annual LARP Convention. Castles, dragons, and Depeche Mode playing.

Today we went to the Air Show at the Scott Airforce Base in Illinois. It was pretty loud, but the kids were having blasts. Now I'm in St. Louis, preparing for a couple days here, in the gateway to the west.

Back in the South?

I fell asleep on Sunday night, to the sounds of a GREAT HORNED OWL, which allowed me my longest night's sleep of the trip. After the late start of the morning (10:00am), I headed towards Ohio. I hadn't really looked at the map, and was surprised to find out that my route took me through Maryland and West Virginia. It seems that I'm weaving in and out of the Mason-Dixon, but decided that perhaps a more useful way of dividing our country geographically is the CAROLINA CHICKADEE/BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE line. I think it works out.

I got to the home of Weymouth's own, Lindsay Scott, a little before 8pm last night. Lindsay, her roommate Chase, and I made dinner and watched a movie. I went to bed decently early to get a good start on today.

At about 7am, I got up and headed towards the Hocking Hills, where a few parks are supposedly good for birders. Immediately after arriving at Conkle's Hollow, I came across a HOODED WARBLER. Likely my longest, best look at an adult male. Throughout my walk, I came across several unidentified immature thrushes, which was getting me kind of frustrated. Luckily, an adult HERMIT THRUSH gave me a few good looks with which to identify him.


I then went to Cantwell Cliffs to have a look at their birds. I encountered a pretty big flock of neotropical migrants, many which I was not able to identify in the limited time they were around. I did however, catch long enough glimpses of the BLUE-HEADED VIREO, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, and TENNESSEE WARLBER in the pack.


After leave in Cantwell Cliffs, I took a look at the Ohio Rare Bird Alert and realized that I would be choosing to miss out on another opportunity of seeing a NORTHERN WHEATEAR. One has been seen for a few days just north of Columbus. If I decided to check that out, it would be about a 6 hour drive to see one bird. I decided I'll put that gas money towards seeing the wheatear in its natural habitat.

Lehigh Valley

On my way out of Allentown yesterday, I stopped by Green Pond, a local warmspot in Northampton County. It was still quite rainy, so not much activity was present. There was a GREEN HERON, and a lot of people driving by, looking at me as if I were wreaking havoc.

I headed onto Hawk Mountain, which was only about 1 hour away, and took the shuttle bus their 75th Anniversary Celebration. Lots of birding "celebrities", including Scott Weidensaul and Pete Dunne. The weather was poor, so I guess I was birding birders as a replacement. The weather did let up a bit in the afternoon for some little guys to come to the feeders at the visitor center. I got great looks at a lifer BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, and also finally saw a bird that was sillily eluding me, the WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH.

I then met up with my couchsurfing hosts, Kevin and Lauren at Stonehedge Gardens, where they were fervently working to get ready for their art opening that took place today. The place was beautiful... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



This morning I went back to Hawk Mountain, and the weather had finally cleared. I walked the trail with a lifetime birder from Pittsburgh who knew a lot about Hawk Mountain, and was in the midst of his own Big Year. He told me that he had started January 1st, and that he currently had seen 399 birds. He was hoping for a MERLIN today, but after spending the morning with him, he left with no such luck. I, on the other hand, had a pretty productive watch.


Hawk Mountain sits right along the Appalachian Trail. Hawks tend to migrate in large numbers along this ridge, where counters wait for their approach. As a counter sees a bird of prey lift over a distant peak, she yells the spot on the landscape, and species if possible, for the one seen. Peaks are numbered, and landforms are called by name. Today was supposedly a slow day, but there were a constant flow of raptors. Tons of BROAD-WINGED HAWKS and lesser numbers of SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS and AMERICAN KESTRELS came into view. I was also surprised to find out the BLACK VULTURES migrate through these parts. Unfortunately, the peak for ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS and NORTHERN GOSHAWKS are about a month from now, and no early birds showed up while I was there.


After birding, I headed back over to the Stonehedge Gardens to check out Kevin and Lauren's show. In addition to their paintings, Kevin was showing a documentary about him and his collective's walk across the country. Info on that can be found here: www.theillumination.tv

Tonight, we are camping in his backyard with a number of his friends to celebrate what seemed like a really positive showing. I hope this leads to more openings, and more people getting a chance to visit this amazing site.

East Coast Refugee

I half-slept through Wednesday night into Thursday morning to my tent, sleeping bag, and pillows being soaked with rain. It was not raining at that point, so I packed up and head out to some of Cape May's finest.

There were about 20mph winds at 8am, and pretty cool at the Hawk Watch platform at the Point State Park. I picked up a MERLIN and saw several AMERICAN KESTRELS. While there, the hawk watcher let me know about a BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER, which was a bit out of range, at "The Meadows." I could see that the weather was getting worse, so I decided to go there right away.
When there, I came across the YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, which was still looking messy, but had wandered a bit from where he was originally reported. I spent about 20 minutes at the supposed BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER spot, with the wind messing me up so much I could not get good looks. Luckily, some better prepared birders with scopes came, and we were able to see him, as well as a WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER.


I decided to leave Cape May an head up to Stone Harbor and the Forsyth NWR, Brigantine Division. Despite the wind, and rain beginning, I was able to put together a pretty successful day. I got both BLACK-CROWNED and YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS, as well as seeing the biggest conglomeration of GLOSSY IBIS I've ever witnessed. There was also a PEREGRINE FALCON cruising the field at Brigantine, making it a 3-falcon day!

As the weather deteriorated, I decided to head out of NJ, but got into a minor car accident in the process. I headed off an off-ramp a little to fast for the wet road and skidded into the curb and a sign. I drove away, with my alignment out of whack. I wasn't able to get work done on it that day, so I stayed in Philadelphia with Dave (The Donut Guy) Irwin. We had a blast hitting a bar above an Ethiopian Restaurant in West Philly.


Yesterday morning, the closest place that had the rim I needed for my car was in Easton, PA, so I drove the 90 minutes up here with a cluggy car. By the time all of the work on my car was done, it was about 4:30pm. Luckily, a couple people from the couchsurfing website, Genevieve and Mike, were willing to house me in Allentown last night. They were very welcoming and have the most friendly pets in America.

It's still raining now, but I'm planning to head to Hawk Mountain, PA this morning. I'm hoping this poor weather comes to a close soon, as I am ending the East Coast city part of this trip.

Even a bad day is good, when you're in Cape May!

So the rain held off until about noon, then it was teetered between drizzling and pouring. Now is part of the pouring part.

In the morning I went to Bigbee WMA. Pretty birdy there. I ended up with a tasty warbler list, but they were all ones I had seen in Brooklyn... maybe even the same individuals! I did get a few southern species that had elluded my list so far such as FISH CROW, CAROLINA CHICKADEE, and BROWN THRASHER.

At Cape May Point State Park, I got great looks at BOBOLINK, flying in groups of 30-100 at a time. I had seen them several times before I was comfortable calling it, but then they dipped below the tree line where I could see their yellow bellies. The Hawk Watch was in full effect there, but since it was rainy, the hawks didn't get the message. Only osprey.

After talking to a birder, I realized I had not been paying enough attention to rare bird alerts of the areas I had driven through. The guy I was talking to had discovered a NORTHERN WHEATEAR in Connecticut several days ago, which is still there now. Also, there had been a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD seen here the last two days, and I didn't know until later in the day today. Fortunately or unfortunately, no one had seen it since yesterday afternoon. It was apparently attacked by a raptor and it likely recuperated and fled.

At The Nature Conservancy's Cape May Refuge, I saw some nice birds. BLACK SKIMMER, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIDGEON, LEAST TERN, and SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. Also, the place was littered with TREE SWALLOWS.

I spent over an hour trying to identify a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL out of all of the GREATs. A birder leaving the area told me there was one in there. This is what I was looking at.



Not surprisingly, I did not find it.

Hopefully this rain will clear up so I can have another whack at this here megahotspot!

Roads have been traveled

The last 4 days have been insane. This is going list style to get it down, because I'm writing this at a campground in Cape May, NJ, waiting for the rain to begin. It was supposed to start at 3pm.

On Friday, I got some birding in with Jerry and Joe at Webb State Park in Weymouth. Not very birdy their that day, but quite nice to get a chance to say goodbye to the dudes. New for the list their was an EASTERN PHOEBE.

Later in the day, I drove up to the White Mountains to meet up with other Weymos to camp for the weekend. I had intentions of birding a great deal while I was up there, but it was more of a "hanging out" type situation. In New Hampshire, I came across a WILD TURKEY and YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER new for my year list.

On Monday, I left the camp and headed to West Hartford to meet my friend Bret at work. After that, headed to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to meet up with Dave at a show he was working at. Last night, I stayed in Brooklyn with him and his galfriend Bianca. I was planning to hit Central Park today, but Dave suggested Prospect Park in his borough. Magnificent idea.

Today was unbelievably productive their birdwise. I borrowed Dave's bike, and traversed the whole park over the course of about 5 hours. Although I didn't catch all 21 warbler species reported by the Brooklyn Bird Club on September 5th, I did manage to eek out 11, which included a lifer CANADA WARBLER. I saw a total of 38 species there today, with other notables including VEERY, WOOD THRUSH, BLACKPOLL WARLBER, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, and CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER. My most exciting one (even more than the lifer) was identifying an ALDER FLYCATCHER by call after watching him for about 20 minutes. Very satisfying and fulfilling.

After the long drives of the past few days, I'm ready to settle in here in Cape May for a couple. I hope the extreme weather predcted proves to be useful for trapping warblers here and sending pelagics ashore, as opposed to just soaking your fearless author.

New Engand, new (for the year)

On Tuesday, I said goodbye to Florida for a while, and flew up to Rhode Island. The Eric Lantz was willing to pick me up at the airport, and surprisingly to me, was up for birding the whole afternoon away.

The Eric Lantz and I did pretty well on the bird front, including Great Black-backed Gull, Pectoral Sandpiper, White-eyed Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, and House Wren. More importantly, saw some amazing sites along the rocky coast. Beaver Tail State Park in Jamestown was incredible.

We drove up to my mom's house Worcester to get my stuff packed up for the big trek. On the way we stopped at Purgatory Chasm. Pretty nice place, but i think it may be possessed by the devil.

The weirdest thing about the new birds of the last couple days are that the nicest (or my favorites, came from yards. At The Eric Lantz's house we got nice looks at a female Baltimore Oriole, and at my Mom's, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. I guess that edge habitat is something!

Can you believe that mosquitoes are abundant in the Everglades in the summer?

In my typical birding fashion, I was too excited to sleep until the agreed upon time. I woke up Eva at 4:37AM, claiming that it was what we agreed on (which was really 5:37AM). She's a good sport.
We arrived at Dump Marsh in Cutler before in complete darkness, without bug spray. It was needed. Badly needed. So we went to a store and came back in time to be ready well before the sun got there. At about 6:15, my first bird of the year was a Killdeer. Pretty good, native, shorebird. I'll take it.

At the Annex by the Everglades, we struggled for quite a while trying to identify an Empid. Definitely an Alder or Willow Flycatcher, but the only reliable way to identify them is by call, and they felt like being silent. Other than that, the birding as quiet. It seemed that many of the warblers had moved out overnight.

In the Everglades, we had a few surprising, nice views. Chuck-will's Widow views, as well as a roosting Common Nighthawk. It's not often that you see one, never mind both of these in the daytime.

In total, Eva and I did pretty well seeing some birds that would be difficult to geet outside of South Florida. We saw a White-winged Dove, Spot-breasted Oriole, White-crowned Pigeon, and Common Myna. Some birds that eluded us that i will need to give another are the Black-whiskered Vireo, Short-tailed Hawk, and Red-whiskered Bulbul. I also missed seeing a Smooth-billed Ani with Rosana at one of the only reliable sites: near the Ft. Lauderdale Airport.