North Dakota
June 21-29, 2008
I flew into the Bismarck Municipal Airport on the first day of summer. It was a beautiful day in North Dakota. At the suggestion of my friend, Ken, I went straight to the tiny town of Tuttle to a side road off of Highway 3. There were some Grasshopper Sparrows, Vesper Sparrow, Bobolink, and some other things but it was the complete opposite direction of my campground so I soon left and headed back west to Cross Ranch State Park. On my way back west on I-94 I nearly ran over a Sharp-tailed Grouse, one of my target birds, crossing the interstate. A few minutes later I was pulled by a North Dakota Highway Patrol for going 82 MPH in a 75 MPH zone. I handed him my driver’s license and he said “Ma’am are you OK?” I said I am depressed; I’m going through a divorce. He wrote me a warning ticket and followed me for 20 miles, I guess to make sure I was OK.
I arrived at Cross Ranch State Park and set up my tent in a fantastic camp site well away from anyone else and right on the Missouri River. Each site was surrounded by cottonwood trees and mine was very private.
Sunday, June 22, 2008, I awoke to the roar of bird song all around my tent. There was no way to sleep; they implored me out of bed. So I got up and took a walk alongside the river. There was a mixture of birds from east and west-- Black-headed Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, House Wren, American Robin, Red-eyed Vireo, and Warbling Vireo singing all around. In the river I saw a female Hooded Merganser and Bank Swallows were flying up and down. After checking in the with the ranger I walked across the street and went to the Cross Ranch Nature Preserve, The Nature Conservancy’s first project in North Dakota. Unfortunately the day I was there someone had let the cows out and they were all over the trail with their stupid calves threatening me. I tried to shoo them away but they held steadfast in the trail. The trail goes through some short grass prairie and has some impressive views of the Missouri River flood plain. I couldn’t get past the cows though so finally I just started walking out into the prairie. I came across some small trees and there was a mish-mash of eastern bird species mixed in with western species. North Dakota is the exact geographical center of North America and is at a cross road between eastern and western bird species (probably other species as well). So I would see an Eastern Kingbird on a fence right next to a Western Kingbird. There were many Grasshopper Sparrows and Field Sparrows at Cross Ranch. A Yellow-breasted Chat popped right out in front of me and began to sing and in the same tree was a singing Willow Flycatcher. There was only one bison and it was well away from me which was fine with me after my close encounters with the stupid cows blocking the trail.
I left Cross Ranch and drove east about 30 miles to McKenzie Slough in the tiny town of McKenzie (all towns are tiny in North Dakota). I walked along the marsh and could hear some Sedge Wrens singing but not one would show its pretty little head so I could get a look at this new species. How unsatisfying. I drove along the slough and saw four Wilson’s Phalaropes in breeding plumage as well as a Black Tern hawking over the marsh. After driving along the slough for a while I decided to head back to my camp site at Cross Ranch. Everybody had left and I was the only camper—a camper’s dream! It was so peaceful in the cottonwoods along the Missouri River, I could have stayed there all week long. I took an evening walk along the river and listened to all the birds singing, Blue Jays, Field Sparrows, Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Bluebird, and Common Yellowthroat. Cross Ranch is on the Lewis and Clark Trail. When Lewis and Clark came through there were still Grizzly Bears and Swift Foxes but all I saw were some White-tailed Deer and squirrels.
Monday, June 23, 2008, I reluctantly left Cross Ranch and drove west about 120 miles to Theodore Roosevelt National Park near the border with Montana. I stopped at the Painted Canyon section and low and behold the ranger I met in Dry Tortugas was behind the desk. She told me about a Golden Eagle nest on the scenic loop and gave me a bird check list. I took the Painted Canyon loop trail while there and was devoured by biting gnats. I was the only person on the trail and I can see why. Those things left welts on my neck that lasted a week. On the trail I saw a Lazuli Bunting that practically bumped into me it was so close. This trail is part of a trail used by Colonel Custer when he traveled back and forth between the Fort in Bismarck and another one in Montana while battling the Sioux Indians to steal their land. I drove from Painted Canyon into the main section of the South Unit and set up my tent at a nice site on the Little Missouri River at the Cottonwood Campground. Then I went for a walk on the Lower Paddock Creek Trail. It was full of Prairie Dogs and Bison and I also saw a Wild Horse wallowing in the dust probably trying to get the gnats off of it. There were more Field Sparrows, one Lark Sparrow, Rock Wren, Baltimore Oriole, Common Grackle, and Common Nighthawk. I only went a couple of miles and then took the entire scenic loop, stopping at all the pullouts. I stopped where Sarah, the ranger, told me the Golden Eagle nest was and sure enough there it was and nearby on a ledge was an immature Golden Eagle. As evening approached I returned to the Scenic Loop Drive and pulled into the entrance to the Coal Vein Trail. I stopped when I saw something crossing the road and got out with my camera—a Sharp-tailed Grouse. I was just able to film it as it scooted up a hillside and away. Night was approaching so I returned to Cottonwood Campground. I walked around the campground listening for a Screech-owl Sarah had mentioned but only heard a Great Horned Owl. That night in my tent I woke up to the sound of a Bison stomping and snorting right next to my tent! I was so scared I was going to be trampled. My little flimsy tent was no protection from a 2 ton animal! I waited thinking I was going to die until it finally stomped away.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008, I drove outside of the park at the suggestion of another ranger through some of North Dakota’s oil wells to the trail head for the Petrified Forest Trail. I hiked 10 miles with my big professional camera on that trail. It was so hard carrying that camera that far. All the petrified wood was in the first two miles and then the trail dipped down into a riparian zone where I saw more Yellow-breasted Chat, Red-eyed Vireo, Spotted Towhee, dozens of Clay-colored Sparrows, and out of the woods a Sharp-shinned Hawk. As I rose over a ridge to the grasslands I came across a beautiful male Mountain Bluebird. The rest of the trail went through grasslands and I didn’t see many birds but the views of the Little Missouri River far below were outstanding.
After my hike I decided to try something else so I drove east to Schnell Recreation Area hoping to find a Gray Partridge around the agricultural fields there. I walked a nature trail and was enveloped with dozens of ticks. Some ferocious looking clouds were on the horizon so I went to the campground there and had a shower and then left. There was no time to check the agricultural fields because that storm was descending on me fast. Soon hail the size of pennies was plinking onto the car and I could not see a thing. Fortunately as a drove back west toward Teddy Roosevelt NP I drove out of the storm and into sunny weather. I decided to try the Little Missouri National Grasslands. You can follow Custer’s Trail through this grassland and also supposedly see some of North Dakota specialty birds. All I saw were some more Grasshopper Sparrows, Swainson’s Hawk, Mountain Bluebird, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Harrier, Lazuli Bunting, and one Say’s Phoebe. Way off of the trail were a few Antelopes. That night I was too scared to sleep in my tent with those roaming bison around so I slept in the car.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008, I got up before dawn and started driving like mad for miles through endless prairie toward the tiny town of Stanley where I was again pulled by the ND State Patrol. This guy was in a pooh brown uniform with one yellow light flashing, the other one out. I thought the guy was delivering mail for god’s sake. He said I was going 76 in a 65. He asked me millions of questions and I burst into tears and said, “look I know you must be lonely out here on the sparsely populated prairie and need to meet your quota but why are you harassing me?” He said, “OK, get in the car with me.” I said no way you pervert. So he wrote me the ticket and then had the nerve to say, “have a safe trip.” I became very depressed after that. I arrived at my destination, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, not too late. In 1964 Congress passed the Wilderness Act to protect tracts of ecosystems across the US. Lostwood Wilderness Area was created in 1975 as part of that act to protect an area best representing the mixed grass prairie; it has a rich diversity with over 700 species of plants and 100 species of grasses. It is also home to the Baird’s Sparrow, a much sought after bird species as well as Sprague’s Pipit and Upland Sandpiper. I drove the auto tour route listening for the elusive Baird’s Sparrow which is said to have a song sounding like the opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. I pulled over and heard the unmistakeable, “dit, dit, dit, deeeee.” I rushed to pull out my camera, got my binoculars on a sparrow out in the prairie and there it was. But I only glimpsed it for a minute before it dove back into the grass never to be seen again. I tried to cajole it back out with a tape recording of its song on my ipod but it was having none of that. I was still feeling rather depressed about my personal problems and the speeding ticket and couldn’t even get very excited about adding the Baird’s Sparrow to my life list. I drove the auto tour some more and heard about half a dozen or maybe the same one moving around, Baird’s Sparrow but no luck seeing it. So I left Lostwood and drove 11 miles south to the tiny town of Powers Lake to see about getting a camp site. The “campground” was nothing more than a grassy field with some electrical outlets in it next to Powers Lake and across from two steel grain towers. I had lunch at a picnic table next to Powers Lake where a lone American White Pelican was swimming along with a Western Grebe.
After lunch I drove north to Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge and then on to Upper Soris National Wildlife Refuge, which was absolutely gorgeous. I was going to walk the Cottonwood trail but it was full of ticks and I wasn’t going to do that again. So I drove slowly past a grassy marshy area listening for the elusive Le Conte’s Sparrow. There was a Sedge Wren way out in the grass singing away but no Le Conte’s. I also saw some Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Bobolinks and a Willow Flycatcher. I decided to stop again in the evening on the way back to Powers Lake at Lostwood. I came across an Upland Sandpiper right in the auto tour road. In a wooded area I saw an owl that I think was a Long-eared Owl but it was too far away and just as I was about to leave the refuge a Sharp-tailed Grouse crossed in front of the car. I slept well that evening all by myself at the Powers Lake CG. They asked for a $3 donation to use the electrical outlet which I did to recharge my camera battery. The CG also had a hot shower and flushing toilet so I added a dollar for that too.
June 26, 2008, I left Powers Lake and drove north nearly to the border with Canada to the best birding spot in all of North Dakota, J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge. It was raining as I arrived and so I put on a poncho and went for a walk. Then when it started to let up I started the auto tour. There were many Black Terns hawking over the marsh and lots of Franklin’s Gulls. In addition to the extensive marshes at J. Clark Salyer there is also riparian habitat offering a completely different set of birds. I got out at the riparian area and took a walk. I saw a Baltimore Oriole feeding its chick which was in the grass. I pulled over at a weedy marshy area and finally heard a Le Conte’s Sparrow singing but again it just would not respond to a taped call or my pishing or any of my cajoling or begging. So I never did see it either. However, it is now on my list because I am not too persnickety about having to see it if you are sure you heard it and I am sure. I probably should have checked into a hotel in Minot and gone back to J. Clark Salyer the next day too but instead I made a daring move to try to see the incredibly elusive Yellow Rail. I drove for about two hours stopping at beautiful Turtle River State Park to find a camp site before proceeding after dark to Kelly’s Slough where Yellow Rails allegedly breed. Yellow Rails only call at night. So I drove over to the slough and rolled the window down to listen. It began to rain and the mosquitoes were house sized. I tried to play a tape but to no avail and in that rain it would have been a miracle frankly to hear one.
June 27, 2008, I left Turtle River State Park and stopped by Kelly’s Slough again but didn’t see too much. Then I drove south through the not so tiny town of Fargo and through the medium sized town of Jamestown to Alkali Lake Audubon Refuge. It was about to rain so I left my camera behind. Too bad to because a Swainson’s Hawk was just a few feet away perched in a tree. A bird was hawking in a field that looked much like a Black-billed Cuckoo but I don’t know if they hawk. Next I drove to Arrowwood NWR. The rain stopped but it was nearly mid day and I didn’t see much there besides more Bobolinks and a Red-tailed Hawk. Next I drove to Chase Lake NWR. It was very windy making it hard to hold my binoculars still or see or hear anything. I camped that night in the nearby tiny town of Medina at a little camp ground that also had a hot shower, water, flushing toilet and was only $10 a night. I got up at dawn and drove back to Chase Lake but it was incredibly windy all day long with sustained winds of 25-30 MPH. It is very difficult to bird in that kind of wind. I did see a Short-eared Owl early in the morning and got out at one point to film a Swainson’s Hawk when a farmer pulled up. He asked me if I was a birder (I was surprised he was familiar with that word) and when I said yes he said Oh let me give you this brochure for a tour route to follow to see some good birds around here and her are some more to give your friends. I said, thanks and then I asked him, “do you like living here?” To which he replied, “I love it!” I decided to try his suggestion. I drove around the area and never saw another human soul or building or anything the entire day. However, it was extremely windy making it nearly impossible to see or hear any birds either. I finally saw a Chestnut-collared Longspur but it was too far out in a field. I stopped at Lake Louise and saw four Upland Sandpipers. At Chicago Lake where you can supposedly hear Yellow Rails I heard a Sora and a Virginia Rail and saw a Wilson’s Snipe. At some of the other stops I saw Greater Yellowlegs, Orchard Oriole, Willow Flycatcher, Black Tern, Bobolink, and a nesting colony of Bank Swallows. After completing the tour I tried Ken’s suggested spot in Tuttle but there was little happening there besides a Ferruginous Hawk on a telephone pole. I drove back to Cross Ranch State Park to camp. On the drive there I finally saw a Gray Partridge crossing the road and as I entered the park I saw a Badger scuttling into a the prairie.
Sunday, June 29, was my last day. I left Cross Ranch SP and drove to Audubon NWR. I took the Prairie Trail and saw about five Great Horned Owls. I also saw several Ring-necked Pheasants, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Bobolinks, Northern Harrier, Marsh Wren, and one very cooperative Sedge Wren that let me get pretty close to it. There were also more Bank Swallows, Upland Sandpiper, Black-billed Magpie, Common Tern, Marbled Godwit, Black-crowned Night-heron, and a pair of Redheads. I also saw a Silvery Blue butterfly. There was not much time left and it was a gorgeous day so I went for a walk at the Cross Ranch Nature Preserve. A Least Flycatcher was persistently singing at the parking area. There were more Field Sparrows, American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, Turkey Vulture, Yellow-breasted Chat but nothing new. I took a different trail than the first day and was sauntering along when I came across an enormous Western Hognose Snake. It scared the hell out of me because I nearly stepped on it. I didn’t know this until later but one of their defense mechanisms is to inflate their entire bodies to enormous proportions. I mean this snake had about a six inch diameter! I got out of there after that. After all those near death experiences it was time for me to leave North Dakota. Despite all my scary encounters with highway patrolmen, stampeding cows, snorting bison, and inflating snakes, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the incredible solitude of North Dakota, the stark beauty of Teddy Roosevelt Park, and all the beauty and charm of the wilderness there.
New Species: 5
Michelle Brodie
July 13, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
NOME, ALASKA
Nome, Alaska
June 7-14, 2008
There are no roads to Nome, Alaska; you can only get there by plane or boat. I took a plane from San Francisco to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage, Anchorage to Kotzebue, and Kotzebue to Nome. I had a four hour lay over in Anchorage and so I walked out of the airport and went for a walk. My friend, Ken, had told me about a trail nearby but I had left the house that morning without time to download the directions and so I just walked toward Cook Inlet. It took me a long time to get to Cook Inlet but across the inlet I could see the top of 20,320 foot Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America. I could also see downtown Anchorage in the opposite direction. But then it was time to turn around and walk back. I saw a Black-billed Magpie, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Savannah Sparrow on the walk back. It took all day long to get to Nome and I didn’t arrive until 11:30 PM. It was still light out but raining and dismal so after picking up my rental car at the Aurora Inn I just found a safe place to park on the beach in Nome where you are allowed to camp for free and slept in the car. I just didn’t have the energy to put up a tent in the rain.
I didn’t sleep well with it light out all night long but I got up Sunday, June 8, 2008, and decided to just try a loop around town. I stopped at some ponds on the road to the airport and saw some Long-tailed Ducks, Greater Scaup, and Northern Pintails. It was raining and I had to film through the window. I saw a very large bull Moose in the just barely budding red willows. I drove from there up to Anvil Mountain. I walked the road a bit and saw a Lapland Longspur walking in the snow. This bird is abundant in Nome. Next I saw a Northern Wheatear a new bird for me and then a Common Redpoll, another new bird. There were some Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrushes in the willows near the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. After thoroughly checking Anvil Mountain I turned back to Nome Bypass where I saw my first ever American Tree Sparrow. A Common Snipe was perched in a telephone wire. I stopped at some ponds where Nome Bypass ends at Front Street and there were more ducks, Red-necked Phalaropes, and two Red-throated Loons in breeding plumage. Then I headed over to the grocery store to pick up some food. I bought 8 bananas (not sure where those came from), 8 apples from Washington State, a loaf of bread, box of crackers, two propane canisters, and a small pack of napkins and it cost me $45. However, gas was only $4.29 a gallon, far less than in San Francisco.
It was still early and so I decided to try some more birding. Though there are no roads into Nome, there are three roads out of town, Council, Teller, and Kougarok, all ending in tiny Native Camps about 70 or more miles out. I decided to try Council Road and took it as far as the Solomon Bridge. Council Road follows along the Bering Sea for the first 30 miles or so until it reaches the Solomon River mouth and then turns inland until it reaches the edge of the boreal forest. After leaving town I drove over the Nome River Bridge where I stopped to check some shorebirds on the river banks. They were all Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers. So I continued. Just past the bridge I pulled over at Fort Davis, a fort built during the gold rush to restore law and order. Some Aleutian Terns were flying over the field. Across the street a Long-tailed Jaeger was sitting in the tundra; they nest in Nome along with Parasitic Jaegers. At the brushy creek mouths I stopped to look for passerines and saw singing Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Yellow Warblers, and Common Redpolls. Next I came to a rock quarry where the rocks are being used to make a short jetty into the Bering Sea. I walked out onto it and it began to rain. There were several Glaucous Gulls on the shore along with a few Mew Gulls and a female Eider I was not able to identify. After the jetty the habitat opens up into grasslands. All along the Bering Sea people have built summer homes. There are no services past the Nome River Bridge, no sewage, no electricity, no water services. So most of these are little shacks, some more elaborate with decks and two stories but mostly little lean tos with outhouses. All along this stretch there were many Lapland Longspurs which nest in western Alaska in large numbers. Tundra Swans were in the river which paralleled the sea at this stretch. Finally I came to Safety Sound, a well known rare bird migrant area. I pulled over at the bridge and saw two Pacific Loons in breeding plumage. I drove across the bridge and pulled over to check the sound more closely. In the sound was a much rarer Arctic Loon. They look very similar to a Pacific Loon except for a white patch going up their rumps. I saw this clearly as it sat perched in the water. I walked along the sound and found an injured Murre pulling up to the shore. I looked at it closely and saw that it was a Thick-billed Murre, a bird I have never seen before. In the grassland I saw my first ever Yellow Wagtail circling and circling while singing before finally landing in the grass briefly. At the Solomon River Bridge I stopped to look at the remains of a train the miners had tried to build there to connect a gold mine claim at the Solomon River Mouth to another mine 50 miles away in the tiny mining town of Council at the end of the Council Road. The train was never completed most likely due to the harsh conditions in that part of the world. It started to rain again and was getting late so I decided to turn around there. I drove all the way back into Nome and then pulled into the Kougarok Road and drove another 38 miles to the Salmon Lake “campground.” The lake was still mostly frozen and the campground was nothing more than a road that went to the lake edge. However, it had an outhouse with toilet paper so I decided to camp there. The sun finally emerged and even though it was midnight was shining brightly when I got into my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.
June 9, 2008, I got up as early as possible and drove straight from Salmon Lake to milepost 72 at Coffee Dome on Kougarok Road. I pulled over and began to walk up a tussocky hill to a ridge where the rare and elusive Bristle-thighed Curlew nests. I had gone no further than a quarter of a mile when one flew over my head singing. It landed not far away and another one flew in as well. I was able to film it showing the pumpkin colored rump that differentiates it from the very similar looking Whimbrel which also nests on the tundra. There was also a Long-tailed Jaeger sitting on a tussock that let me get very close to it. The closest I had ever previously been was when seeing them far out at sea from a boat on a pelagic trip or through a spotting scope from the Cliff House at home in San Francisco. It began to snow so I had to return to the car and put the camera away. I drove almost to the end of Kougarok Road and then parked and decided to go for a walk to the end. I left my camera in the car as it was raining steadily by then. I had only walked about 20 feet from the car when a Bluethroat flew up right in front of my face singing away circling and then landing not twenty feet from me perched in a willow. It would have made a brilliant shot if it hadn’t been raining and my camera hadn’t been stowed safely in the car. I continued down the road. On one side it dropped off steeply down an embankment to a broad river. Far below I saw a female Moose eating beside the river. She kept looking back and looking back at me and I couldn’t figure out why when I was so far away and so harmless. Just about then I saw an enormous rack of a huge bull moose sitting in a willow patch just twenty yards or so from me. It looked at me and I got a little bit scared and turned back for the car. As I drove back toward Nome I came across a Short-eared Owl perched in a tree. There was another large whitish bird on the other side but I never could tell if it was a Snowy Owl or a light morph Gyrfalcon before it flew over the ridge and away. On the way back after Salmon Lake I stopped at the Grand Central Bridge and there were many warblers singing away in the trees, mostly Blackpoll Warblers, Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but also Arctic Warblers and some Tiaga subspecies of the Fox Sparrow. There were some Harlequin Ducks in the river.
June 10, 2008 I decided to drive the Council Road all the way to the tiny mining town of Council. I stopped at the Nome River Bridge and there was a male and female Bar-tailed Godwit on the river bank. I stopped at Safety Sound and walked along the Bering Sea Beach where I found an injured Thick-billed Murre coming to shore to die. On the other side of the sound a Yellow Wagtail was singing and circling above but only landing ever so briefly. A Short-eared Owl was hunting for food at the mouth of the Solomon River. That night I camped on the beach in Nome.
June 11, 2008 I decided to take the Teller Road. It was overcast and as I began my trip down to Teller, a native camp 70 miles away, it began to snow hard. I came across a large herd of reindeer in the tundra and finally a Rock Ptarmigan, another first. It was snowing so hard but I made out an American Golden Plover in breeding plumage in the snowy tundra. At the Bluestone Bridge the snow turned to rain. Cliff Swallows were nesting under the bridge and there was a Northern Shrike in the willows on the river bank. As I approached the tiny village of Teller the sun finally emerged. I parked at the end of the road just before the spit that goes out into Grantley Harbor and walked out toward the end of it. The sea was still full of ice chunks. Far out on another little spit were some Jaegers chasing Arctic Terns. Some Pigeon Guillemots flew by as well as Pelagic Cormorant and Common Eider. White Wagtails which are much rarer than Yellow Wagtails, nest in Teller but despite my best efforts I was unable to locate one. So I turned around and headed back to Nome.
June 12, 2008, I decided to take a day trip to St. Lawrence Island on Bering Air. The plane didn’t leave Nome until 9:00 AM so I went first to the Nome River mouth. There were some Glaucous Gulls on a sand bar and one Slaty-backed Gull. The gulls were very skittish and flew if I even got anywhere near them. Up on the Nome River Bridge I was a Bar-tailed Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Dunlin. Next I checked out the Ponds at Front Street and there were the usual Long-tailed Ducks, Red-throated Loons, and one Hoary Redpoll.
I was nervous about going to St. Lawrence Island. The plane is a twin prop that lands on the tiny island unassisted. So whether you make it or not on any given day is very much weather dependent and the weather so far in Nome had been rather miserable. But I made a reservation to leave at 9:00 AM and return the same day with a pick up at 5:00 PM. I don’t know what I would have done if the plane hadn’t been able to pick me up because I had nowhere to stay on that god forsaken island. But the weather was outstanding that day. We took off right on schedule and landed in Gambel, St. Lawrence Island around 10:00 PM. As I deplaned the plane was surrounded by native Suvuks on ATVs picking up their relatives as I wandered around looking for the bathroom. There was no bathroom—nothing there but an airstrip. A man on an ATV said something in some strange language and I finally figured he wanted to drive me around for a fee so I pulled out my wallet but he said no I don’t want your money what are you looking for and I said I wanted to look around so he said hop on I’ll take you to a bathroom. We pulled up to some building and the lady at the door said I could use the toilet. I didn’t know if it was her house or what. After coming out of the bathroom she said now you need to pay a fee to walk around the island. She handed me a form to fill out and extracted $50 from me just for the privilege of walking around that horrible trash filled island full of crazy people riding around in circles on noisy awful ATVs. St. Lawrence Island is 190 southwest of Nome, AK and just 40 miles from Siberia right out in the Bering Sea and a perfect platform to watch millions of seabirds flying by on their way to the tundra where they nest. This in turn attracts hundreds of birders each year to this tiny island to watch the spectacle and hope to catch an Asian stray bird or two that either lands on the island or flies past the point. I walked away from the pay house but it was foggy and I wasn’t exactly sure where the point was so I just started walking. Soon the fog lifted and I could see a giant sea cliff that came down to the sea. This is where three species of auklets and several other birds nest. It was extremely hard to walk there as the entire island is gravel. I was so tired by the time I made it to the cliff that the sweat was coming straight through my down jacket. As I walked along the coast I noticed a seabird very close to shore and stopped to film it not even sure what it was. At the cliff there were thousands of Least Auklets, Parakeet Auklets, and Crested Auklets as well as a few Pigeon Guillemots, at least one Black Guillemot, Horned Puffins, and two Snow Buntings. It was a truly amazing sight to see all those sea birds right there in front of me on the sea cliff. After enjoying that thoroughly I decided to walk to some “boneyards” near the town. St. Lawrence Island has been inhabited by humans since at least 1500 BC. These boneyards are middens left by these ancestors throwing the marine mammal bones they had used. The nutrients from these boneyards have seeped into the soil making an ideal place for plants to grow in this otherwise barren island. The natives living on Gambel live by subsistence activities of fishing, whaling, and harpooning walruses and seals. Every house had sticks strung with drying seal meat for the coming winter. Migration was actually over as it ends on June 10 generally so nothing much was happening at the boneyard other than a Lapland Longspur and a Semipalmated Plover so I kept going all the way to the point. I parked there and watched the show as hundreds of Horned Puffins, Tufted Puffins, Auklets, Harlequin Ducks, and other sea birds flew by in a steady stream. It was very exciting but as the sweat dried and I stood without moving I began to get cold so I moved around the island and found a gigantic whale bone in someone’s yard and some natives digging up a boneyard looking for some hidden ivory tusk on a walrus buried by their ancestors maybe. Then it was time to catch the plane home. Fortunately it was still clear and the plane landed right on time to take me back to Nome. It was still light out when I got back so after checking some bird sighting records at the Visitor Center I decided to try for a sighting of a Bluethroat on Kougarok Road seen by someone at milepost 38. I drove out there but only saw a Say’s Phoebe, Willow Ptarmigan, and Arctic Warbler. So I turned back and drove back to my campsite on the beach in Nome.
June 13, 2008 was my last day in Nome so I decided to try Council Road one last time all the way to Council. I had seen at least one new bird each day but I figured the only chances I had left at that point were the ever elusive Red-necked Stint possible at Safety Sound or a Boreal Chickadee in the Spruce Forest at the end of Council Road. At Nome River Bridge there were some Tundra Swans and Bar-tailed Godwits. At Safety Sound there was a huge flock of Semiplamated Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers but I could not find any Red-necked Stint. So I pressed on. At the tiny native village of Solomon there were a couple of Yellow Wagtails. I stopped at Lee’s abandoned mining camp not long after Solomon and found the only two butterflies of the trip—an Arctic Blue and an Anna’s White but no White Wagtail which allegedly nests there. I pressed on to the Boreal Forest. It was so muddy in some parts of that road as it climbed up to the forest that I thought the car might bottom out but it did just fine. It was a Ford Escape with good mud tires on it. Near the crest of the road I stopped where I saw a Northern Wheatear perched. Then I pressed on to the forest edge where I heard a Varied Thrush and several Snowshoe Hares were crossing the road. Near the town of Council I got out and saw a Whimbrel near the road. Then I stopped at the Bear Creek Rest Stop and walked around. Incredibly a Boreal Chickadee came out of the forest out into plain view! I walked around a pond lined with willows and saw several Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but got scared when I came across some enormous paw tracks in the mud. I returned to my car and started my drive back. When safely away from the bear tracks I got out and took a two mile walk but didn’t see anything except some Tree Swallows at the Fox River Bridge. So I headed back to Nome.
June 14, 2008 was my last day. Before walking to the airport I checked the Front Street Ponds and saw American Tree Sparrow, Common Redpoll, and Yellow Wagtail and then I briefly saw a bird pop up that looked like it might have been the White Wagtail reported there earlier in the week. But it was time to walk to the airport so I had to turn back and leave Nome.
95 species
19 new
Michelle Brodie
June 19, 2008
June 7-14, 2008
There are no roads to Nome, Alaska; you can only get there by plane or boat. I took a plane from San Francisco to Seattle, Seattle to Anchorage, Anchorage to Kotzebue, and Kotzebue to Nome. I had a four hour lay over in Anchorage and so I walked out of the airport and went for a walk. My friend, Ken, had told me about a trail nearby but I had left the house that morning without time to download the directions and so I just walked toward Cook Inlet. It took me a long time to get to Cook Inlet but across the inlet I could see the top of 20,320 foot Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America. I could also see downtown Anchorage in the opposite direction. But then it was time to turn around and walk back. I saw a Black-billed Magpie, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Savannah Sparrow on the walk back. It took all day long to get to Nome and I didn’t arrive until 11:30 PM. It was still light out but raining and dismal so after picking up my rental car at the Aurora Inn I just found a safe place to park on the beach in Nome where you are allowed to camp for free and slept in the car. I just didn’t have the energy to put up a tent in the rain.
I didn’t sleep well with it light out all night long but I got up Sunday, June 8, 2008, and decided to just try a loop around town. I stopped at some ponds on the road to the airport and saw some Long-tailed Ducks, Greater Scaup, and Northern Pintails. It was raining and I had to film through the window. I saw a very large bull Moose in the just barely budding red willows. I drove from there up to Anvil Mountain. I walked the road a bit and saw a Lapland Longspur walking in the snow. This bird is abundant in Nome. Next I saw a Northern Wheatear a new bird for me and then a Common Redpoll, another new bird. There were some Yellow Warblers and Northern Waterthrushes in the willows near the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. After thoroughly checking Anvil Mountain I turned back to Nome Bypass where I saw my first ever American Tree Sparrow. A Common Snipe was perched in a telephone wire. I stopped at some ponds where Nome Bypass ends at Front Street and there were more ducks, Red-necked Phalaropes, and two Red-throated Loons in breeding plumage. Then I headed over to the grocery store to pick up some food. I bought 8 bananas (not sure where those came from), 8 apples from Washington State, a loaf of bread, box of crackers, two propane canisters, and a small pack of napkins and it cost me $45. However, gas was only $4.29 a gallon, far less than in San Francisco.
It was still early and so I decided to try some more birding. Though there are no roads into Nome, there are three roads out of town, Council, Teller, and Kougarok, all ending in tiny Native Camps about 70 or more miles out. I decided to try Council Road and took it as far as the Solomon Bridge. Council Road follows along the Bering Sea for the first 30 miles or so until it reaches the Solomon River mouth and then turns inland until it reaches the edge of the boreal forest. After leaving town I drove over the Nome River Bridge where I stopped to check some shorebirds on the river banks. They were all Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers. So I continued. Just past the bridge I pulled over at Fort Davis, a fort built during the gold rush to restore law and order. Some Aleutian Terns were flying over the field. Across the street a Long-tailed Jaeger was sitting in the tundra; they nest in Nome along with Parasitic Jaegers. At the brushy creek mouths I stopped to look for passerines and saw singing Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Yellow Warblers, and Common Redpolls. Next I came to a rock quarry where the rocks are being used to make a short jetty into the Bering Sea. I walked out onto it and it began to rain. There were several Glaucous Gulls on the shore along with a few Mew Gulls and a female Eider I was not able to identify. After the jetty the habitat opens up into grasslands. All along the Bering Sea people have built summer homes. There are no services past the Nome River Bridge, no sewage, no electricity, no water services. So most of these are little shacks, some more elaborate with decks and two stories but mostly little lean tos with outhouses. All along this stretch there were many Lapland Longspurs which nest in western Alaska in large numbers. Tundra Swans were in the river which paralleled the sea at this stretch. Finally I came to Safety Sound, a well known rare bird migrant area. I pulled over at the bridge and saw two Pacific Loons in breeding plumage. I drove across the bridge and pulled over to check the sound more closely. In the sound was a much rarer Arctic Loon. They look very similar to a Pacific Loon except for a white patch going up their rumps. I saw this clearly as it sat perched in the water. I walked along the sound and found an injured Murre pulling up to the shore. I looked at it closely and saw that it was a Thick-billed Murre, a bird I have never seen before. In the grassland I saw my first ever Yellow Wagtail circling and circling while singing before finally landing in the grass briefly. At the Solomon River Bridge I stopped to look at the remains of a train the miners had tried to build there to connect a gold mine claim at the Solomon River Mouth to another mine 50 miles away in the tiny mining town of Council at the end of the Council Road. The train was never completed most likely due to the harsh conditions in that part of the world. It started to rain again and was getting late so I decided to turn around there. I drove all the way back into Nome and then pulled into the Kougarok Road and drove another 38 miles to the Salmon Lake “campground.” The lake was still mostly frozen and the campground was nothing more than a road that went to the lake edge. However, it had an outhouse with toilet paper so I decided to camp there. The sun finally emerged and even though it was midnight was shining brightly when I got into my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.
June 9, 2008, I got up as early as possible and drove straight from Salmon Lake to milepost 72 at Coffee Dome on Kougarok Road. I pulled over and began to walk up a tussocky hill to a ridge where the rare and elusive Bristle-thighed Curlew nests. I had gone no further than a quarter of a mile when one flew over my head singing. It landed not far away and another one flew in as well. I was able to film it showing the pumpkin colored rump that differentiates it from the very similar looking Whimbrel which also nests on the tundra. There was also a Long-tailed Jaeger sitting on a tussock that let me get very close to it. The closest I had ever previously been was when seeing them far out at sea from a boat on a pelagic trip or through a spotting scope from the Cliff House at home in San Francisco. It began to snow so I had to return to the car and put the camera away. I drove almost to the end of Kougarok Road and then parked and decided to go for a walk to the end. I left my camera in the car as it was raining steadily by then. I had only walked about 20 feet from the car when a Bluethroat flew up right in front of my face singing away circling and then landing not twenty feet from me perched in a willow. It would have made a brilliant shot if it hadn’t been raining and my camera hadn’t been stowed safely in the car. I continued down the road. On one side it dropped off steeply down an embankment to a broad river. Far below I saw a female Moose eating beside the river. She kept looking back and looking back at me and I couldn’t figure out why when I was so far away and so harmless. Just about then I saw an enormous rack of a huge bull moose sitting in a willow patch just twenty yards or so from me. It looked at me and I got a little bit scared and turned back for the car. As I drove back toward Nome I came across a Short-eared Owl perched in a tree. There was another large whitish bird on the other side but I never could tell if it was a Snowy Owl or a light morph Gyrfalcon before it flew over the ridge and away. On the way back after Salmon Lake I stopped at the Grand Central Bridge and there were many warblers singing away in the trees, mostly Blackpoll Warblers, Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but also Arctic Warblers and some Tiaga subspecies of the Fox Sparrow. There were some Harlequin Ducks in the river.
June 10, 2008 I decided to drive the Council Road all the way to the tiny mining town of Council. I stopped at the Nome River Bridge and there was a male and female Bar-tailed Godwit on the river bank. I stopped at Safety Sound and walked along the Bering Sea Beach where I found an injured Thick-billed Murre coming to shore to die. On the other side of the sound a Yellow Wagtail was singing and circling above but only landing ever so briefly. A Short-eared Owl was hunting for food at the mouth of the Solomon River. That night I camped on the beach in Nome.
June 11, 2008 I decided to take the Teller Road. It was overcast and as I began my trip down to Teller, a native camp 70 miles away, it began to snow hard. I came across a large herd of reindeer in the tundra and finally a Rock Ptarmigan, another first. It was snowing so hard but I made out an American Golden Plover in breeding plumage in the snowy tundra. At the Bluestone Bridge the snow turned to rain. Cliff Swallows were nesting under the bridge and there was a Northern Shrike in the willows on the river bank. As I approached the tiny village of Teller the sun finally emerged. I parked at the end of the road just before the spit that goes out into Grantley Harbor and walked out toward the end of it. The sea was still full of ice chunks. Far out on another little spit were some Jaegers chasing Arctic Terns. Some Pigeon Guillemots flew by as well as Pelagic Cormorant and Common Eider. White Wagtails which are much rarer than Yellow Wagtails, nest in Teller but despite my best efforts I was unable to locate one. So I turned around and headed back to Nome.
June 12, 2008, I decided to take a day trip to St. Lawrence Island on Bering Air. The plane didn’t leave Nome until 9:00 AM so I went first to the Nome River mouth. There were some Glaucous Gulls on a sand bar and one Slaty-backed Gull. The gulls were very skittish and flew if I even got anywhere near them. Up on the Nome River Bridge I was a Bar-tailed Godwit, Western Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, and Dunlin. Next I checked out the Ponds at Front Street and there were the usual Long-tailed Ducks, Red-throated Loons, and one Hoary Redpoll.
I was nervous about going to St. Lawrence Island. The plane is a twin prop that lands on the tiny island unassisted. So whether you make it or not on any given day is very much weather dependent and the weather so far in Nome had been rather miserable. But I made a reservation to leave at 9:00 AM and return the same day with a pick up at 5:00 PM. I don’t know what I would have done if the plane hadn’t been able to pick me up because I had nowhere to stay on that god forsaken island. But the weather was outstanding that day. We took off right on schedule and landed in Gambel, St. Lawrence Island around 10:00 PM. As I deplaned the plane was surrounded by native Suvuks on ATVs picking up their relatives as I wandered around looking for the bathroom. There was no bathroom—nothing there but an airstrip. A man on an ATV said something in some strange language and I finally figured he wanted to drive me around for a fee so I pulled out my wallet but he said no I don’t want your money what are you looking for and I said I wanted to look around so he said hop on I’ll take you to a bathroom. We pulled up to some building and the lady at the door said I could use the toilet. I didn’t know if it was her house or what. After coming out of the bathroom she said now you need to pay a fee to walk around the island. She handed me a form to fill out and extracted $50 from me just for the privilege of walking around that horrible trash filled island full of crazy people riding around in circles on noisy awful ATVs. St. Lawrence Island is 190 southwest of Nome, AK and just 40 miles from Siberia right out in the Bering Sea and a perfect platform to watch millions of seabirds flying by on their way to the tundra where they nest. This in turn attracts hundreds of birders each year to this tiny island to watch the spectacle and hope to catch an Asian stray bird or two that either lands on the island or flies past the point. I walked away from the pay house but it was foggy and I wasn’t exactly sure where the point was so I just started walking. Soon the fog lifted and I could see a giant sea cliff that came down to the sea. This is where three species of auklets and several other birds nest. It was extremely hard to walk there as the entire island is gravel. I was so tired by the time I made it to the cliff that the sweat was coming straight through my down jacket. As I walked along the coast I noticed a seabird very close to shore and stopped to film it not even sure what it was. At the cliff there were thousands of Least Auklets, Parakeet Auklets, and Crested Auklets as well as a few Pigeon Guillemots, at least one Black Guillemot, Horned Puffins, and two Snow Buntings. It was a truly amazing sight to see all those sea birds right there in front of me on the sea cliff. After enjoying that thoroughly I decided to walk to some “boneyards” near the town. St. Lawrence Island has been inhabited by humans since at least 1500 BC. These boneyards are middens left by these ancestors throwing the marine mammal bones they had used. The nutrients from these boneyards have seeped into the soil making an ideal place for plants to grow in this otherwise barren island. The natives living on Gambel live by subsistence activities of fishing, whaling, and harpooning walruses and seals. Every house had sticks strung with drying seal meat for the coming winter. Migration was actually over as it ends on June 10 generally so nothing much was happening at the boneyard other than a Lapland Longspur and a Semipalmated Plover so I kept going all the way to the point. I parked there and watched the show as hundreds of Horned Puffins, Tufted Puffins, Auklets, Harlequin Ducks, and other sea birds flew by in a steady stream. It was very exciting but as the sweat dried and I stood without moving I began to get cold so I moved around the island and found a gigantic whale bone in someone’s yard and some natives digging up a boneyard looking for some hidden ivory tusk on a walrus buried by their ancestors maybe. Then it was time to catch the plane home. Fortunately it was still clear and the plane landed right on time to take me back to Nome. It was still light out when I got back so after checking some bird sighting records at the Visitor Center I decided to try for a sighting of a Bluethroat on Kougarok Road seen by someone at milepost 38. I drove out there but only saw a Say’s Phoebe, Willow Ptarmigan, and Arctic Warbler. So I turned back and drove back to my campsite on the beach in Nome.
June 13, 2008 was my last day in Nome so I decided to try Council Road one last time all the way to Council. I had seen at least one new bird each day but I figured the only chances I had left at that point were the ever elusive Red-necked Stint possible at Safety Sound or a Boreal Chickadee in the Spruce Forest at the end of Council Road. At Nome River Bridge there were some Tundra Swans and Bar-tailed Godwits. At Safety Sound there was a huge flock of Semiplamated Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers but I could not find any Red-necked Stint. So I pressed on. At the tiny native village of Solomon there were a couple of Yellow Wagtails. I stopped at Lee’s abandoned mining camp not long after Solomon and found the only two butterflies of the trip—an Arctic Blue and an Anna’s White but no White Wagtail which allegedly nests there. I pressed on to the Boreal Forest. It was so muddy in some parts of that road as it climbed up to the forest that I thought the car might bottom out but it did just fine. It was a Ford Escape with good mud tires on it. Near the crest of the road I stopped where I saw a Northern Wheatear perched. Then I pressed on to the forest edge where I heard a Varied Thrush and several Snowshoe Hares were crossing the road. Near the town of Council I got out and saw a Whimbrel near the road. Then I stopped at the Bear Creek Rest Stop and walked around. Incredibly a Boreal Chickadee came out of the forest out into plain view! I walked around a pond lined with willows and saw several Yellow Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, and Northern Waterthrushes but got scared when I came across some enormous paw tracks in the mud. I returned to my car and started my drive back. When safely away from the bear tracks I got out and took a two mile walk but didn’t see anything except some Tree Swallows at the Fox River Bridge. So I headed back to Nome.
June 14, 2008 was my last day. Before walking to the airport I checked the Front Street Ponds and saw American Tree Sparrow, Common Redpoll, and Yellow Wagtail and then I briefly saw a bird pop up that looked like it might have been the White Wagtail reported there earlier in the week. But it was time to walk to the airport so I had to turn back and leave Nome.
95 species
19 new
Michelle Brodie
June 19, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
BIRDING FLORIDA: April 19, 2008-May 3, 2008
Michell Brodie, Bird Buccaneer, Goes to Florida
April 19 – May 3, 2008
On April 19, 2008, I caught a plane that left San Francisco at 6:00 AM and yet the man across the aisle from me still managed to drink four beers before landing in Atlanta! Both that flight and my connecting flight to Tampa, Florida were early so it was an auspicious beginning to an amazing trip to Florida. Tampa is very convenient; there is a Target (for propane and bug spray), a Whole Foods Market (for good food), and an excellent beer shop (for obvious reasons) all in the same shopping area just minutes from the airport. After finishing all my preparations there was no time left for anything but to drive to my camp for the night at Little Manatee River State Park in Wimauma, FL. Just driving in I saw a Roseate Spoonbill fly over the highway and a Little Blue Heron in a ditch on the side of the road. The entrance is lined with saw palmettos and moss draped oak trees and my little camp site was very private and cozy. As I fell asleep under a full moon a Chuck-will’s-Widow came and began to sing along with some Common Nighthawks. During the night a Barred Owl began to hoot.
April 20, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM and drove to Ft. DeSoto Park on Tampa Bay near St. Petersburg. There were dozens of Ospreys nesting in the park. I stopped first at the East Beach and there were some White Ibises walking at my feet. They were very common it turned out. I then drove west to Bay Pier Parking Area to the famous mulberry trees. There were dozens of birders surrounding these trees but there were very few birds. Almost all of the birders were photographers. I was the only one videotaping. Finally after waiting and walking around for about 30 minutes a few things flew in—a Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bunting, and a Prothonotary Warbler. The birders surrounded the poor things. So I took a walk around and found a Pileated Woodpecker right out in the open in the parking lot and some Common Ground-Doves in the dunes. There were also some Black-hooded Parakeets in the palmetto trees. I took a little nature trail across the street and saw a Magnificent Frigate Bird circling high overhead. Next I took the nature walk in an oak hammock and mangrove forest at the Arrowhead Picnic Area where I saw a Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler. Next I drove to the North Beach (allegedly the number one beach in the US) and walked around the hammock at the end of the island where I saw my first ever Gulf Fritillary and Mangrove Skipper. Ft. DeSoto wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be so I drove from there to St. Petersburg to the Boyd Hill Nature Park. Over 50 species of butterflies have been recorded in this neat little park. It has extensive trails through various habitats, oak hammock, pine woodlands, and wetlands. In the oak hammock I saw another Pileated Woodpecker, Great-crested Flycatcher, Kentucky Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, an Ovenbird, and a Red-shouldered Hawk devouring a rat. There were some gopher tortoises in the open areas and alligators near the water. I saw several different butterflies—the beautiful Zebra Longwing, Gulf Fritillary, Monarch, White Peacock, Cassius Blue, Horace’s Duskywing, Sleepy Orange, and Tropical Checkered Skipper. It was getting late so I headed back to my campsite at Little Manatee River State Park. I took a walk along the river but dark was approaching and I didn’t see much. As it darkened I heard Common Nighthawks, Barred Owl, Northern Bobwhite, and Chuck-will’s-Widow.
April 21, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM as usual and drove north of Tampa to the Dunedin Causeway where I stopped and looked at some shorebirds including Ruddy Turnstone, Piping Plover, and a pack of Black Skimmers among other things, before heading onward to Honeymoon Island State Park. As I was entering the park I saw my first ever Gray Kingbird. It was perched on a phone wire and was singing away. I drove to the end of the park and took the Osprey Trail. As the name indicates there were many, many Ospreys. I saw several species of warblers on the trail including Palm Warbler, very common resident, Prairie Warbler, another common resident, Cape May Warbler (to think how hard I worked for one in Pt. Pelee last year), Hooded Warbler, and Indigo Buntings at my feet. A Tricolored Heron was near the end of the trail and a Blue Grosbeak was in the picnic area. After walking the trail I drove over to the beach area which was loaded with vacationers loafing about. I walked down the narrow beach and saw a Northern Gannet right off shore diving for food. Just inland from the beach was a small pond where I saw a Wilson’s Plover. It was starting to get crowded so I decided to leave and return to Ft. DeSoto where I would be camping for the night. It was extremely windy. I returned to the famous mulberry trees where there were still some birders lingering about. The Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Summer Tanager from yesterday were still there but there was a photographer with the biggest lens I have ever seen photographing near the fountain so that I could not get close enough for good video. His lens must have been 1000mm. I watched for a while but decided to try the end of the island. There was nothing but a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the non-native Australian Pines at East Beach. At the end of the island I saw a small flock of shorebirds that let me get very close and included Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Plover, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, and some Dowitchers. That night the extreme wind kept me awake most of the night with the tent fly flapping furiously in the wind.
April 22, 2008, I got up early and checked the mulberry trees at sun up. The only additions were I finally saw the Prothonotary Warbler eating some berries, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which I saw very few of in Florida. Red-eyed Vireo, and an Overnbird which is very common. I left the park and drove to Osprey, Florida to the Oscar Scherer State Park, best place in the state to find the Florida Scrub-Jay which looks just like our Western Scrub-Jay but is a separate species. I carried that doggone 11 pound camera on a three mile hike through pine lands but was rewarded with ultra close ups of my first ever Florida Scrub-Jay. There were very few people at the park and I enjoyed hiking in the pine woodlands but after having my lunch I decided to drive to J.N. “Ding: Darling National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most famous birding sites in all of North America (I’m not sure why). It took a very long time to get there because you must cross a causeway from Ft. Meyers Beach to Sanibel Island to get there. Sanibel Island is a tourist destination entirely apart from the excellent birding allegedly there, and thus extremely crowded. The wildlife refuge, when I finally did make it there, was packed with people and not one of them a birder. Packs of people were all around me at all times. I saw more butterflies than birds including Giant Swallowtail, Mangrove Buckeye, Cloudless Sulphur, Zebra Swallowtail, Great Southern White, and Little Yellow. After walking the nature trail I left Sanibel Island and took the long drive to my campground for the night, Ortona Lock, which is about half way across the state. I was supposed to meet my friend, Ken, the following morning on the Atlantic side; Fort Myers is on the Gulf side. As I approached the turn off for Ortona Lock, I saw a Crested Caracara right on the side of the road and a White-winged Dove and Loggerhead Shrike. I arrived at the Ortona Lock campground right at sunset. It was a very strange campground; right across the road was a herd of cattle! It was very clean and had a nice bathroom with a clean hot shower but it was a little strange for me. I received a message from Ken that he would be unable to meet me the next day.
April 23, 2008, I got up as early as humanly possible and made the grueling drive across the state to Delray Beach to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I arrived later than I intended and there were already numerous people there, mostly joggers and photographers. I was the only birder there. One guy was taking photos but he didn’t know what anything was. The area is a managed wetland watered with reclaimed water from the waste water treatment plant. Before the state obliterated the real wetlands to build hundreds of golf courses, the water was naturally filtered through these wetlands leaving plenty of fresh drinking water but with the demands on land in Florida for development, the wetlands were soon vastly diminished leaving no source to filter all the waste water being created. So places like Wakodahatchee were created to fill the void. In the meantime the place had become a major attractant for wildlife that had become habituated to humans to the point that normally extremely shy species such as Least Bitterns and Purple Gallinules walked right out into the open, thus all the photographers. The joggers just enjoyed a nice walk on the boardwalks there through a lush beautiful wetland. I walked around the boardwalk twice and had extremely close views of Purple Gallinule, my first ever Limpkin, Least Tern feeding a chick, Anhingas everywhere, Common Moorhens with little chicks, Mottled Duck, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Wood Storks, and every heron species in the state. While looking at the whistling ducks several species of warblers flew into a tree by my head. While out on the boardwalk I realized that for some undetermined amount of time the microphone on my video camera had been in the off position. I was crushed to the core. I had been making running commentaries for three days and had taped nearly an hour of footage. I was just crestfallen. After lunch I drove from Wakodohatchee to Green Cay Wetlands. It was an erstwhile bell pepper farm that had been donated by the farmers to the state at a fraction of the market value with the understanding that it would be managed as a wetland in perpetuity. It too had a nice boardwalk with plenty of wildlife but being only four years old the birds were not nearly as close as at Wakodahatchee. I saw pretty much all the same species I had seen earlier in the morning. So I left Delray Beach and drove south on I-75 to Miami over the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to the end of the island to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. I needed a restroom desperately. I got out of the car with my video camera and walked over to some trees. They were dripping with warblers. I started to video tape some but there were mobs of Jews on their Passover vacation being wheeled up and down the trail on bicycle carts. Each one stopping to inquire what I was doing or looking at etc. I decided I better find a restroom. I saw a man with binoculars and I told him the trees were dripping with warblers but I was being harassed. I asked him where the restroom was. He introduced himself to me which I thought was strange but then later after taking care of some rather urgent matters realized he was the guy who had written the Florida bird finding guide in my car, Brian Rapoza! Fortunately I saw him later and told him I was sorry his name didn’t click earlier and thanked him for his helpful book. He pointed out a more peaceful trail I could take which was a dirt path with no bicycle carts or people for that matter save me and Brian Rapoza. This trail also had many birds and butterflies on it including Painted Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, American Redstart, Black-throated Green Warbler, and the ever present Palm Warbler. Among the butterflies I saw were the gorgeous Zebra Longwing and a Queen. I stayed for a very long time but then decided I better go as it was getting late. I drove back over the causeway and through Miami in hellish traffic south on the Dixie Highway (Highway 1) to the Everglades where I would be camping for the next three nights. The campground had only two other people so I had my choice of the best spot which I took and fell fast asleep. A Chuck-will’s-widow sang me to sleep.
April 24, 2008, I woke up early to an Antillean Nighthawk singing high overhead somewhere. I could not see it because my camp site was nestled in some very tall Long Pines. While brushing my teeth in the campground bathroom I noticed a Green Tree Frog in one of the overflow holes. I drove from Everglades to one of Miami’s hottest birding spots, A.D Doug Barnes Park. There were a few warblers but nothing like the numbers I had seen at Bill Baggs. The only new bird was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and some Muscovy Ducks which I don’t think are “countable.” Countable is a fanatical birder term. Most birders keep lists of all the birds they see and count how many species they have seen in their lives. But serious birders also divide the list into areas where the bird was seen. Depending on how fanatical they are their lists might be as minute as which county the bird was seen in. So for example, my friend Jennifer Rycenga, who is very fanatical, keeps a list of how many species she has seen in San Mateo County, how many she has seen in California, how many she has seen in North America, and in the world. The North American list is further delineated by the American Birding Association (ABA) to include only the US including Alaska and Canada. You may not include birds you saw in Hawaii on your North American ABA list. The ABA has other bizarre rules about what may be counted on your list. For example escaped birds are not countable nor are released birds even if they are nesting and breeding in the wild until their population reaches what the ABA considers a viable population. I think the Black-hooded Parakeets are not “countable.” I’m not sure why because I don’t really keep up with such nonsense but there sure were a lot of them at Fort DeSoto. Yes, they did originate in the suitcase of some stowaway from South America but they most certainly are living on their own in the wild at this point. Other birds that were introduced and quickly spread to make viable populations there is no question you may count such as European Starlings and House Sparrows. California Condors may only be counted if you saw one before 1979 or something because that’s when the last one was captured for captive breeding because they are basically extinct. According to EO Wilson once a species’s population falls below 50 it is considered extinct and beyond recovery. So the Muscovy Duck was most likely an escapee and not countable on my ABA approved North American list or life list as most birders call them (although I read somewhere that Floridians consider them "countable.") In fact, when I arrived in Florida I had a wish list of birds I had never seen before that I wanted to see. However, I was not exactly sure how many “countable” birds were on my North American Life List. My goal was to reach 600 in 2008. I didn’t count the Muscovy Duck. I was about ready to leave AD Barnes due to lack of bird activity when I noticed a very large swallowtail flutter by; this Giant Swallowtail, my first, was the best sighting at AD Barnes.
I left AD Barnes and drove to Matheson Hammock County Park. This is Miami Dade County’s oldest park and it was a dandy. It had trails through some incredible tropical hardwood hammock of which there is very little left in the extremely developed South part of Florida. I took one of the trails and soon came to a Royal Palm with a Chestnut-fronted Macaw poking his head out of one of the many holes in the trunk. (I’m pretty sure this is not countable). I also saw a Hill Myna. I had never heard of it before and wasn’t sure whether it was countable. I was looking intently at a Spicebush Swallowtail I wanted desperately to photograph when another birder said, “Ma’am, there’s a Short-tailed Hawk overhead.” Sure enough there was my first ever Short-tailed Hawk, a dark morph, circling right above us. I walked into a very wild tangled trail-- what all of Miami looked like before all the development. In there I found a Great Southern White and a Florida White Butterfly. I heard a Bobwhite calling. I had lunch in the picnic area and then left. I drove back across the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to Crandon Beach. I went to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center and took the Osprey Trail through maritime forest. It was near midday and I didn’t see much besides the resident Prairie Warblers and Palm Warblers but it was a nice walk out to a boardwalk through a mangrove forest. It was nearing rush hour and I couldn’t bear the thought of being caught in Miami rush hour traffic again trying to get back to my campsite in the Everglades so I decided to head directly east toward the Shark Valley entrance thinking there would be less traffic. The roads in Miami are ridiculous. They are numbered but not in order! How absurd. I ended up in some run down neighborhood full of Cuban refugees. I finally managed to get out of there in some convoluted way and make it to Shark Valley in time to have my dinner beside the canal. This was an alleged spot to see Snail Kites coursing over the marsh. I watched while eating but saw nothing but herons and Vultures. I heard a King Rail somewhere in the bank but never saw it. The Shark Valley visitor center was closed with a gate pulled across it. So after dinner I left and returned to my camp site at Long Pine Key Campground. Some more people had arrived including some completely self absorbed foreigner in a rented RV who parked his RV right next to my tent even though there were hundreds of open camp sites. At 10:30 PM when his obnoxious noisy generator was still running I went over to his door and pounded on it until he answered. I said “quiet hours are 10:00 PM. Your generator is bothering me. Will you turn it off please?” He couldn’t speak English but mumbled something and a few minutes later it was off. I didn’t put the fly on my tent because it was a nice evening but I had no sooner fallen asleep than it began to rain and I had to get up and put the fly on. It was a rocky night and I didn’t feel well the next day.
April 25, 2008, I had intended to get up early as usual but I was feeling under the weather so to speak. The rain was very short lived and the sun was up by the time I arrived at Royal Palm in the Everglades, an alleged spot to see White-crowned Pigeons. I couldn’t find any but I took the Gumbo-Limbo trail which was a quite nice self-guided nature trail through tropical hammock. There was a Great Crested Flycatcher, Ovenbird, and American Redstart but not much else. I took the Anhinga trail and there were some alligators and Anhingas but not much else there either. So I drove some more down the park road to Mahogany Hammock. It held more tropical hammock including some very large mahogany trees, a tree that has mostly been logged out of Florida due to its high value as a hard wood for furniture and building. In most of the trees air plants were growing. There were two Gray Kingbirds at the entrance and one Eastern Kingbird, and a Barred Owl that was perched at eye level near the boardwalk. Next I drove further to the Snake Bight Trail, an alleged place to see the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. According to Rapoza’s book the mosquitoes on this trail are particularly vicious. He was not kidding about that. I sprayed 100% poison on myself, 100% deet, and had long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and they still bit me hundreds of times right through my clothes. It was unbelievable. It was 1.6 miles of pure hell to the boardwalk at the end of the trail. I couldn’t keep the mosquitoes off my hands because I was carrying my video camera on a tripod in one hand and binoculars in the other. I saw a few warblers but not too much else. I ran part of the time and was relieved at a little breeze on the boardwalk to keep the mosquitoes away. Just as I arrived a Swallow-tailed Kite flew right over my head followed by an immature Bald Eagle. I couldn’t see any Flamingoes allegedly visible from the boardwalk way out in Florida Bay, only a few shorebirds eating in the mudflats. I ran back down the trail to the car and proceeded to the end of the park at Flamingo. I saw the endangered American Crocodile on the banks of the canal behind the camp store. There are only 500 left and all of them in South Florida. Next I walked the Bear Lake Trail. At first I wasn’t seeing anything and I was just about to turn around and give up because I just could not take the constant whine of mosquitoes in my ears for one more minute when I heard a Black-whiskered Vireo singing, another new bird for me. I returned to the car and then headed back up the road to the Pa-hay-okee (native word for grassy waters) Observation Tower. Supposedly an occasional Snail Kite is seen here but I had no such luck. It was neat to see endless saw grass prairie from the top of the tower. It made me a little sad though to think in what peril the Everglades were to the depredations of humans. Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida and is a source of fresh drinking water for 99% of Florida’s water is not fresh. Due to rapid population increases, human demands, and overdevelopment the people nearly drained the Everglades dry by diverting the water from Lake Okeechobee. Man made canals had to be built to prevent the Everglades from disappearing forever and with them several species dependent on them including the Florida Panther.
April 26, 2008, I woke up not feeling my usual perky self. I went over to the Snake Bight Trail again to look for Mangrove Cuckoo but there was very little action so I gave up after about 50 mosquito bites and tried Royal Palm again. Not too much was happening there except for dozens of Black Vultures and I tried one last time at Mahogany Hammock but only saw three Barred Owls. So I left the Everglades and drove south on Highway 1, the Overseas Highway, to Key Largo. I stopped at the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical Site, the largest protected mangrove forest in the world. There were a few Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and a few other things like White-eyed Vireo but not too much else. So I decided to go on down to Key West. I had my lunch in the parking lot and while I was eating I heard some more Black-whiskered Vireos in the trees.
It is a long miserable drive down the Florida Keys on the Overseas Highway. You cannot go more than 45 MPH most of the time on a two lane road. So after driving for quite a long time I decided to stop in a Bahia Honda State Park. I drove to a parking area for a beach which was packed with tourists, and the Silver Palm Nature Trail. There were so many people I figured it was senseless to carry my camera and wouldn’t you know it I came within two feet of a gorgeous Reddish Egret in breeding plumage! Gorgeous. But I have no pictures and no video of it. Shame. I continued down the Overseas Highway to Key West and drove to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, supposedly a good place to find White-crowned Pigeons. I was having no luck at all. However, the warblers were right at eye level and very easy to see there. The poor birds are so tired and hungry by the time they see land in Key West that they just don’t care about human presence. All they can think about is eating. So I got some nice close up looks at some but it was getting late and I needed to pack for my big trip the next day so I left Ft. Zachary Taylor and checked into my hotel in Key West, the El Rancho. It took me a long time to prepare for my trip because I was headed to Dry Tortugas the next day and needed to have my cooler full of ice and all the food and water I would need for the next three days as Dry Tortugas has no water and no facilities whatsoever. I wanted block ice that would last longer but was having trouble finding any. The town was full of drunk revelers on spring break riding around recklessly on scooters and I was starting to feel poorly so I gave up and bought regular chipped ice. That night I slept very poorly.
April 27, 2008, the day I had been looking forward to for so long arrived. I woke up so terribly sick. I got over to the Land’s End Marina and checked in with the Yankee Freedom Ferry that would take my camping gear and me to Dry Tortugas, 70 miles off shore from Key West. After all my things were safely aboard and I was waiting for the ferry departure a deluge came and dumped the only significant rain of the entire two week trip. It passed after about 20 minutes and we were soon boarded and on our way. My nose began to run relentlessly. I had an inadequate amount of tissue, well none really and was constantly running down to the bathroom to get some. My nose would not stop running. I was so sick that I was unable to look for birds and anyway I couldn’t really see any. It certainly wasn’t like the Pacific Ocean which is full of pelagic bird life even close to shore. The ferry ride is 2.5 hours and I was sick for every minute of it. But I refused to let it get my spirits down. I had so looked forward to this part of the trip. I still think of it now with tears in my eyes, it was so special. The ferry landed at 10:30 AM and I went directly over to the campground to secure a good spot. I found a nice spot and put up my tent and then headed for a look around. Dry Tortugas is a very small island that you can walk around easily in 30 minutes but there is much to see there. The first thing I noticed was dozens of Ruddy Turnstones practically at my feet and half a dozen Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring overhead. I also noticed two hand made boats littered with refuse on the shore. It turned out that 10 Cuban Refugees had landed that day at 10:00 AM and were being escorted by the Park Service to Key West. I did not know this but unlike the Mexicans and Central Americans who are taken promptly back to Tijuana when caught illegally crossing the border, Cubans are welcomed by our country with open arms and given magnanimous greetings and help to establish themselves here. If they make it to land they are allowed to apply for citizenship and start a life here unencumbered by mere laws. I found this hard to accept given the discriminatory treatment given to Central American refugees and illegal entrants.
Just past the abandoned home made boats I came to the coaling docks (I never did find out what that term meant). Brown Noddies were roosting all over them at very close range. I think this is the only species that nests on Dry Tortugas. This was a new species for me but what would be really special would be to pick out a Black Noddy which is a very rare visitor, amongst the many Brown Noddies. Just off shore from Dry Tortugas are a number of other smaller islands including the closest one, Bush Key, home to the largest nesting colony of Sooty Terns in North America. There are estimated to be approximately 100,000 Sooty Terns on Bush Key. Sooty Terns are a pelagic species spending their entire lives at sea except when they come to shore to nest. As soon as the chicks hatch in late May and learn to fly they leave Bush Key and fly to the coast of Africa where they remain at sea for 3-5 years before returning to land to nest themselves. These were the first Sooty Terns I had ever seen. There used to be a colony of Roseate Terns on Bush Key but the last hurricane wiped out all the trees and they no longer nest there, though there are efforts to bring them back by using speakers installed on the island making Roseate Tern sounds.
In the middle of Dry Tortugas is Fort Jefferson, a fort that was built in 1846 to protect our coast from assault. Later the fort was used as a prison for deserters from the Union Army during the civil war. I was so sick all day but I tried to make the most of it. The ranger told us that this big shot birder named Larry Manfreddi had located a very rare Red-footed Booby on whatever key is next to Bush Key and had found two Black Noddies on the coaling docks. So I went to the top of the Fort to see if I could look down on the coaling docks from there. A woman was there with a spotting scope and we looked through it but couldn’t find the Black Noddy or the Red-footed Booby. Her scope was not very good and the tripod was even worse. It was quite windy on top of the Fort and it was difficult to make much out up there. I felt very bad so I returned to my camp site. I walked along the moat to get back and an injured Northern Gannet was in the moat within feet of me. I’ve never seen one so close before. I tried to lie on the picnic table but just felt miserable. I had my little dinner and my two little beers and just went to sleep after the sun went down. My neighbors were very nice and very respectful. Nobody made loud noises or acted obnoxious.
April 28, 2008, I was still sick but I still got up as soon as possible to be awake for sunrise when the birds would be arriving. One of the things that makes Dry Tortugas so special is that it sits out in the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles off shore from Key West and is often the first land a migrating bird returning from South America will see after flying all night long. Song birds migrate at night to avoid birds of prey it is believed and so as the sun comes up they are so tired and so hungry after crossing the Gulf of Mexico that they will stop at the first land they see. Due to their extreme fatigue and hunger they are hell bent on eating and become oblivious to humans. I got out of my tent and a Prairie Warbler was so close that I leaned down with my naked eye and could see individual feathers. I went and stood by the north coaling docks and saw a fantastic sunrise. The sun came up over Bush Key as swarms of Sooty Terns were silhouetted by the great giant orange ball. On the beach behind the campground my new friends, Mark and Mike and I spotted a Brown Booby. I had seen this bird before on the Monterey Coast Guard Pier. Later up on top of the Fort Mike had his scope out scanning the noddy flock. He told me that you could see the Masked Boobies from where we stood. I asked him to show me and indeed there was a nice sized flock of nesting Masked Boobies on Hospital Key visible through his scope, another life bird! There were only the same birds from yesterday around the island. I walked around the Fort with a roll of toilet paper in my backpack for my relentlessly running nose and tried again to look for the Black Noddy. A woman was there with binoculars. She told me her name was Vicki Rothman from Miami, and she was just there on a day trip with her husband. She told me that she heard you could see the Black Noddy from the moat. So we walked down to the edge (the Park Service had roped off this area as it was under construction) as close as allowed and sure enough there was a Black Noddy right next to a few Brown Noddies. You could clearly make out its much smaller size, darker color, and sharply demarked white cap. I had Vicki keep an eye out while I crossed into the roped off area for some video and a picture. Vicki wanted a picture for her records so I promised to email it to her (which I did but she never responded). It was a life bird for both of us. Inside the Fort were the same Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and Cattle Egrets from yesterday. I walked around the island with Vicki enjoying all the birds until she had to leave on the departing ferry at 3:00 PM. Around 5:00 PM I ran into Mike sitting with his spotting scope pointed toward the island right next to Bush Key. He called me over and let me look through his scope and I saw way in the distance my first ever Red-footed Booby. It was very far away but the reddish feet were clearly visible. I took some brief video even though it was too far away. It was my third life bird in one day. I thanked Mike and then went back to my campsite for dinner. As I sat eating I went through my journal checking how many new birds I had seen in Florida. I didn’t count the Black-hooded Parakeet(although to this day I’m not sure if it’s countable) but with the birds that were certainly countable, the Gray Kingbird, Florida Scrub-Jay, Limpkin, Antillean Nighthawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Black-whiskered Vireo, Brown Noddy, Masked Booby, Black Noddy, Sooty Tern, and Red-footed Booby, I had at least 11 new birds. I couldn’t remember if I had removed California Condor from my list and I wasn’t exactly sure but thought my count before I left was 588 so that would put me at 599, just one shy of 600. I wasn’t sure about the Hill Myna so I went over to ask Mike if it was countable. He was sitting next to bird trip leader, Larry Manfreddi. The question was directed at Mike but Larry chirped in immediately and barked to me “you can’t count Hill Myna and you didn’t even see one, you saw a Common Myna.” I went back to my picnic table and wrote in my journal, “Larry Manfreddi is an asshole.”
April 29, 2008, I woke up early and finally felt better. The West Nile Virus was nearly gone. As I stepped out of my tent it was still dark with dawn approaching; a Short-eared Owl flew right over my head. On the beach behind my tent I found the Northern Gannet dead on the shore. One leg was broken leaving it unable to paddle out of the water to get into the air and it had died of starvation. There was a beautiful sunrise over Bush Key. I walked behind the campground to the north coaling docks and I could see the birds flying in and literally crashing into the shore with exhaustion. It turned out to be an amazing day with hundreds of birds flying in all day long and eating at my feet. I got so close to a Veery that it was walking between my feet. There were Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Wood Thrushes, and Swainson’s Thrushes. At the famed fountain were Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, and Hooded Warbler. A Scarlet Tanager set up house keeping right behind my tent giving me eye popping close up views of this gorgeous scarlet and black bird. I also saw Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting, Summer Tanager, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Larry Manfreddi arrived with a group of about 20 birders who had paid him $1600 a piece to be lead by him to these birds that were so easy to see and find. At the end of the day they went back to his 64 foot boat to sleep at night and some evenings he took them to some of the other keys to look for birds not visible from Garden Key where my campsite and Fort Jefferson were. Manfreddi waltzed right into the campground oblivious to the campers, most of whom were not birders at all but there for relaxation or snorkeling, and put out a pan of water for the birds under some trees. Since the only other fresh water for the birds is from the fountain, the birds were very attracted to this make shift bird bath. And if you sat quietly nearby you could see just about all the birds on the island at ultra close distance. After a few minutes a Dickcissel in breeding plumage flew into the pan for a drink. After the daily ferry arrived at 10:30 a new group came and set up two tents in the site right in front of mine. It was two ladies from Orlando, Marcia and Cynthia, and a fellow named Steve who told me that he was a professional videographer for a TV station. At first when I asked why he wasn't videotaping he said he was on vacation but later he confided that he wished he did have his video camera but that the station wouldn't let it leave Wisconsin. Marcia told me that she was very impressed that I was brave enough to come out there and camp all alone.
At lunch a camper next to me, Kelly from Key Largo, offered to let me use her kayak to kayak out to Bush Key. I took her up on her offer but was too scared to take my camera along. I paddled out as close as possible to get a better look at the Sooty Terns. While paddling out I saw a huge Loggerhead Turtle in the water. Another kayaker paddled up and showed me how a Brown Noddy was perched on the end of his kayak and had been there for 15 minutes.
That evening as I sat at my picnic table for dinner Steve pointed out a male Bobolink in breeding plumage in a tree just above my campsite. Some nice people were leaving the next day and gave me their extra water which I gladly accepted. I didn’t need it to drink as I had plenty for that. I got into the Ocean to wash away the sweat and then used the fresh water to bathe in and rinse off the salt water afterwards. I love bathing outside! My ice had all melted but my daily allotment of two beers was still plenty cool. Since I now had extra water I used some to wet a towel I placed on top of my cooler and this functioned to keep the cooler extra cool. I used a rain poncho as a tarp during the day to keep the sun off of it. During the night I could hear the rats the park service had mentioned but they never bothered me or my stuff at all.
On the ferry ride out the Yankee Freedom had offered everyone snorkeling gear but I was so sick I couldn't even think of doing such a thing. Most people come to Dry Tortugas for a day trip and spend the day snorkeling the coral reef that surrounds Garden Key. I never did any snorkeling on account of my West Nile Virus but I did get to see some outlandishly colored fish from the moat including the brightly colored Parrot Fish and the little yellow and black Sargent Major fish. I also saw a Portuguese Man-0f-War in the water.
April 30, 2008, was my last day on Dry Tortugas. The ferry would take me back to Key West at 2:45 PM. There was another beautiful sunrise to admire but there weren’t nearly as many birds the last day. Inside the Fort were the usual Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk waiting to pounce on the tired hungry arriving song birds. Manfreddi and his paid customers came in later in the day. Manfreddi had another birder helping him lead his birding trip whose name I think was Nigel. Nigel found a Chuck-will’s-widow on a low branch behind the fountain. He pointed it out to the paying birders and of course I wanted it for my video I had been working so hard on but I didn’t want to scare it so I stayed back. Well, Nigel walked up to me and said you should get closer to get a better shot. I thought that was so uncharacteristic of most birders and I was so grateful at his kindness. I took him up on his offer and got as close as I dared. There were also two Nighthawks sleeping up in a Gumbo Limbo tree. You cannot tell a Common Nighthawk from an Antillean Nighthawk unless they sing. But these two wouldn’t make a peep for us. After the paying birders left I was able to stand quietly at the fountain and get some fantastic shots of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo coming in for a bath plus two male Magnolia Warblers, a Tennessee Warbler, and some other neat things too. I also got some nice shots of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird eating at a Sea Grape. Before the paying birders left Nigel gave me some tips on where to find Snail Kite and White-crowned Pigeon. I really did not want to leave Dry Tortugas but departure was quickly approaching. I saw Mike and Mark and I told Mike that I didn’t think there were any other birds possible to see on Dry Tortugas that I had not already seen except for White-tailed Tropicbird. He said “oh Mark and I saw about five of those on the way out here.” I was crushed. I had been so sick I guess I didn’t notice them. I demanded that Mike produce one on the ferry ride back to Key West as I thought it would take me up to 600 birds on my ABA approved North American Life List (although I actually wasn’t really sure but it made for a fantastic plot line). I reluctantly boarded the boat and Mike, Mark, and I stood out on the upper deck the entire 2.5 hours back to Key West looking for a tropic bird. Nearly back to shore, Mike yelled out “large white bird.” We all stared at it intently with our binoculars but it was just a Royal Tern. Back on shore in Key West Mike said he was sorry he couldn’t conjure up a White-tailed Tropicbird. I told him I remained sanguine and would probably hit 600 with a White-crowned Pigeon and then we departed. My number one priority back on Key West was to replenish my depleted ice, so I did that. And then I was starving and so I went back to Ft. Zachary Taylor to eat and try for White-crowned Pigeon. I ran into a nice birder who said the best place was Indigenous Park but it was now closed or the cemetery but dark was approaching and there was no time for that either. He asked if I was staying the night in Key West and I said I had a reservation at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo and he said “oh that’s close to Dagny; two Mangrove Cuckoos were seen there today.” The ranger let me into Ft. Zachary Taylor for half price after I told him about my bad luck in not being able to find the White-crowned Pigeon. He said the best place was in the middle of town. Nobody thought Ft. Zachary Taylor was a good place for them, although the Birding Florida book by Brian Rapoza said it was. The sun was about to set so I went to Sunset Beach and watched it and then left Key West on the boring horrible Overseas Highway all the way up to Key Largo where I camped for the night. The campground was atrocious. My site was probably 10 feet wide with a trailer on both sides of me. The only good thing about it was that I was able to recharge my batteries in the electrical outlet. I set up my tent and went straight to bed.
May 1, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM. It’s just a short drive from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to Dagny Key Largo State Botanical Site but I wanted to arrive at dawn to look for the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. Two birders from Pennsylvania arrived just as I did so we walked in together. We walked up and down the trails and I was about to give up as we headed back toward the middle where the kiosk is. One of the fellows, Kevin said he thought he heard one. Just about then a Mangrove Cuckoo flew into a tree right in front of us! I got my video camera on it very briefly and then jumped up and down for joy. I could not believe that a Mangrove Cuckoo was bird number 600! We admired it for a while and then I told the other guy, Dave, that I had been unable to find a White-crowned Pigeon and just about then he yelled out “White-crowned Pigeon!” I looked at it but it just looked like a Rock Pigeon to me so I couldn’t “count” that one. A few minutes later though a flock flew right over us and I clearly saw the white heads on them but got no video as they merely flew by and away. Oh well, it was still 601 I thought. Dave asked me if I had seen the Smooth-billed Ani. Vicki had mentioned something about it but I had failed to write down the directions as it seemed out of the way and unlikely but since it was only 9:30 AM and I had already seen two new species I decided to give it a shot. Dave walked back to my car with me and wrote out very detailed instructions to the spot and also a place to see Spot-breasted Oriole and Red-whiskered Bulbul. I thanked him profusely and then headed north to the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The Ani spot is just south of the airport in a run down section of town with large electrical towers and over grown abandoned lots. I pulled the car up very leery about having my camera stolen. I had just gotten out of my car when I saw an all black bird with an unmistakeably long tail on the ground just feet away with a bug dangling from its mouth! My god a Smooth-billed Ani just like that. I went back to the car and got the camera out but it had flown away somewhere. I waited and waited but it would not come back. All other black birds there were Grackles. I decided to have my lunch out of the back of my car while waiting. I drove around the block and still nothing. I was about to give up when I pulled over and saw it again perched on a telephone wire. I yanked out my camera and got an awful hand held shot just in case it flew away again. I parked the car and got out my tripod and was able to video tape it and get a photo. There were two of them actively feeding for their nest somewhere nearby. After satisfying myself I decided I better get out of there and left driving south to this residential area Dave had recommended for Spot-breasted Oriole. I felt weird walking around the neighborhood even with just my binoculars. I was not about to carry around that huge camera with neighbors staring at me like I was insane. Also I felt a little odd looking for another introduced species. Spot-breasted Oriole. Though much more colorful it is no different from the European Starling introduced in New York about a 100 years ago and long ago established all across North America. This oriole had been introduced from Central America and was now a year round resident around Miami and apparently according to Dave this neighborhood I was walking around in Hollywood, FL. After walking around it three times I gave up. I drove to a Miami neighborhood called Kendall across from the Baptist Hospital looking for a Red-whiskered Bulbul on the recommendation of Dave. I only saw Loggerhead Shrike, Monk Parakeet (countable but I already saw one in Dallas a year ago) and White-winged Dove. I was a long way away but I figured the only realistic chance I had left of yet another new bird was to drive half way back down the Keys to the Marathon government buildings where Roseate Terns are known to nest. Roseate Terns are a pelagic species and spend their entire lives at sea, only coming to shore to nest. On my way from Hollywood to Marathon, I made a detour to Everglades National Park to recycle my beer bottles. I knew the national park would recycle whereas the state of Florida does not. Shame on Florida! Anyway, I lifted the green recycle bin at Royal Palm and put in my bottles and some empty water jugs I had been saving up and then lifted the trash can to put in some little bit of trash I had accumulated and was shocked to see about 10 plastic water bottles. INEXCUSABLE! What is wrong with people? It was getting late but there was enough sun light left for me to clearly make out several Least Terns flying over the Marathon State of Florida Regional Service Center Building. I saw one that was larger and got my binoculars on it. It had a black cap, an all black bill, and an incredibly long all white deeply forked tail, definitely a Roseate Tern! The only other tern it could have been was a Sandwich but I’ve never seen one with such a deeply forked tail. It was nearly dark by the time I left the government buildings but unbelievably I had added four new species in one day. Since I was so close I stopped at the Marathon Airport, a known spot to hear and see Antillean Nighthawk. The only nighthawk I saw or heard was a Common Nighthawk but fortunately I had already added this species at my campground at Long Pine in the Everglades. I drove the long boring drive back to Key Largo to sleep at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Most people go there to snorkel; I only chose it because it was close to Dagny and it’s a good thing I did.
May 2, 2008 was my last day in Florida. I got up as early as humanly possible, took down my tent, ate breakfast, and left Key Largo on a grueling four hour drive north past Miami, past Fort Lauderdale, past West Palm Beach and then inland on the toll road, the Florida Turnpike (oh how I wish I had done that miles ago and missed all that miserable rush hour traffic in all the aforementioned beaches!) to Lake Kissimmee State Park. I chose this spot on the recommendation of Nigel as the best place to see a Snail Kite. It took me so long to get there after that hideous drive that I had blown the best part of the morning by the time I arrived. I walked up to the observation tower to have a look. It had breathtaking views of Lake Kissimmee but I could see right away that any Snail Kite I spotted from up there would be incredibly far away necessitating a spotting scope. So I took one of the trails to the lake’s edge which recedes greatly after the rainy season ends. There were thousands of mosquitoes but they didn’t touch me because this time instead of using poison I smeared myself with Skin So Soft. It really does work! I saw an Eastern Meadowlark and a Common Ground-Dove on the walk out to the lake and an immature Bald Eagle but the only other soaring birds were vultures. So I returned to the picnic area to look around. There was a Summer Tanager, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, and Great-crested Flycatcher in the pine/oak woodlands along with several Wild Turkeys. In the Kissimmee River I found another Limpkin, a Tricolored Heron, and an Anhinga along with a few large alligators. I had my lunch at the picnic area and continued to scan the skies. During lunch I found an Oak Hairstreak in the Oak woodlands that make up the habitat there along with a gorgeous Zebra Swallowtail. I love that butterfly but they never land and I have never been able to get a doggone photo of one. They are not in California so I have to wait until my next visit south to look for another one.
I finished lunch and it was obvious I was not going to find a Snail Kite there so I drove for miles around the lake to the other side to the Joe Overstreet Boat Ramp where the Snail Kites allegedly perch on the posts. It was mid-afternoon and rednecks were arriving to set up their tents for the weekend. I looked around but found nothing and it seemed improbable with all that noise and redneck activity. So I left. On the drive back down the Joe Overstreet dirt road, I stopped and heard two Bobwhites which brought childhood memories racing back into my brain. I heard some Sandhill Cranes in the sky and one was on the side of the road nearby feeding. Also on that side of the lake is the Three Lakes Wildlife Management where endangered Whooping Cranes are raised in captivity. I didn’t see any but since I was over there I tried near the other lakes that make it “Three Lakes,” Lake Jackson and Lake Marion to look for kites. I drove down to a parking area for the Lake Jackson Observation Tower. It was a .4 mile walk and time was running out so I ran without my camera. When I arrived a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking on the tower legs. I climbed up and had outstanding views of the lake but saw no kites. I raced back to the car and drove back to Lake Kissimmee State Park for one last parting glance from the observation tower. It was nearly dusk and there were several raptors coursing over the lake. I’m sure one of them was a kite because they were much smaller than the eagles out there but all of them were much too far away to count for anything except a nice parting look at Florida as it should look. The park closed at 8:00 PM so I had to get out and begin my long drive back to Tampa for my flight home the next day. It had been an incredible trip for me, reminding me that there still are wild places out there if you look hard enough and have the resources to find them. They won't be here indefinitely though because man is hell bent on being the only species left on this planet. Going to Florida was a reminder of how lucky I am to have my health, the time and those resources available to experience nature in all its glory, while it's still here to enjoy.
April 19 – May 3, 2008
On April 19, 2008, I caught a plane that left San Francisco at 6:00 AM and yet the man across the aisle from me still managed to drink four beers before landing in Atlanta! Both that flight and my connecting flight to Tampa, Florida were early so it was an auspicious beginning to an amazing trip to Florida. Tampa is very convenient; there is a Target (for propane and bug spray), a Whole Foods Market (for good food), and an excellent beer shop (for obvious reasons) all in the same shopping area just minutes from the airport. After finishing all my preparations there was no time left for anything but to drive to my camp for the night at Little Manatee River State Park in Wimauma, FL. Just driving in I saw a Roseate Spoonbill fly over the highway and a Little Blue Heron in a ditch on the side of the road. The entrance is lined with saw palmettos and moss draped oak trees and my little camp site was very private and cozy. As I fell asleep under a full moon a Chuck-will’s-Widow came and began to sing along with some Common Nighthawks. During the night a Barred Owl began to hoot.
April 20, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM and drove to Ft. DeSoto Park on Tampa Bay near St. Petersburg. There were dozens of Ospreys nesting in the park. I stopped first at the East Beach and there were some White Ibises walking at my feet. They were very common it turned out. I then drove west to Bay Pier Parking Area to the famous mulberry trees. There were dozens of birders surrounding these trees but there were very few birds. Almost all of the birders were photographers. I was the only one videotaping. Finally after waiting and walking around for about 30 minutes a few things flew in—a Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bunting, and a Prothonotary Warbler. The birders surrounded the poor things. So I took a walk around and found a Pileated Woodpecker right out in the open in the parking lot and some Common Ground-Doves in the dunes. There were also some Black-hooded Parakeets in the palmetto trees. I took a little nature trail across the street and saw a Magnificent Frigate Bird circling high overhead. Next I took the nature walk in an oak hammock and mangrove forest at the Arrowhead Picnic Area where I saw a Louisiana Waterthrush, Hooded Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler. Next I drove to the North Beach (allegedly the number one beach in the US) and walked around the hammock at the end of the island where I saw my first ever Gulf Fritillary and Mangrove Skipper. Ft. DeSoto wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be so I drove from there to St. Petersburg to the Boyd Hill Nature Park. Over 50 species of butterflies have been recorded in this neat little park. It has extensive trails through various habitats, oak hammock, pine woodlands, and wetlands. In the oak hammock I saw another Pileated Woodpecker, Great-crested Flycatcher, Kentucky Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, an Ovenbird, and a Red-shouldered Hawk devouring a rat. There were some gopher tortoises in the open areas and alligators near the water. I saw several different butterflies—the beautiful Zebra Longwing, Gulf Fritillary, Monarch, White Peacock, Cassius Blue, Horace’s Duskywing, Sleepy Orange, and Tropical Checkered Skipper. It was getting late so I headed back to my campsite at Little Manatee River State Park. I took a walk along the river but dark was approaching and I didn’t see much. As it darkened I heard Common Nighthawks, Barred Owl, Northern Bobwhite, and Chuck-will’s-Widow.
April 21, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM as usual and drove north of Tampa to the Dunedin Causeway where I stopped and looked at some shorebirds including Ruddy Turnstone, Piping Plover, and a pack of Black Skimmers among other things, before heading onward to Honeymoon Island State Park. As I was entering the park I saw my first ever Gray Kingbird. It was perched on a phone wire and was singing away. I drove to the end of the park and took the Osprey Trail. As the name indicates there were many, many Ospreys. I saw several species of warblers on the trail including Palm Warbler, very common resident, Prairie Warbler, another common resident, Cape May Warbler (to think how hard I worked for one in Pt. Pelee last year), Hooded Warbler, and Indigo Buntings at my feet. A Tricolored Heron was near the end of the trail and a Blue Grosbeak was in the picnic area. After walking the trail I drove over to the beach area which was loaded with vacationers loafing about. I walked down the narrow beach and saw a Northern Gannet right off shore diving for food. Just inland from the beach was a small pond where I saw a Wilson’s Plover. It was starting to get crowded so I decided to leave and return to Ft. DeSoto where I would be camping for the night. It was extremely windy. I returned to the famous mulberry trees where there were still some birders lingering about. The Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Summer Tanager from yesterday were still there but there was a photographer with the biggest lens I have ever seen photographing near the fountain so that I could not get close enough for good video. His lens must have been 1000mm. I watched for a while but decided to try the end of the island. There was nothing but a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the non-native Australian Pines at East Beach. At the end of the island I saw a small flock of shorebirds that let me get very close and included Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Plover, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, and some Dowitchers. That night the extreme wind kept me awake most of the night with the tent fly flapping furiously in the wind.
April 22, 2008, I got up early and checked the mulberry trees at sun up. The only additions were I finally saw the Prothonotary Warbler eating some berries, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which I saw very few of in Florida. Red-eyed Vireo, and an Overnbird which is very common. I left the park and drove to Osprey, Florida to the Oscar Scherer State Park, best place in the state to find the Florida Scrub-Jay which looks just like our Western Scrub-Jay but is a separate species. I carried that doggone 11 pound camera on a three mile hike through pine lands but was rewarded with ultra close ups of my first ever Florida Scrub-Jay. There were very few people at the park and I enjoyed hiking in the pine woodlands but after having my lunch I decided to drive to J.N. “Ding: Darling National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most famous birding sites in all of North America (I’m not sure why). It took a very long time to get there because you must cross a causeway from Ft. Meyers Beach to Sanibel Island to get there. Sanibel Island is a tourist destination entirely apart from the excellent birding allegedly there, and thus extremely crowded. The wildlife refuge, when I finally did make it there, was packed with people and not one of them a birder. Packs of people were all around me at all times. I saw more butterflies than birds including Giant Swallowtail, Mangrove Buckeye, Cloudless Sulphur, Zebra Swallowtail, Great Southern White, and Little Yellow. After walking the nature trail I left Sanibel Island and took the long drive to my campground for the night, Ortona Lock, which is about half way across the state. I was supposed to meet my friend, Ken, the following morning on the Atlantic side; Fort Myers is on the Gulf side. As I approached the turn off for Ortona Lock, I saw a Crested Caracara right on the side of the road and a White-winged Dove and Loggerhead Shrike. I arrived at the Ortona Lock campground right at sunset. It was a very strange campground; right across the road was a herd of cattle! It was very clean and had a nice bathroom with a clean hot shower but it was a little strange for me. I received a message from Ken that he would be unable to meet me the next day.
April 23, 2008, I got up as early as humanly possible and made the grueling drive across the state to Delray Beach to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands. I arrived later than I intended and there were already numerous people there, mostly joggers and photographers. I was the only birder there. One guy was taking photos but he didn’t know what anything was. The area is a managed wetland watered with reclaimed water from the waste water treatment plant. Before the state obliterated the real wetlands to build hundreds of golf courses, the water was naturally filtered through these wetlands leaving plenty of fresh drinking water but with the demands on land in Florida for development, the wetlands were soon vastly diminished leaving no source to filter all the waste water being created. So places like Wakodahatchee were created to fill the void. In the meantime the place had become a major attractant for wildlife that had become habituated to humans to the point that normally extremely shy species such as Least Bitterns and Purple Gallinules walked right out into the open, thus all the photographers. The joggers just enjoyed a nice walk on the boardwalks there through a lush beautiful wetland. I walked around the boardwalk twice and had extremely close views of Purple Gallinule, my first ever Limpkin, Least Tern feeding a chick, Anhingas everywhere, Common Moorhens with little chicks, Mottled Duck, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Wood Storks, and every heron species in the state. While looking at the whistling ducks several species of warblers flew into a tree by my head. While out on the boardwalk I realized that for some undetermined amount of time the microphone on my video camera had been in the off position. I was crushed to the core. I had been making running commentaries for three days and had taped nearly an hour of footage. I was just crestfallen. After lunch I drove from Wakodohatchee to Green Cay Wetlands. It was an erstwhile bell pepper farm that had been donated by the farmers to the state at a fraction of the market value with the understanding that it would be managed as a wetland in perpetuity. It too had a nice boardwalk with plenty of wildlife but being only four years old the birds were not nearly as close as at Wakodahatchee. I saw pretty much all the same species I had seen earlier in the morning. So I left Delray Beach and drove south on I-75 to Miami over the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to the end of the island to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. I needed a restroom desperately. I got out of the car with my video camera and walked over to some trees. They were dripping with warblers. I started to video tape some but there were mobs of Jews on their Passover vacation being wheeled up and down the trail on bicycle carts. Each one stopping to inquire what I was doing or looking at etc. I decided I better find a restroom. I saw a man with binoculars and I told him the trees were dripping with warblers but I was being harassed. I asked him where the restroom was. He introduced himself to me which I thought was strange but then later after taking care of some rather urgent matters realized he was the guy who had written the Florida bird finding guide in my car, Brian Rapoza! Fortunately I saw him later and told him I was sorry his name didn’t click earlier and thanked him for his helpful book. He pointed out a more peaceful trail I could take which was a dirt path with no bicycle carts or people for that matter save me and Brian Rapoza. This trail also had many birds and butterflies on it including Painted Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, American Redstart, Black-throated Green Warbler, and the ever present Palm Warbler. Among the butterflies I saw were the gorgeous Zebra Longwing and a Queen. I stayed for a very long time but then decided I better go as it was getting late. I drove back over the causeway and through Miami in hellish traffic south on the Dixie Highway (Highway 1) to the Everglades where I would be camping for the next three nights. The campground had only two other people so I had my choice of the best spot which I took and fell fast asleep. A Chuck-will’s-widow sang me to sleep.
April 24, 2008, I woke up early to an Antillean Nighthawk singing high overhead somewhere. I could not see it because my camp site was nestled in some very tall Long Pines. While brushing my teeth in the campground bathroom I noticed a Green Tree Frog in one of the overflow holes. I drove from Everglades to one of Miami’s hottest birding spots, A.D Doug Barnes Park. There were a few warblers but nothing like the numbers I had seen at Bill Baggs. The only new bird was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and some Muscovy Ducks which I don’t think are “countable.” Countable is a fanatical birder term. Most birders keep lists of all the birds they see and count how many species they have seen in their lives. But serious birders also divide the list into areas where the bird was seen. Depending on how fanatical they are their lists might be as minute as which county the bird was seen in. So for example, my friend Jennifer Rycenga, who is very fanatical, keeps a list of how many species she has seen in San Mateo County, how many she has seen in California, how many she has seen in North America, and in the world. The North American list is further delineated by the American Birding Association (ABA) to include only the US including Alaska and Canada. You may not include birds you saw in Hawaii on your North American ABA list. The ABA has other bizarre rules about what may be counted on your list. For example escaped birds are not countable nor are released birds even if they are nesting and breeding in the wild until their population reaches what the ABA considers a viable population. I think the Black-hooded Parakeets are not “countable.” I’m not sure why because I don’t really keep up with such nonsense but there sure were a lot of them at Fort DeSoto. Yes, they did originate in the suitcase of some stowaway from South America but they most certainly are living on their own in the wild at this point. Other birds that were introduced and quickly spread to make viable populations there is no question you may count such as European Starlings and House Sparrows. California Condors may only be counted if you saw one before 1979 or something because that’s when the last one was captured for captive breeding because they are basically extinct. According to EO Wilson once a species’s population falls below 50 it is considered extinct and beyond recovery. So the Muscovy Duck was most likely an escapee and not countable on my ABA approved North American list or life list as most birders call them (although I read somewhere that Floridians consider them "countable.") In fact, when I arrived in Florida I had a wish list of birds I had never seen before that I wanted to see. However, I was not exactly sure how many “countable” birds were on my North American Life List. My goal was to reach 600 in 2008. I didn’t count the Muscovy Duck. I was about ready to leave AD Barnes due to lack of bird activity when I noticed a very large swallowtail flutter by; this Giant Swallowtail, my first, was the best sighting at AD Barnes.
I left AD Barnes and drove to Matheson Hammock County Park. This is Miami Dade County’s oldest park and it was a dandy. It had trails through some incredible tropical hardwood hammock of which there is very little left in the extremely developed South part of Florida. I took one of the trails and soon came to a Royal Palm with a Chestnut-fronted Macaw poking his head out of one of the many holes in the trunk. (I’m pretty sure this is not countable). I also saw a Hill Myna. I had never heard of it before and wasn’t sure whether it was countable. I was looking intently at a Spicebush Swallowtail I wanted desperately to photograph when another birder said, “Ma’am, there’s a Short-tailed Hawk overhead.” Sure enough there was my first ever Short-tailed Hawk, a dark morph, circling right above us. I walked into a very wild tangled trail-- what all of Miami looked like before all the development. In there I found a Great Southern White and a Florida White Butterfly. I heard a Bobwhite calling. I had lunch in the picnic area and then left. I drove back across the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne to Crandon Beach. I went to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center and took the Osprey Trail through maritime forest. It was near midday and I didn’t see much besides the resident Prairie Warblers and Palm Warblers but it was a nice walk out to a boardwalk through a mangrove forest. It was nearing rush hour and I couldn’t bear the thought of being caught in Miami rush hour traffic again trying to get back to my campsite in the Everglades so I decided to head directly east toward the Shark Valley entrance thinking there would be less traffic. The roads in Miami are ridiculous. They are numbered but not in order! How absurd. I ended up in some run down neighborhood full of Cuban refugees. I finally managed to get out of there in some convoluted way and make it to Shark Valley in time to have my dinner beside the canal. This was an alleged spot to see Snail Kites coursing over the marsh. I watched while eating but saw nothing but herons and Vultures. I heard a King Rail somewhere in the bank but never saw it. The Shark Valley visitor center was closed with a gate pulled across it. So after dinner I left and returned to my camp site at Long Pine Key Campground. Some more people had arrived including some completely self absorbed foreigner in a rented RV who parked his RV right next to my tent even though there were hundreds of open camp sites. At 10:30 PM when his obnoxious noisy generator was still running I went over to his door and pounded on it until he answered. I said “quiet hours are 10:00 PM. Your generator is bothering me. Will you turn it off please?” He couldn’t speak English but mumbled something and a few minutes later it was off. I didn’t put the fly on my tent because it was a nice evening but I had no sooner fallen asleep than it began to rain and I had to get up and put the fly on. It was a rocky night and I didn’t feel well the next day.
April 25, 2008, I had intended to get up early as usual but I was feeling under the weather so to speak. The rain was very short lived and the sun was up by the time I arrived at Royal Palm in the Everglades, an alleged spot to see White-crowned Pigeons. I couldn’t find any but I took the Gumbo-Limbo trail which was a quite nice self-guided nature trail through tropical hammock. There was a Great Crested Flycatcher, Ovenbird, and American Redstart but not much else. I took the Anhinga trail and there were some alligators and Anhingas but not much else there either. So I drove some more down the park road to Mahogany Hammock. It held more tropical hammock including some very large mahogany trees, a tree that has mostly been logged out of Florida due to its high value as a hard wood for furniture and building. In most of the trees air plants were growing. There were two Gray Kingbirds at the entrance and one Eastern Kingbird, and a Barred Owl that was perched at eye level near the boardwalk. Next I drove further to the Snake Bight Trail, an alleged place to see the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. According to Rapoza’s book the mosquitoes on this trail are particularly vicious. He was not kidding about that. I sprayed 100% poison on myself, 100% deet, and had long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and they still bit me hundreds of times right through my clothes. It was unbelievable. It was 1.6 miles of pure hell to the boardwalk at the end of the trail. I couldn’t keep the mosquitoes off my hands because I was carrying my video camera on a tripod in one hand and binoculars in the other. I saw a few warblers but not too much else. I ran part of the time and was relieved at a little breeze on the boardwalk to keep the mosquitoes away. Just as I arrived a Swallow-tailed Kite flew right over my head followed by an immature Bald Eagle. I couldn’t see any Flamingoes allegedly visible from the boardwalk way out in Florida Bay, only a few shorebirds eating in the mudflats. I ran back down the trail to the car and proceeded to the end of the park at Flamingo. I saw the endangered American Crocodile on the banks of the canal behind the camp store. There are only 500 left and all of them in South Florida. Next I walked the Bear Lake Trail. At first I wasn’t seeing anything and I was just about to turn around and give up because I just could not take the constant whine of mosquitoes in my ears for one more minute when I heard a Black-whiskered Vireo singing, another new bird for me. I returned to the car and then headed back up the road to the Pa-hay-okee (native word for grassy waters) Observation Tower. Supposedly an occasional Snail Kite is seen here but I had no such luck. It was neat to see endless saw grass prairie from the top of the tower. It made me a little sad though to think in what peril the Everglades were to the depredations of humans. Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida and is a source of fresh drinking water for 99% of Florida’s water is not fresh. Due to rapid population increases, human demands, and overdevelopment the people nearly drained the Everglades dry by diverting the water from Lake Okeechobee. Man made canals had to be built to prevent the Everglades from disappearing forever and with them several species dependent on them including the Florida Panther.
April 26, 2008, I woke up not feeling my usual perky self. I went over to the Snake Bight Trail again to look for Mangrove Cuckoo but there was very little action so I gave up after about 50 mosquito bites and tried Royal Palm again. Not too much was happening there except for dozens of Black Vultures and I tried one last time at Mahogany Hammock but only saw three Barred Owls. So I left the Everglades and drove south on Highway 1, the Overseas Highway, to Key Largo. I stopped at the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical Site, the largest protected mangrove forest in the world. There were a few Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and a few other things like White-eyed Vireo but not too much else. So I decided to go on down to Key West. I had my lunch in the parking lot and while I was eating I heard some more Black-whiskered Vireos in the trees.
It is a long miserable drive down the Florida Keys on the Overseas Highway. You cannot go more than 45 MPH most of the time on a two lane road. So after driving for quite a long time I decided to stop in a Bahia Honda State Park. I drove to a parking area for a beach which was packed with tourists, and the Silver Palm Nature Trail. There were so many people I figured it was senseless to carry my camera and wouldn’t you know it I came within two feet of a gorgeous Reddish Egret in breeding plumage! Gorgeous. But I have no pictures and no video of it. Shame. I continued down the Overseas Highway to Key West and drove to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, supposedly a good place to find White-crowned Pigeons. I was having no luck at all. However, the warblers were right at eye level and very easy to see there. The poor birds are so tired and hungry by the time they see land in Key West that they just don’t care about human presence. All they can think about is eating. So I got some nice close up looks at some but it was getting late and I needed to pack for my big trip the next day so I left Ft. Zachary Taylor and checked into my hotel in Key West, the El Rancho. It took me a long time to prepare for my trip because I was headed to Dry Tortugas the next day and needed to have my cooler full of ice and all the food and water I would need for the next three days as Dry Tortugas has no water and no facilities whatsoever. I wanted block ice that would last longer but was having trouble finding any. The town was full of drunk revelers on spring break riding around recklessly on scooters and I was starting to feel poorly so I gave up and bought regular chipped ice. That night I slept very poorly.
April 27, 2008, the day I had been looking forward to for so long arrived. I woke up so terribly sick. I got over to the Land’s End Marina and checked in with the Yankee Freedom Ferry that would take my camping gear and me to Dry Tortugas, 70 miles off shore from Key West. After all my things were safely aboard and I was waiting for the ferry departure a deluge came and dumped the only significant rain of the entire two week trip. It passed after about 20 minutes and we were soon boarded and on our way. My nose began to run relentlessly. I had an inadequate amount of tissue, well none really and was constantly running down to the bathroom to get some. My nose would not stop running. I was so sick that I was unable to look for birds and anyway I couldn’t really see any. It certainly wasn’t like the Pacific Ocean which is full of pelagic bird life even close to shore. The ferry ride is 2.5 hours and I was sick for every minute of it. But I refused to let it get my spirits down. I had so looked forward to this part of the trip. I still think of it now with tears in my eyes, it was so special. The ferry landed at 10:30 AM and I went directly over to the campground to secure a good spot. I found a nice spot and put up my tent and then headed for a look around. Dry Tortugas is a very small island that you can walk around easily in 30 minutes but there is much to see there. The first thing I noticed was dozens of Ruddy Turnstones practically at my feet and half a dozen Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring overhead. I also noticed two hand made boats littered with refuse on the shore. It turned out that 10 Cuban Refugees had landed that day at 10:00 AM and were being escorted by the Park Service to Key West. I did not know this but unlike the Mexicans and Central Americans who are taken promptly back to Tijuana when caught illegally crossing the border, Cubans are welcomed by our country with open arms and given magnanimous greetings and help to establish themselves here. If they make it to land they are allowed to apply for citizenship and start a life here unencumbered by mere laws. I found this hard to accept given the discriminatory treatment given to Central American refugees and illegal entrants.
Just past the abandoned home made boats I came to the coaling docks (I never did find out what that term meant). Brown Noddies were roosting all over them at very close range. I think this is the only species that nests on Dry Tortugas. This was a new species for me but what would be really special would be to pick out a Black Noddy which is a very rare visitor, amongst the many Brown Noddies. Just off shore from Dry Tortugas are a number of other smaller islands including the closest one, Bush Key, home to the largest nesting colony of Sooty Terns in North America. There are estimated to be approximately 100,000 Sooty Terns on Bush Key. Sooty Terns are a pelagic species spending their entire lives at sea except when they come to shore to nest. As soon as the chicks hatch in late May and learn to fly they leave Bush Key and fly to the coast of Africa where they remain at sea for 3-5 years before returning to land to nest themselves. These were the first Sooty Terns I had ever seen. There used to be a colony of Roseate Terns on Bush Key but the last hurricane wiped out all the trees and they no longer nest there, though there are efforts to bring them back by using speakers installed on the island making Roseate Tern sounds.
In the middle of Dry Tortugas is Fort Jefferson, a fort that was built in 1846 to protect our coast from assault. Later the fort was used as a prison for deserters from the Union Army during the civil war. I was so sick all day but I tried to make the most of it. The ranger told us that this big shot birder named Larry Manfreddi had located a very rare Red-footed Booby on whatever key is next to Bush Key and had found two Black Noddies on the coaling docks. So I went to the top of the Fort to see if I could look down on the coaling docks from there. A woman was there with a spotting scope and we looked through it but couldn’t find the Black Noddy or the Red-footed Booby. Her scope was not very good and the tripod was even worse. It was quite windy on top of the Fort and it was difficult to make much out up there. I felt very bad so I returned to my camp site. I walked along the moat to get back and an injured Northern Gannet was in the moat within feet of me. I’ve never seen one so close before. I tried to lie on the picnic table but just felt miserable. I had my little dinner and my two little beers and just went to sleep after the sun went down. My neighbors were very nice and very respectful. Nobody made loud noises or acted obnoxious.
April 28, 2008, I was still sick but I still got up as soon as possible to be awake for sunrise when the birds would be arriving. One of the things that makes Dry Tortugas so special is that it sits out in the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles off shore from Key West and is often the first land a migrating bird returning from South America will see after flying all night long. Song birds migrate at night to avoid birds of prey it is believed and so as the sun comes up they are so tired and so hungry after crossing the Gulf of Mexico that they will stop at the first land they see. Due to their extreme fatigue and hunger they are hell bent on eating and become oblivious to humans. I got out of my tent and a Prairie Warbler was so close that I leaned down with my naked eye and could see individual feathers. I went and stood by the north coaling docks and saw a fantastic sunrise. The sun came up over Bush Key as swarms of Sooty Terns were silhouetted by the great giant orange ball. On the beach behind the campground my new friends, Mark and Mike and I spotted a Brown Booby. I had seen this bird before on the Monterey Coast Guard Pier. Later up on top of the Fort Mike had his scope out scanning the noddy flock. He told me that you could see the Masked Boobies from where we stood. I asked him to show me and indeed there was a nice sized flock of nesting Masked Boobies on Hospital Key visible through his scope, another life bird! There were only the same birds from yesterday around the island. I walked around the Fort with a roll of toilet paper in my backpack for my relentlessly running nose and tried again to look for the Black Noddy. A woman was there with binoculars. She told me her name was Vicki Rothman from Miami, and she was just there on a day trip with her husband. She told me that she heard you could see the Black Noddy from the moat. So we walked down to the edge (the Park Service had roped off this area as it was under construction) as close as allowed and sure enough there was a Black Noddy right next to a few Brown Noddies. You could clearly make out its much smaller size, darker color, and sharply demarked white cap. I had Vicki keep an eye out while I crossed into the roped off area for some video and a picture. Vicki wanted a picture for her records so I promised to email it to her (which I did but she never responded). It was a life bird for both of us. Inside the Fort were the same Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and Cattle Egrets from yesterday. I walked around the island with Vicki enjoying all the birds until she had to leave on the departing ferry at 3:00 PM. Around 5:00 PM I ran into Mike sitting with his spotting scope pointed toward the island right next to Bush Key. He called me over and let me look through his scope and I saw way in the distance my first ever Red-footed Booby. It was very far away but the reddish feet were clearly visible. I took some brief video even though it was too far away. It was my third life bird in one day. I thanked Mike and then went back to my campsite for dinner. As I sat eating I went through my journal checking how many new birds I had seen in Florida. I didn’t count the Black-hooded Parakeet(although to this day I’m not sure if it’s countable) but with the birds that were certainly countable, the Gray Kingbird, Florida Scrub-Jay, Limpkin, Antillean Nighthawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Black-whiskered Vireo, Brown Noddy, Masked Booby, Black Noddy, Sooty Tern, and Red-footed Booby, I had at least 11 new birds. I couldn’t remember if I had removed California Condor from my list and I wasn’t exactly sure but thought my count before I left was 588 so that would put me at 599, just one shy of 600. I wasn’t sure about the Hill Myna so I went over to ask Mike if it was countable. He was sitting next to bird trip leader, Larry Manfreddi. The question was directed at Mike but Larry chirped in immediately and barked to me “you can’t count Hill Myna and you didn’t even see one, you saw a Common Myna.” I went back to my picnic table and wrote in my journal, “Larry Manfreddi is an asshole.”
April 29, 2008, I woke up early and finally felt better. The West Nile Virus was nearly gone. As I stepped out of my tent it was still dark with dawn approaching; a Short-eared Owl flew right over my head. On the beach behind my tent I found the Northern Gannet dead on the shore. One leg was broken leaving it unable to paddle out of the water to get into the air and it had died of starvation. There was a beautiful sunrise over Bush Key. I walked behind the campground to the north coaling docks and I could see the birds flying in and literally crashing into the shore with exhaustion. It turned out to be an amazing day with hundreds of birds flying in all day long and eating at my feet. I got so close to a Veery that it was walking between my feet. There were Gray-cheeked Thrushes, Wood Thrushes, and Swainson’s Thrushes. At the famed fountain were Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, and Hooded Warbler. A Scarlet Tanager set up house keeping right behind my tent giving me eye popping close up views of this gorgeous scarlet and black bird. I also saw Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting, Summer Tanager, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Larry Manfreddi arrived with a group of about 20 birders who had paid him $1600 a piece to be lead by him to these birds that were so easy to see and find. At the end of the day they went back to his 64 foot boat to sleep at night and some evenings he took them to some of the other keys to look for birds not visible from Garden Key where my campsite and Fort Jefferson were. Manfreddi waltzed right into the campground oblivious to the campers, most of whom were not birders at all but there for relaxation or snorkeling, and put out a pan of water for the birds under some trees. Since the only other fresh water for the birds is from the fountain, the birds were very attracted to this make shift bird bath. And if you sat quietly nearby you could see just about all the birds on the island at ultra close distance. After a few minutes a Dickcissel in breeding plumage flew into the pan for a drink. After the daily ferry arrived at 10:30 a new group came and set up two tents in the site right in front of mine. It was two ladies from Orlando, Marcia and Cynthia, and a fellow named Steve who told me that he was a professional videographer for a TV station. At first when I asked why he wasn't videotaping he said he was on vacation but later he confided that he wished he did have his video camera but that the station wouldn't let it leave Wisconsin. Marcia told me that she was very impressed that I was brave enough to come out there and camp all alone.
At lunch a camper next to me, Kelly from Key Largo, offered to let me use her kayak to kayak out to Bush Key. I took her up on her offer but was too scared to take my camera along. I paddled out as close as possible to get a better look at the Sooty Terns. While paddling out I saw a huge Loggerhead Turtle in the water. Another kayaker paddled up and showed me how a Brown Noddy was perched on the end of his kayak and had been there for 15 minutes.
That evening as I sat at my picnic table for dinner Steve pointed out a male Bobolink in breeding plumage in a tree just above my campsite. Some nice people were leaving the next day and gave me their extra water which I gladly accepted. I didn’t need it to drink as I had plenty for that. I got into the Ocean to wash away the sweat and then used the fresh water to bathe in and rinse off the salt water afterwards. I love bathing outside! My ice had all melted but my daily allotment of two beers was still plenty cool. Since I now had extra water I used some to wet a towel I placed on top of my cooler and this functioned to keep the cooler extra cool. I used a rain poncho as a tarp during the day to keep the sun off of it. During the night I could hear the rats the park service had mentioned but they never bothered me or my stuff at all.
On the ferry ride out the Yankee Freedom had offered everyone snorkeling gear but I was so sick I couldn't even think of doing such a thing. Most people come to Dry Tortugas for a day trip and spend the day snorkeling the coral reef that surrounds Garden Key. I never did any snorkeling on account of my West Nile Virus but I did get to see some outlandishly colored fish from the moat including the brightly colored Parrot Fish and the little yellow and black Sargent Major fish. I also saw a Portuguese Man-0f-War in the water.
April 30, 2008, was my last day on Dry Tortugas. The ferry would take me back to Key West at 2:45 PM. There was another beautiful sunrise to admire but there weren’t nearly as many birds the last day. Inside the Fort were the usual Broad-winged Hawk, Merlin, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk waiting to pounce on the tired hungry arriving song birds. Manfreddi and his paid customers came in later in the day. Manfreddi had another birder helping him lead his birding trip whose name I think was Nigel. Nigel found a Chuck-will’s-widow on a low branch behind the fountain. He pointed it out to the paying birders and of course I wanted it for my video I had been working so hard on but I didn’t want to scare it so I stayed back. Well, Nigel walked up to me and said you should get closer to get a better shot. I thought that was so uncharacteristic of most birders and I was so grateful at his kindness. I took him up on his offer and got as close as I dared. There were also two Nighthawks sleeping up in a Gumbo Limbo tree. You cannot tell a Common Nighthawk from an Antillean Nighthawk unless they sing. But these two wouldn’t make a peep for us. After the paying birders left I was able to stand quietly at the fountain and get some fantastic shots of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo coming in for a bath plus two male Magnolia Warblers, a Tennessee Warbler, and some other neat things too. I also got some nice shots of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird eating at a Sea Grape. Before the paying birders left Nigel gave me some tips on where to find Snail Kite and White-crowned Pigeon. I really did not want to leave Dry Tortugas but departure was quickly approaching. I saw Mike and Mark and I told Mike that I didn’t think there were any other birds possible to see on Dry Tortugas that I had not already seen except for White-tailed Tropicbird. He said “oh Mark and I saw about five of those on the way out here.” I was crushed. I had been so sick I guess I didn’t notice them. I demanded that Mike produce one on the ferry ride back to Key West as I thought it would take me up to 600 birds on my ABA approved North American Life List (although I actually wasn’t really sure but it made for a fantastic plot line). I reluctantly boarded the boat and Mike, Mark, and I stood out on the upper deck the entire 2.5 hours back to Key West looking for a tropic bird. Nearly back to shore, Mike yelled out “large white bird.” We all stared at it intently with our binoculars but it was just a Royal Tern. Back on shore in Key West Mike said he was sorry he couldn’t conjure up a White-tailed Tropicbird. I told him I remained sanguine and would probably hit 600 with a White-crowned Pigeon and then we departed. My number one priority back on Key West was to replenish my depleted ice, so I did that. And then I was starving and so I went back to Ft. Zachary Taylor to eat and try for White-crowned Pigeon. I ran into a nice birder who said the best place was Indigenous Park but it was now closed or the cemetery but dark was approaching and there was no time for that either. He asked if I was staying the night in Key West and I said I had a reservation at John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo and he said “oh that’s close to Dagny; two Mangrove Cuckoos were seen there today.” The ranger let me into Ft. Zachary Taylor for half price after I told him about my bad luck in not being able to find the White-crowned Pigeon. He said the best place was in the middle of town. Nobody thought Ft. Zachary Taylor was a good place for them, although the Birding Florida book by Brian Rapoza said it was. The sun was about to set so I went to Sunset Beach and watched it and then left Key West on the boring horrible Overseas Highway all the way up to Key Largo where I camped for the night. The campground was atrocious. My site was probably 10 feet wide with a trailer on both sides of me. The only good thing about it was that I was able to recharge my batteries in the electrical outlet. I set up my tent and went straight to bed.
May 1, 2008, I got up at 5:00 AM. It’s just a short drive from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to Dagny Key Largo State Botanical Site but I wanted to arrive at dawn to look for the ever elusive Mangrove Cuckoo. Two birders from Pennsylvania arrived just as I did so we walked in together. We walked up and down the trails and I was about to give up as we headed back toward the middle where the kiosk is. One of the fellows, Kevin said he thought he heard one. Just about then a Mangrove Cuckoo flew into a tree right in front of us! I got my video camera on it very briefly and then jumped up and down for joy. I could not believe that a Mangrove Cuckoo was bird number 600! We admired it for a while and then I told the other guy, Dave, that I had been unable to find a White-crowned Pigeon and just about then he yelled out “White-crowned Pigeon!” I looked at it but it just looked like a Rock Pigeon to me so I couldn’t “count” that one. A few minutes later though a flock flew right over us and I clearly saw the white heads on them but got no video as they merely flew by and away. Oh well, it was still 601 I thought. Dave asked me if I had seen the Smooth-billed Ani. Vicki had mentioned something about it but I had failed to write down the directions as it seemed out of the way and unlikely but since it was only 9:30 AM and I had already seen two new species I decided to give it a shot. Dave walked back to my car with me and wrote out very detailed instructions to the spot and also a place to see Spot-breasted Oriole and Red-whiskered Bulbul. I thanked him profusely and then headed north to the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The Ani spot is just south of the airport in a run down section of town with large electrical towers and over grown abandoned lots. I pulled the car up very leery about having my camera stolen. I had just gotten out of my car when I saw an all black bird with an unmistakeably long tail on the ground just feet away with a bug dangling from its mouth! My god a Smooth-billed Ani just like that. I went back to the car and got the camera out but it had flown away somewhere. I waited and waited but it would not come back. All other black birds there were Grackles. I decided to have my lunch out of the back of my car while waiting. I drove around the block and still nothing. I was about to give up when I pulled over and saw it again perched on a telephone wire. I yanked out my camera and got an awful hand held shot just in case it flew away again. I parked the car and got out my tripod and was able to video tape it and get a photo. There were two of them actively feeding for their nest somewhere nearby. After satisfying myself I decided I better get out of there and left driving south to this residential area Dave had recommended for Spot-breasted Oriole. I felt weird walking around the neighborhood even with just my binoculars. I was not about to carry around that huge camera with neighbors staring at me like I was insane. Also I felt a little odd looking for another introduced species. Spot-breasted Oriole. Though much more colorful it is no different from the European Starling introduced in New York about a 100 years ago and long ago established all across North America. This oriole had been introduced from Central America and was now a year round resident around Miami and apparently according to Dave this neighborhood I was walking around in Hollywood, FL. After walking around it three times I gave up. I drove to a Miami neighborhood called Kendall across from the Baptist Hospital looking for a Red-whiskered Bulbul on the recommendation of Dave. I only saw Loggerhead Shrike, Monk Parakeet (countable but I already saw one in Dallas a year ago) and White-winged Dove. I was a long way away but I figured the only realistic chance I had left of yet another new bird was to drive half way back down the Keys to the Marathon government buildings where Roseate Terns are known to nest. Roseate Terns are a pelagic species and spend their entire lives at sea, only coming to shore to nest. On my way from Hollywood to Marathon, I made a detour to Everglades National Park to recycle my beer bottles. I knew the national park would recycle whereas the state of Florida does not. Shame on Florida! Anyway, I lifted the green recycle bin at Royal Palm and put in my bottles and some empty water jugs I had been saving up and then lifted the trash can to put in some little bit of trash I had accumulated and was shocked to see about 10 plastic water bottles. INEXCUSABLE! What is wrong with people? It was getting late but there was enough sun light left for me to clearly make out several Least Terns flying over the Marathon State of Florida Regional Service Center Building. I saw one that was larger and got my binoculars on it. It had a black cap, an all black bill, and an incredibly long all white deeply forked tail, definitely a Roseate Tern! The only other tern it could have been was a Sandwich but I’ve never seen one with such a deeply forked tail. It was nearly dark by the time I left the government buildings but unbelievably I had added four new species in one day. Since I was so close I stopped at the Marathon Airport, a known spot to hear and see Antillean Nighthawk. The only nighthawk I saw or heard was a Common Nighthawk but fortunately I had already added this species at my campground at Long Pine in the Everglades. I drove the long boring drive back to Key Largo to sleep at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Most people go there to snorkel; I only chose it because it was close to Dagny and it’s a good thing I did.
May 2, 2008 was my last day in Florida. I got up as early as humanly possible, took down my tent, ate breakfast, and left Key Largo on a grueling four hour drive north past Miami, past Fort Lauderdale, past West Palm Beach and then inland on the toll road, the Florida Turnpike (oh how I wish I had done that miles ago and missed all that miserable rush hour traffic in all the aforementioned beaches!) to Lake Kissimmee State Park. I chose this spot on the recommendation of Nigel as the best place to see a Snail Kite. It took me so long to get there after that hideous drive that I had blown the best part of the morning by the time I arrived. I walked up to the observation tower to have a look. It had breathtaking views of Lake Kissimmee but I could see right away that any Snail Kite I spotted from up there would be incredibly far away necessitating a spotting scope. So I took one of the trails to the lake’s edge which recedes greatly after the rainy season ends. There were thousands of mosquitoes but they didn’t touch me because this time instead of using poison I smeared myself with Skin So Soft. It really does work! I saw an Eastern Meadowlark and a Common Ground-Dove on the walk out to the lake and an immature Bald Eagle but the only other soaring birds were vultures. So I returned to the picnic area to look around. There was a Summer Tanager, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, and Great-crested Flycatcher in the pine/oak woodlands along with several Wild Turkeys. In the Kissimmee River I found another Limpkin, a Tricolored Heron, and an Anhinga along with a few large alligators. I had my lunch at the picnic area and continued to scan the skies. During lunch I found an Oak Hairstreak in the Oak woodlands that make up the habitat there along with a gorgeous Zebra Swallowtail. I love that butterfly but they never land and I have never been able to get a doggone photo of one. They are not in California so I have to wait until my next visit south to look for another one.
I finished lunch and it was obvious I was not going to find a Snail Kite there so I drove for miles around the lake to the other side to the Joe Overstreet Boat Ramp where the Snail Kites allegedly perch on the posts. It was mid-afternoon and rednecks were arriving to set up their tents for the weekend. I looked around but found nothing and it seemed improbable with all that noise and redneck activity. So I left. On the drive back down the Joe Overstreet dirt road, I stopped and heard two Bobwhites which brought childhood memories racing back into my brain. I heard some Sandhill Cranes in the sky and one was on the side of the road nearby feeding. Also on that side of the lake is the Three Lakes Wildlife Management where endangered Whooping Cranes are raised in captivity. I didn’t see any but since I was over there I tried near the other lakes that make it “Three Lakes,” Lake Jackson and Lake Marion to look for kites. I drove down to a parking area for the Lake Jackson Observation Tower. It was a .4 mile walk and time was running out so I ran without my camera. When I arrived a Pileated Woodpecker was pecking on the tower legs. I climbed up and had outstanding views of the lake but saw no kites. I raced back to the car and drove back to Lake Kissimmee State Park for one last parting glance from the observation tower. It was nearly dusk and there were several raptors coursing over the lake. I’m sure one of them was a kite because they were much smaller than the eagles out there but all of them were much too far away to count for anything except a nice parting look at Florida as it should look. The park closed at 8:00 PM so I had to get out and begin my long drive back to Tampa for my flight home the next day. It had been an incredible trip for me, reminding me that there still are wild places out there if you look hard enough and have the resources to find them. They won't be here indefinitely though because man is hell bent on being the only species left on this planet. Going to Florida was a reminder of how lucky I am to have my health, the time and those resources available to experience nature in all its glory, while it's still here to enjoy.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA: PART I: DURBAN & KRUGER
Durban & Kruger National Park
December 13, 2007 – December 21, 2007
We left London on the evening of the 12th and arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa the morning of December 13, 2007, where we met Susan’s brother, Martyn. The airport was utter chaos. The conveyor belt wasn’t working on the luggage carrousel and throngs of people were climbing onto it trying to get their luggage. We finally collected our things and then met Martyn and his two kids and flew from Johannesburg to Durban, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean. We drove from Durban Airport to Umhlanga Rocks, to a large flat owned by Martyn’s in-laws, overlooking the Indian Ocean. I looked out the cab window on the drive from the airport with extreme sadness as we passed large tracts of shanty towns. Once in Umhlanga everything changed as we entered white South Africa, a swanky resort town for rich white folks with their high end cars, gated housing with security guards, electrically wired fences, and fancy accommodations. Our room opened onto a large deck with expansive views down the beach and across the ocean. Each morning I was able to use my photography and video equipment on the deck on the third floor without fear of being mugged, a high possibility in crime-ridden South Africa. After settling into our room we went for a walk down the board walk along the ocean. Police were stationed up and down the beach; it was the holidays, summer in South Africa, and the beaches were full of tourists. Helicopters patrolled the beaches incessantly as well. As we walked down the beach I noticed right away how little wildlife there was to see in the ocean itself. In fact, the only ocean birds we saw that day were a couple of Cape Gulls and one Lesser Crested Tern. Common Mynas, an introduced bird that has thrived there, were everywhere as were the symbol of South African birding, the Hadeda Ibis and Cape Turtle Dove which makes a sound embedded in my brain permanently. Despite the presence of many tourists, in the shrubs along the boardwalk there were quite a few birds including Dark-capped Bulbul, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Drakensburg Prinia, Lemon Dove, and Red-winged Starling. After walking down the boardwalk a ways we came to the entrance to the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve. It looked very inviting but a sign warned of the dangers of muggings and recommended entering only on Thursdays between 11:00 and 2:00 PM when a guard was there. Overcoming my extreme fear of being mugged and having my camera stolen we entered the reserve. It was the best part about Durban. My heart pounded as we entered a thick jungle with overhanging limbs and then came to a rickety boardwalk over the lagoon. In the jungle area we saw a Green-backed Camaroptera, African White-throated Robin-Chat, and Red-capped Robin-chat. Our fears overcame us and it was getting late so we turned back before exploring the boardwalk.
December 14, 2007, I got up and checked out the lawn below the balcony. I found more Mynas, Laughing Dove, European Barn Swallow, Dark-capped Bulbul, Cape White-eye, Bronze Mannikin, Gray-headed Gull, and Cape Sparrow. Out on the ocean was a pod of Common Dolphins. After breakfast we decided to walk back down to the Nature Reserve. Martyn’s brother-in-law, Allistair, warned us that it wasn’t safe but we went anyway. In the jungle we found a Cardinal Woodpecker, Brown Scrub Robin, and a Green-backed Camaroptera. An alternative trail to the one to the boardwalk went toward the Beachcomer Hotel and we took it as it seemed safer so close to the hotel. One tree there was full of butterflies and also had a Speckled Mousebird, Black-collared Barbet and a family of Vervet Monkeys. We stood in this one spot along time as it felt the safest. Then we decided to chance the rickety boardwalk and came across dozens of nesting weaver birds, Speckled Weaver and Cape Weaver. There was one Southern Red Bishop in the reeds. As we stood on the boardwalk right in the middle we had a good vantage point for both shorebirds in the river mouth and passerines in the woods. Along the canal there was a White-breasted Cormorant, Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Wood Sandpiper, and Common Sandpiper. A Giant Kingfisher flew out of the woods and landed on a post in the canal. Then a Pied Kingfisher flew out of the same area and landed on a reed. In the woods on the far side that went toward the ocean I spotted a Black Flycatcher perched in a tree. We looked in the mud flats closely and saw a Three-banded Plover briefly come from behind some reeds. A Common Ringed Plover made an even briefer appearance before disappearing behind the reed bed. We decided to brave crossing the boardwalk to the other side. The jungle only continued briefly after that before descending to the beach. Out on the beach an African Fish Eagle flew overhead. Back at the flat we put on our swimming suits (called swimming costumes in South Africa) and went down to the beach to swim in the Indian Ocean. I had never even seen the Indian Ocean before much less swum in it. You could only swim in about a 50 yard section of the beach. So about 500 people were all crammed in this one section of the beach all trying to boogie board and ride waves and swim all the while bumping into each other while trying to avoid contact. If you went outside the 50 yard markers a life guard blew a whistle and asked you to get back in the swimming area. Another guard sat on a surf board right at the breakers to make sure no one went beyond the breakers. White Sharks are a huge threat in South Africa but as all the announcement were in Zulu I’m not sure if that was the reason or something else. Crime was always a threat even with the presence of guards, helicopters and police. So Susan watched our towel while I got in the ocean. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as the Pacific Ocean. Everyone said the Indian Ocean was much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean. I would find out later in the trip when we got to Cape Town.
December 15, 2007, I got up and scanned the ocean from the balcony. It was overcast. A stream of Palm Swifts flew past the balcony. A Cape Wagtail walked across the lawn below me. After breakfast we returned to the Nature Reserve. We first took the trail toward the busy tree next to the Beachcomber Hotel. A suspicious looking man was walking the other way. I was very frightened but felt somewhat safe by the hotel. Two men walked toward us and I hurriedly put my Canon Rebel into my backpack. If we had been robbed he would have hit the jackpot getting both my Canon Rebel and my Sony Video camera. The two men turned out to be police officers who had just returned from checking the nature reserve trails. One of the officers asked if we planned to go into the reserve when we said yes he said that there had been two muggings the day before. We were so frightened and jittery that I could barely even look at the birds much less film them. We walked toward the boardwalk slowly looking ahead and back constantly. We stood out in the middle of the boardwalk checking both sides and that felt safer as we had a chance to run either way if a criminal came. An African Darter was in the channel as well as a Ruff and another Common Sandpiper. I didn’t want to go either way as I felt entering the woods was very dangerous but we had to either return the way we came through the jungle or up the hillside to the beach. We finally decided that the shorter route to the beach was safest since once we reached the beach we were much less likely to be mugged with other people there, constant helicopters flying over and many people on holiday at the beach. In the woods that went up the hillside we found a Fork-tailed Drongo, a female Eastern Olive Sunbird, my first sunbird of the trip, Dark-backed Weaver, and Common Fiscal. We decided it would be safer to walk back along the beach where there was more security. While walking down the beach, a Rock Kestrel zoomed past us. Later in the day we went out to the pool area which was enclosed by the electrical fence so filming was easier and safer there. While looking around a Black Kite flew overhead and a Black-collared Barbet went repeatedly to this same tree overlooking the pool area.
December 16, 2007, was our last day in Durban. In the morning before our flight we walked down the boardwalk to the reserve one last time. While standing on the boardwalk a Black Crake popped out of the reeds. I could have stood on the boardwalk all day just to see what else popped out but we had to go. We crossed the boardwalk and walked through the jungle to the beach where we found a Wahlberg’s Eagle perched in a tree. We walked up to the river mouth and found a Brown-headed Shrike perched in a tree. The only additional birds we found in the jungle were Common Fiscal and a Collared Sunbird. A man and his son were just about to head back into the reserve and so we felt safe enough to continue back that way as well instead of back along the beach where there were less birds to see. When we were nearly back to the flat we passed the police officer who warned us earlier about the mugging and he said, “you made it!” Back at the flat we packed our bags and then headed back to Durban Airport. We flew from Durban on a tiny twin prop to Nelspruit Airport where we were greeted by our guide from Bushwise Safaris, Ludaweick. The drive from Nelspruit Airport to Marloth Park is about an hour and passes some dramatic mountain scenery before following along the Crocodile River and into the park. Marloth Park is a nature reserve that borders Kruger National Park. On the drive I saw my first Pied Crow, a Black-shouldered Kite, Little Swifts, and Cattle Egrets. Soon after passing through the security gate we came across a Black Mamba snake in the road. Then we passed some Impalas along the road. Ludaweick said they were too common to stop for even though I had never seen one. We also saw a Diuker in the woods but Ludawieck wouldn’t stop for that either. We settled into our room which had a balcony with eye level views into a tree hosting a number of birds including a very vocal Gray Go-Away Bird and a Blue Waxbill amoung others. The lodge is just feet from the fence that runs for miles along Kruger National Park. Although you are not permitted to get out of your car in Kruger, at Marloth you may walk all along the fence line. So after settling into our room we went for a walk about one kilometer to a shelter and back. Immediately we came across a Natal Francolin and just minutes into our walk we came upon an elephant right next to the fence! It was the first elephant I had ever seen in the wild. The fence runs parallel to the Crocodile River where many animals and birds congregate. In the low shrubs along the fence line were hundreds and hundreds of Red-billed Queleas. White-browed Scrub-Robins hopped along the ground. We found a Bearded Woodpecker in a tree. There was a drab looking bird skulking in the reeds that I believe was a Willow Warbler. Along the banks of the river were many Blacksmith Lapwings, Egyptian Geese (abundant in SA), Yellow-billed Egret, and White-faced Ducks. A Burchell’s Couchal was perched in the low shrubs. We also found a Fork-tailed Drongo and Cape Glossy Starling in the trees. Just feet from us we found a Goliath Heron and a Diderick Cuckoo. On the ground on the way back we got a brief glimpse of a pretty Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove. We had dinner with Ludaweick and another guide named Heinrich. Luaweick and Heinrich frequently lapsed into speaking Africaans even though Susan told them that she grew up in Cape Town and spoke Africaans. Ludaweick said we would be the only ones on the safari the next day which would only last a half day since we would be taking a night drive that night with a park guide. He also said that he would be our guide for our stay. We asked him if he knew about birds because we had a particular interest in them. Ludaweick assured us that he was required to know about all aspects of nature in the park in order to be a guide and that he knew about birds but that his special interest was elephants.
December 17, 2007, we got up at 4:00 AM for an early start in Kruger. It was a thirty minute drive from our lodge to the Crocodile Bridge Gate at Kruger and all the safari companies line up before the gate opens at 5:30 AM to try to find the “Big Five” which is what everybody is most interested in. It was raining lightly but Ludawieck was wearing shorts. While waiting for the gate to open I spotted a Yellow-fronted Canary. Finally the gate opened and we crossed the Crocodile Bridge which is a low concrete platform that barely clears the river. Despite the rain, we saw many spectacular birds from the jeep all of which we of course new to me. Many vultures were perched in the trees, mostly White-backed Vulture but also one Lappet-faced Vulture. We also saw three different kinds of eagle, Steppe Eagle, Martial Eagle, and Brown Snake-eagle. We had no trouble finding Giraffe, Zebra, and Buffalo but Ludaweick didn’t think they were worthy of a stop. Not too long into our drive Ludaweick slammed on the brakes (probably because he saw an elephant) sending my Canon Rebel camera to the floor of the jeep shattering the LCD readout and making it impossible to see the settings or the picture preview. Every time we wanted him to stop for a bird he became extremely resentful. We came across some Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills and Red-billed Hornbills which I thought were fantastic looking but Ludaweick was uninterested and wouldn’t stop long enough for me to get a picture. (I later got a picture of a Yellow-billed Hornbill while walking in Marloth but it wasn't very good because I had to use my video camera). After a couple of hours we stopped at a rest area with a restaurant and gift shop. We tried to order something vegan but they had none of the items we wanted so Ludaweick yelled at the black workers there. We finally just had coffee and some toast. Ludaweick said he could not buy us water even though the water is not potable and we had pre-paid all inclusive! So Susan bought us some from the shop. It wasn’t that cold but since the jeeps are completely open the rain comes in and gets everything wet and eventually we began to feel cold. The rest area looked out over the Crocodile River where you usually can see lots of birds but with the rain visibility was limited. I only saw one Diderick Cuckoo, one Woodland Shrike, and some very tame Village Weaver and Masked Weaver birds that came right up to the table. Back out on the road we passed numerous gorgeous looking Lilac-breasted Rollers and European Rollers. Magpie Shrikes, a black bird with a very long tail, were everywhere. We stopped at a blind where a Hamerkop was busy building a nest next to the blind. Hippopotamuses were in the water and there was a Long-tailed Widowbird. It cleared up after lunch and we continued down some other roads that Ludaweick chose and found an accommodating Black-bellied Bustard. Every elephant we came across Ludaweick stopped the jeep and turned off the engine so he could study them in detail. We crossed some other bridge and saw a beautiful Saddle-billed Stork, Marabou Stork, and a Wooly-necked Stork. At one point Ludaweick turned into a dirt road and we saw a group of White Rhinoceros. I wanted to get a photo but no L:udaweick decided to drive the jeep right toward them scaring them away into the bush. On the way back out of the park we came across some Wildebeast, another animal I have never seen but Ludaweick didn’t deem it important enough to stop. Near the end of the tour he did slow down as a family of warthogs crossed the road. We left the park and returned to Bushwise Lodge. Susan and I spent the rest of the day walking along Marloth Park where we were treated to numerous butterflies including African Monarch, Fig Tree Blue, Common Diadem, Natal Acraea, Orange Tip, Scarlet Tip, White-cloaked Skipper, and Blue Pansy. There were water buffalo and hippos in the river and I came across a Speck’s Hingeback (tortoise). I saw the same Bearded Woodpecker from yesterday and Brown-backed Honeybird, Red-breasted Swallow, the beautiful Violet-backed Starling, and Red-billed Oxpeckers on the buffaloes. Way on the other side of the river was a lone Kudu. We had no hot water in our room and had to take a cold shower.
At 5:30 PM we went back to Kruger where a park guide took us on our night drive. Our park guide was named Kisani and she was excellent. She pointed out a Magpie Shrike and Woodland Kingfisher that were near the jeep. At dusk we came upon a lioness lying in the road. The male was sitting in the bush nearby. Kisani parked the jeep and within a few minutes an entire family with three tiny cubs trotted across the road. After the sun set Kisani got out some spotlights for the customers to hold and point into the bush looking for eyeballs. In this way we found a Pearl-spotted Owlet, Barn Owl, Spotted Hyenea, Springhare, and Porcupine. We went back to Bushwise for a very late dinner with Luda. We never got to say anything and ate silently while he pontificated about elephants.
December 18, 2007 was the day for our all day tour. It was raining when we woke up so I put on long pants and wore my rain jacket. Unforunately even this was not enough clothes as it rained all day long and was quite cold. It was still just Susan and me in the jeep with Ludaweick but we were to meet up with the other guests who were riding with Heinrich in another jeep, for breakfast at a picnic area on a mountain inside the park. Not long into our drive I spotted a Yellow-billed Hornbill perched right next to the road. It would have made an excellent photo. Unfortunately Ludaweick deemed it unimportant and zoomed right past it. Susan asked him to stop but he was already a kilometer past it and it was unlikely to still be perched in a perfect photo style so I just said forget about it. Ludaweick became very mad and moped the rest of the day. We made an unscheduled stop at the rest area where we met up with Heinrich and his group. Luda and Heinrich sat down and started having coffee. Luda started telling Heinrich in Africaans the story about the blow up with me around the hornbill. Susan was in the shop and he assumed I couldn’t understand-- I could not understand that dreadful language but it was clear from body language that they were talking about me as I stood there. I was furious. Later I told Susan about it and we were outraged at our ill treatment. We continued to the mountain where Susan and I were fed a bowl of cereal while the guides and the rest of the group had a gourmet meal of sausage, grilled beef, potatoes, sautéed onions, and I don’t know what else. After my cereal and some nasty instant coffee I wandered over to another picnic area to look for birds. I found my one and only Jameson’s Firefinch of the trip, a beautiful Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Red-backed Mannikin, Collared Sunbird, and Groundscraper Thrush, all birds I would have never seen if I had relied solely on Luda. He was so concerned with finding the “big five” and particularly elephants that he frequently drove right past many fascinating birds I would have loved to have seen better or even studied. I looked down the mountain into the river banks and saw Spotted Thick-knee, White-faced Duck, and Marabou Stork. As I was filming some birds Luda stormed over and demanded that I get into the jeep. He told Susan that I was not supposed to walk around but he never mentioned anything about that to me. We drove further north into the park where the bush gives way to open savannah. We saw many eagles and vultures along the way including Lessser-spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Martial Eagle, African Fish Eagle, and many Bateluers. In the savannah we found Black-bellied Bustard, African Green Pigeon, a rare Namaqua Dove, and a Red-collared Widowbird. We came to an opening and Luda said there were some Southern Ground Hornbills. I said can we stop and Luda barked “of course.” We passed some rocky outcroppings and I spotted a little buck that Luda said was a Steenbok. He was very upset that I spotted it before he did. We saw several different kinds of bucks including Waterbuck, Kudu, Bushbuck, and of course Impalas. We continued north into an area that followed along a riverway that looked very promising. We heard a distinctive call from the forest that Luda said was a Red-breasted Cuckoo. I said I wanted to see some bee-eaters but Luda was wet and cold and wanted to turn back and go home. He had promised us we would go all the way to the visitor center where Susan and I were to have lunch and do some shopping. Luda was stuffed from his humongous breakfast but we were hungry as we had only had cereal so even though we were cold and wet we insisted that he press on. He showed his displeasure but crimping his shoulders up to his ears and not saying another word to us. He was driving along way too fast for me to see anything when I saw something red and tan out of my eye and I knew it was something good so I yelled “stop.” Luda was well past it but he reluctantly backed up and there were several beautiful Carmine Bee-eaters and one European Bee-eater perched out in the open. It was raining steadily and so my picture was inferior but I was thrilled to see these gorgeous birds nevertheless. As I snapped off some hurried photos Luda propped his hand on his hand and sighed audibly. As we raced toward the visitor center and our much awaited lunch, Susan saw a chamelian on the road; Luda ran over it. He said he didn’t see it and hunched up his shoulders above his ear line. We finally made it to the visitor center and Susan and I went in and ordered some vegetarian burgers and beers. Luda went off as far away as possible from us and we were relieved to be away from him. While waiting for our food I checked the river banks and found a Collared Sunbird in the trees and a Red-collared Widowbird. Luda told us we did not have time to go into the shop even though before the trip he said we would have time to have lunch and visit the shop. We sat under a canopy and ate our lunch while Luda moped. I looked up into the rafters and saw hundreds of Egyptian Fruit Bats roosting. While Luda wasn’t looking we went into the shop and bought some rain ponchos to at least cover our legs from the rain that pushed into the jeep. On the way back we saw a crocodile completely out of the water lying on a sand bar. Luda said there was no time to stop at all! We continued driving toward the Crocodile Bridge Gate in a very rushed manner because Luda said there would be a big fine if we didn’t get back before closing time (we were late because he insisted on making the unscheduled stop at the rest area to have coffee with Heinrich and tell him his little story in Africaans). With 30 kilometers to go Luda saw an elephant on the side of the road and slammed on the brakes and stopped the engine. He wanted to see if it would pull down a branch from a Marula tree. I looked out the other side of the jeep hoping some great bird would fly by but nothing did. A few minutes later Luda slowed down the jeep but didn’t stop. Susan and I couldn’t see what he was looking at but instead of stopping and giving us a chance to see he just kept pushing toward it until he finally flushed a Wood Hoopoe out of the road and over the top of the jeep. I just barely made out a blur of tan, black, and white as it flew over. That is one bird I would have really enjoyed seeing better than just a colorful blur of wings but Luda didn’t deem it sufficiently important for us to see it I guess. We made it to the gate with time to spare so Luda consented to pull over briefly while a family of warthogs ran across the road.
December 19, 2007, we got up at 3:45 AM in order to arrive at Kruger in time for a morning walk with two Kruger Guides, Kisani, our night guide from the day before, and Duncan. On the drive out of Marloth it was still dark and so we were lucky to spot a night bird, a European Nightjar, in the road and a small cat, a Long-tailed Genet. Luda was anxious to get rid of us so he wouldn’t really stop for either one except to avoid running over the Nightjar. I had just about had it with that Africaaner bastard. Africaaners are the people who brought us apartheid and the shame of South Africa. You can draw your own conclusions.
Duncan and Kisani both carried loaded rifles in order to protect us as we walked about the park. During the walk Kisani pointed out a Burchal’s Couchal, a Red-backed Shrike, and a Bateleur high in the sky spotted with her naked eye. During our walk in the bush we came across many large mammal tracks but the only ones we saw were elephant, giraffe, and zebra. We stopped for a rest and snacks provided by Duncan and Kisani and I asked about a bird perched nearby that Kisani said was a Purple Indigobird. Duncan told me that of the 800 birds found in Kruger he had seen 500 which is pretty amazing. At the end of our morning walk Luda came to pick us up. I would have loved to have spent another day in Kruger but Luda just took us straight back to the lodge without asking us what we wanted to do and we never saw him again. So Susan and I took a long walk along the path in Marloth. We saw many amazing birds during our walk which were mostly very close to the path. It was warm compared to the day before and not precipitating at all. In the river were African Jacana, African Black Duck, Comb Duck, and Great Egret. As we walked along we came across more Bee-eaters including a White-fronted Bee-eater, Marico Sunbird, Greater Double-collared Sunbird, Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Striped Swallow, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Jacobin Cuckoo, and White-bellied Sunbird. There were several Blue Waxbills, White-winged Widowbirds, a few Black-backed Puffback, and more Violet-backed Starlings. Two Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills flew into a tree finally giving me the opportunity to get a photo. We also came across a very accommodating Golden-breasted Bunting and a gorgeous Yellow-breasted Apalis. On the river banks were many hippos and a crocodile basking on the sandbar. We also saw a waterbuck and a giraffe and more impalas. As we headed back to the lodge we just made out a jackal in the bush. More guests arrived for dinner that evening and as it was not raining we had a dinner with all the guests at a long table outside. Just before dinner began Luda came over and said goodbye before we could even give him his completely undeserved tip. Before we went to sleep we heard Heinrich return with the two guests he had picked up from their night drive in Kruger. I went outside and told Heinrich that we had been unable to say goodbye properly to Luda and would he please give this money to Luda. I handed Heinrich 500 Rands.
December 20, 2007 was our last day with Bushwise Safaris (I hope it is patently obvious by now that under no circumstances would I recommend anyone pay to go on a safari with Bushwise Safaris). After breakfast Susan and I took a last long walk along the path in Marloth Park. On our walk we saw more exciting butterflies, a Giant Kingfisher, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Brown-backed Honeybird, Olive Tree Warbler, Rattling Cisticola, African Pied Wagtail, and a Klaas’s Cuckoo. We reluctantly concluded our hike and returned to the Bushwise Lodge. We packed our bags and Heinrich took us to the Nelspruit Airport. On the way he spotted a Long-crested Eagle in the sky. Heinrich stopped to pick up his girlfriend on the way to the airport; he said it was her birthday and he was taking her to lunch after dropping us off at the airport. On the drive to the airport Heinrich gave his girlfriend a birthday card and inside were 400 Rands. Hmmm.
December 13, 2007 – December 21, 2007
We left London on the evening of the 12th and arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa the morning of December 13, 2007, where we met Susan’s brother, Martyn. The airport was utter chaos. The conveyor belt wasn’t working on the luggage carrousel and throngs of people were climbing onto it trying to get their luggage. We finally collected our things and then met Martyn and his two kids and flew from Johannesburg to Durban, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean. We drove from Durban Airport to Umhlanga Rocks, to a large flat owned by Martyn’s in-laws, overlooking the Indian Ocean. I looked out the cab window on the drive from the airport with extreme sadness as we passed large tracts of shanty towns. Once in Umhlanga everything changed as we entered white South Africa, a swanky resort town for rich white folks with their high end cars, gated housing with security guards, electrically wired fences, and fancy accommodations. Our room opened onto a large deck with expansive views down the beach and across the ocean. Each morning I was able to use my photography and video equipment on the deck on the third floor without fear of being mugged, a high possibility in crime-ridden South Africa. After settling into our room we went for a walk down the board walk along the ocean. Police were stationed up and down the beach; it was the holidays, summer in South Africa, and the beaches were full of tourists. Helicopters patrolled the beaches incessantly as well. As we walked down the beach I noticed right away how little wildlife there was to see in the ocean itself. In fact, the only ocean birds we saw that day were a couple of Cape Gulls and one Lesser Crested Tern. Common Mynas, an introduced bird that has thrived there, were everywhere as were the symbol of South African birding, the Hadeda Ibis and Cape Turtle Dove which makes a sound embedded in my brain permanently. Despite the presence of many tourists, in the shrubs along the boardwalk there were quite a few birds including Dark-capped Bulbul, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Drakensburg Prinia, Lemon Dove, and Red-winged Starling. After walking down the boardwalk a ways we came to the entrance to the Umhlanga Lagoon Nature Reserve. It looked very inviting but a sign warned of the dangers of muggings and recommended entering only on Thursdays between 11:00 and 2:00 PM when a guard was there. Overcoming my extreme fear of being mugged and having my camera stolen we entered the reserve. It was the best part about Durban. My heart pounded as we entered a thick jungle with overhanging limbs and then came to a rickety boardwalk over the lagoon. In the jungle area we saw a Green-backed Camaroptera, African White-throated Robin-Chat, and Red-capped Robin-chat. Our fears overcame us and it was getting late so we turned back before exploring the boardwalk.
December 14, 2007, I got up and checked out the lawn below the balcony. I found more Mynas, Laughing Dove, European Barn Swallow, Dark-capped Bulbul, Cape White-eye, Bronze Mannikin, Gray-headed Gull, and Cape Sparrow. Out on the ocean was a pod of Common Dolphins. After breakfast we decided to walk back down to the Nature Reserve. Martyn’s brother-in-law, Allistair, warned us that it wasn’t safe but we went anyway. In the jungle we found a Cardinal Woodpecker, Brown Scrub Robin, and a Green-backed Camaroptera. An alternative trail to the one to the boardwalk went toward the Beachcomer Hotel and we took it as it seemed safer so close to the hotel. One tree there was full of butterflies and also had a Speckled Mousebird, Black-collared Barbet and a family of Vervet Monkeys. We stood in this one spot along time as it felt the safest. Then we decided to chance the rickety boardwalk and came across dozens of nesting weaver birds, Speckled Weaver and Cape Weaver. There was one Southern Red Bishop in the reeds. As we stood on the boardwalk right in the middle we had a good vantage point for both shorebirds in the river mouth and passerines in the woods. Along the canal there was a White-breasted Cormorant, Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Wood Sandpiper, and Common Sandpiper. A Giant Kingfisher flew out of the woods and landed on a post in the canal. Then a Pied Kingfisher flew out of the same area and landed on a reed. In the woods on the far side that went toward the ocean I spotted a Black Flycatcher perched in a tree. We looked in the mud flats closely and saw a Three-banded Plover briefly come from behind some reeds. A Common Ringed Plover made an even briefer appearance before disappearing behind the reed bed. We decided to brave crossing the boardwalk to the other side. The jungle only continued briefly after that before descending to the beach. Out on the beach an African Fish Eagle flew overhead. Back at the flat we put on our swimming suits (called swimming costumes in South Africa) and went down to the beach to swim in the Indian Ocean. I had never even seen the Indian Ocean before much less swum in it. You could only swim in about a 50 yard section of the beach. So about 500 people were all crammed in this one section of the beach all trying to boogie board and ride waves and swim all the while bumping into each other while trying to avoid contact. If you went outside the 50 yard markers a life guard blew a whistle and asked you to get back in the swimming area. Another guard sat on a surf board right at the breakers to make sure no one went beyond the breakers. White Sharks are a huge threat in South Africa but as all the announcement were in Zulu I’m not sure if that was the reason or something else. Crime was always a threat even with the presence of guards, helicopters and police. So Susan watched our towel while I got in the ocean. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as the Pacific Ocean. Everyone said the Indian Ocean was much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean. I would find out later in the trip when we got to Cape Town.
December 15, 2007, I got up and scanned the ocean from the balcony. It was overcast. A stream of Palm Swifts flew past the balcony. A Cape Wagtail walked across the lawn below me. After breakfast we returned to the Nature Reserve. We first took the trail toward the busy tree next to the Beachcomber Hotel. A suspicious looking man was walking the other way. I was very frightened but felt somewhat safe by the hotel. Two men walked toward us and I hurriedly put my Canon Rebel into my backpack. If we had been robbed he would have hit the jackpot getting both my Canon Rebel and my Sony Video camera. The two men turned out to be police officers who had just returned from checking the nature reserve trails. One of the officers asked if we planned to go into the reserve when we said yes he said that there had been two muggings the day before. We were so frightened and jittery that I could barely even look at the birds much less film them. We walked toward the boardwalk slowly looking ahead and back constantly. We stood out in the middle of the boardwalk checking both sides and that felt safer as we had a chance to run either way if a criminal came. An African Darter was in the channel as well as a Ruff and another Common Sandpiper. I didn’t want to go either way as I felt entering the woods was very dangerous but we had to either return the way we came through the jungle or up the hillside to the beach. We finally decided that the shorter route to the beach was safest since once we reached the beach we were much less likely to be mugged with other people there, constant helicopters flying over and many people on holiday at the beach. In the woods that went up the hillside we found a Fork-tailed Drongo, a female Eastern Olive Sunbird, my first sunbird of the trip, Dark-backed Weaver, and Common Fiscal. We decided it would be safer to walk back along the beach where there was more security. While walking down the beach, a Rock Kestrel zoomed past us. Later in the day we went out to the pool area which was enclosed by the electrical fence so filming was easier and safer there. While looking around a Black Kite flew overhead and a Black-collared Barbet went repeatedly to this same tree overlooking the pool area.
December 16, 2007, was our last day in Durban. In the morning before our flight we walked down the boardwalk to the reserve one last time. While standing on the boardwalk a Black Crake popped out of the reeds. I could have stood on the boardwalk all day just to see what else popped out but we had to go. We crossed the boardwalk and walked through the jungle to the beach where we found a Wahlberg’s Eagle perched in a tree. We walked up to the river mouth and found a Brown-headed Shrike perched in a tree. The only additional birds we found in the jungle were Common Fiscal and a Collared Sunbird. A man and his son were just about to head back into the reserve and so we felt safe enough to continue back that way as well instead of back along the beach where there were less birds to see. When we were nearly back to the flat we passed the police officer who warned us earlier about the mugging and he said, “you made it!” Back at the flat we packed our bags and then headed back to Durban Airport. We flew from Durban on a tiny twin prop to Nelspruit Airport where we were greeted by our guide from Bushwise Safaris, Ludaweick. The drive from Nelspruit Airport to Marloth Park is about an hour and passes some dramatic mountain scenery before following along the Crocodile River and into the park. Marloth Park is a nature reserve that borders Kruger National Park. On the drive I saw my first Pied Crow, a Black-shouldered Kite, Little Swifts, and Cattle Egrets. Soon after passing through the security gate we came across a Black Mamba snake in the road. Then we passed some Impalas along the road. Ludaweick said they were too common to stop for even though I had never seen one. We also saw a Diuker in the woods but Ludawieck wouldn’t stop for that either. We settled into our room which had a balcony with eye level views into a tree hosting a number of birds including a very vocal Gray Go-Away Bird and a Blue Waxbill amoung others. The lodge is just feet from the fence that runs for miles along Kruger National Park. Although you are not permitted to get out of your car in Kruger, at Marloth you may walk all along the fence line. So after settling into our room we went for a walk about one kilometer to a shelter and back. Immediately we came across a Natal Francolin and just minutes into our walk we came upon an elephant right next to the fence! It was the first elephant I had ever seen in the wild. The fence runs parallel to the Crocodile River where many animals and birds congregate. In the low shrubs along the fence line were hundreds and hundreds of Red-billed Queleas. White-browed Scrub-Robins hopped along the ground. We found a Bearded Woodpecker in a tree. There was a drab looking bird skulking in the reeds that I believe was a Willow Warbler. Along the banks of the river were many Blacksmith Lapwings, Egyptian Geese (abundant in SA), Yellow-billed Egret, and White-faced Ducks. A Burchell’s Couchal was perched in the low shrubs. We also found a Fork-tailed Drongo and Cape Glossy Starling in the trees. Just feet from us we found a Goliath Heron and a Diderick Cuckoo. On the ground on the way back we got a brief glimpse of a pretty Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove. We had dinner with Ludaweick and another guide named Heinrich. Luaweick and Heinrich frequently lapsed into speaking Africaans even though Susan told them that she grew up in Cape Town and spoke Africaans. Ludaweick said we would be the only ones on the safari the next day which would only last a half day since we would be taking a night drive that night with a park guide. He also said that he would be our guide for our stay. We asked him if he knew about birds because we had a particular interest in them. Ludaweick assured us that he was required to know about all aspects of nature in the park in order to be a guide and that he knew about birds but that his special interest was elephants.
December 17, 2007, we got up at 4:00 AM for an early start in Kruger. It was a thirty minute drive from our lodge to the Crocodile Bridge Gate at Kruger and all the safari companies line up before the gate opens at 5:30 AM to try to find the “Big Five” which is what everybody is most interested in. It was raining lightly but Ludawieck was wearing shorts. While waiting for the gate to open I spotted a Yellow-fronted Canary. Finally the gate opened and we crossed the Crocodile Bridge which is a low concrete platform that barely clears the river. Despite the rain, we saw many spectacular birds from the jeep all of which we of course new to me. Many vultures were perched in the trees, mostly White-backed Vulture but also one Lappet-faced Vulture. We also saw three different kinds of eagle, Steppe Eagle, Martial Eagle, and Brown Snake-eagle. We had no trouble finding Giraffe, Zebra, and Buffalo but Ludaweick didn’t think they were worthy of a stop. Not too long into our drive Ludaweick slammed on the brakes (probably because he saw an elephant) sending my Canon Rebel camera to the floor of the jeep shattering the LCD readout and making it impossible to see the settings or the picture preview. Every time we wanted him to stop for a bird he became extremely resentful. We came across some Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills and Red-billed Hornbills which I thought were fantastic looking but Ludaweick was uninterested and wouldn’t stop long enough for me to get a picture. (I later got a picture of a Yellow-billed Hornbill while walking in Marloth but it wasn't very good because I had to use my video camera). After a couple of hours we stopped at a rest area with a restaurant and gift shop. We tried to order something vegan but they had none of the items we wanted so Ludaweick yelled at the black workers there. We finally just had coffee and some toast. Ludaweick said he could not buy us water even though the water is not potable and we had pre-paid all inclusive! So Susan bought us some from the shop. It wasn’t that cold but since the jeeps are completely open the rain comes in and gets everything wet and eventually we began to feel cold. The rest area looked out over the Crocodile River where you usually can see lots of birds but with the rain visibility was limited. I only saw one Diderick Cuckoo, one Woodland Shrike, and some very tame Village Weaver and Masked Weaver birds that came right up to the table. Back out on the road we passed numerous gorgeous looking Lilac-breasted Rollers and European Rollers. Magpie Shrikes, a black bird with a very long tail, were everywhere. We stopped at a blind where a Hamerkop was busy building a nest next to the blind. Hippopotamuses were in the water and there was a Long-tailed Widowbird. It cleared up after lunch and we continued down some other roads that Ludaweick chose and found an accommodating Black-bellied Bustard. Every elephant we came across Ludaweick stopped the jeep and turned off the engine so he could study them in detail. We crossed some other bridge and saw a beautiful Saddle-billed Stork, Marabou Stork, and a Wooly-necked Stork. At one point Ludaweick turned into a dirt road and we saw a group of White Rhinoceros. I wanted to get a photo but no L:udaweick decided to drive the jeep right toward them scaring them away into the bush. On the way back out of the park we came across some Wildebeast, another animal I have never seen but Ludaweick didn’t deem it important enough to stop. Near the end of the tour he did slow down as a family of warthogs crossed the road. We left the park and returned to Bushwise Lodge. Susan and I spent the rest of the day walking along Marloth Park where we were treated to numerous butterflies including African Monarch, Fig Tree Blue, Common Diadem, Natal Acraea, Orange Tip, Scarlet Tip, White-cloaked Skipper, and Blue Pansy. There were water buffalo and hippos in the river and I came across a Speck’s Hingeback (tortoise). I saw the same Bearded Woodpecker from yesterday and Brown-backed Honeybird, Red-breasted Swallow, the beautiful Violet-backed Starling, and Red-billed Oxpeckers on the buffaloes. Way on the other side of the river was a lone Kudu. We had no hot water in our room and had to take a cold shower.
At 5:30 PM we went back to Kruger where a park guide took us on our night drive. Our park guide was named Kisani and she was excellent. She pointed out a Magpie Shrike and Woodland Kingfisher that were near the jeep. At dusk we came upon a lioness lying in the road. The male was sitting in the bush nearby. Kisani parked the jeep and within a few minutes an entire family with three tiny cubs trotted across the road. After the sun set Kisani got out some spotlights for the customers to hold and point into the bush looking for eyeballs. In this way we found a Pearl-spotted Owlet, Barn Owl, Spotted Hyenea, Springhare, and Porcupine. We went back to Bushwise for a very late dinner with Luda. We never got to say anything and ate silently while he pontificated about elephants.
December 18, 2007 was the day for our all day tour. It was raining when we woke up so I put on long pants and wore my rain jacket. Unforunately even this was not enough clothes as it rained all day long and was quite cold. It was still just Susan and me in the jeep with Ludaweick but we were to meet up with the other guests who were riding with Heinrich in another jeep, for breakfast at a picnic area on a mountain inside the park. Not long into our drive I spotted a Yellow-billed Hornbill perched right next to the road. It would have made an excellent photo. Unfortunately Ludaweick deemed it unimportant and zoomed right past it. Susan asked him to stop but he was already a kilometer past it and it was unlikely to still be perched in a perfect photo style so I just said forget about it. Ludaweick became very mad and moped the rest of the day. We made an unscheduled stop at the rest area where we met up with Heinrich and his group. Luda and Heinrich sat down and started having coffee. Luda started telling Heinrich in Africaans the story about the blow up with me around the hornbill. Susan was in the shop and he assumed I couldn’t understand-- I could not understand that dreadful language but it was clear from body language that they were talking about me as I stood there. I was furious. Later I told Susan about it and we were outraged at our ill treatment. We continued to the mountain where Susan and I were fed a bowl of cereal while the guides and the rest of the group had a gourmet meal of sausage, grilled beef, potatoes, sautéed onions, and I don’t know what else. After my cereal and some nasty instant coffee I wandered over to another picnic area to look for birds. I found my one and only Jameson’s Firefinch of the trip, a beautiful Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Red-backed Mannikin, Collared Sunbird, and Groundscraper Thrush, all birds I would have never seen if I had relied solely on Luda. He was so concerned with finding the “big five” and particularly elephants that he frequently drove right past many fascinating birds I would have loved to have seen better or even studied. I looked down the mountain into the river banks and saw Spotted Thick-knee, White-faced Duck, and Marabou Stork. As I was filming some birds Luda stormed over and demanded that I get into the jeep. He told Susan that I was not supposed to walk around but he never mentioned anything about that to me. We drove further north into the park where the bush gives way to open savannah. We saw many eagles and vultures along the way including Lessser-spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Martial Eagle, African Fish Eagle, and many Bateluers. In the savannah we found Black-bellied Bustard, African Green Pigeon, a rare Namaqua Dove, and a Red-collared Widowbird. We came to an opening and Luda said there were some Southern Ground Hornbills. I said can we stop and Luda barked “of course.” We passed some rocky outcroppings and I spotted a little buck that Luda said was a Steenbok. He was very upset that I spotted it before he did. We saw several different kinds of bucks including Waterbuck, Kudu, Bushbuck, and of course Impalas. We continued north into an area that followed along a riverway that looked very promising. We heard a distinctive call from the forest that Luda said was a Red-breasted Cuckoo. I said I wanted to see some bee-eaters but Luda was wet and cold and wanted to turn back and go home. He had promised us we would go all the way to the visitor center where Susan and I were to have lunch and do some shopping. Luda was stuffed from his humongous breakfast but we were hungry as we had only had cereal so even though we were cold and wet we insisted that he press on. He showed his displeasure but crimping his shoulders up to his ears and not saying another word to us. He was driving along way too fast for me to see anything when I saw something red and tan out of my eye and I knew it was something good so I yelled “stop.” Luda was well past it but he reluctantly backed up and there were several beautiful Carmine Bee-eaters and one European Bee-eater perched out in the open. It was raining steadily and so my picture was inferior but I was thrilled to see these gorgeous birds nevertheless. As I snapped off some hurried photos Luda propped his hand on his hand and sighed audibly. As we raced toward the visitor center and our much awaited lunch, Susan saw a chamelian on the road; Luda ran over it. He said he didn’t see it and hunched up his shoulders above his ear line. We finally made it to the visitor center and Susan and I went in and ordered some vegetarian burgers and beers. Luda went off as far away as possible from us and we were relieved to be away from him. While waiting for our food I checked the river banks and found a Collared Sunbird in the trees and a Red-collared Widowbird. Luda told us we did not have time to go into the shop even though before the trip he said we would have time to have lunch and visit the shop. We sat under a canopy and ate our lunch while Luda moped. I looked up into the rafters and saw hundreds of Egyptian Fruit Bats roosting. While Luda wasn’t looking we went into the shop and bought some rain ponchos to at least cover our legs from the rain that pushed into the jeep. On the way back we saw a crocodile completely out of the water lying on a sand bar. Luda said there was no time to stop at all! We continued driving toward the Crocodile Bridge Gate in a very rushed manner because Luda said there would be a big fine if we didn’t get back before closing time (we were late because he insisted on making the unscheduled stop at the rest area to have coffee with Heinrich and tell him his little story in Africaans). With 30 kilometers to go Luda saw an elephant on the side of the road and slammed on the brakes and stopped the engine. He wanted to see if it would pull down a branch from a Marula tree. I looked out the other side of the jeep hoping some great bird would fly by but nothing did. A few minutes later Luda slowed down the jeep but didn’t stop. Susan and I couldn’t see what he was looking at but instead of stopping and giving us a chance to see he just kept pushing toward it until he finally flushed a Wood Hoopoe out of the road and over the top of the jeep. I just barely made out a blur of tan, black, and white as it flew over. That is one bird I would have really enjoyed seeing better than just a colorful blur of wings but Luda didn’t deem it sufficiently important for us to see it I guess. We made it to the gate with time to spare so Luda consented to pull over briefly while a family of warthogs ran across the road.
December 19, 2007, we got up at 3:45 AM in order to arrive at Kruger in time for a morning walk with two Kruger Guides, Kisani, our night guide from the day before, and Duncan. On the drive out of Marloth it was still dark and so we were lucky to spot a night bird, a European Nightjar, in the road and a small cat, a Long-tailed Genet. Luda was anxious to get rid of us so he wouldn’t really stop for either one except to avoid running over the Nightjar. I had just about had it with that Africaaner bastard. Africaaners are the people who brought us apartheid and the shame of South Africa. You can draw your own conclusions.
Duncan and Kisani both carried loaded rifles in order to protect us as we walked about the park. During the walk Kisani pointed out a Burchal’s Couchal, a Red-backed Shrike, and a Bateleur high in the sky spotted with her naked eye. During our walk in the bush we came across many large mammal tracks but the only ones we saw were elephant, giraffe, and zebra. We stopped for a rest and snacks provided by Duncan and Kisani and I asked about a bird perched nearby that Kisani said was a Purple Indigobird. Duncan told me that of the 800 birds found in Kruger he had seen 500 which is pretty amazing. At the end of our morning walk Luda came to pick us up. I would have loved to have spent another day in Kruger but Luda just took us straight back to the lodge without asking us what we wanted to do and we never saw him again. So Susan and I took a long walk along the path in Marloth. We saw many amazing birds during our walk which were mostly very close to the path. It was warm compared to the day before and not precipitating at all. In the river were African Jacana, African Black Duck, Comb Duck, and Great Egret. As we walked along we came across more Bee-eaters including a White-fronted Bee-eater, Marico Sunbird, Greater Double-collared Sunbird, Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Striped Swallow, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Jacobin Cuckoo, and White-bellied Sunbird. There were several Blue Waxbills, White-winged Widowbirds, a few Black-backed Puffback, and more Violet-backed Starlings. Two Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills flew into a tree finally giving me the opportunity to get a photo. We also came across a very accommodating Golden-breasted Bunting and a gorgeous Yellow-breasted Apalis. On the river banks were many hippos and a crocodile basking on the sandbar. We also saw a waterbuck and a giraffe and more impalas. As we headed back to the lodge we just made out a jackal in the bush. More guests arrived for dinner that evening and as it was not raining we had a dinner with all the guests at a long table outside. Just before dinner began Luda came over and said goodbye before we could even give him his completely undeserved tip. Before we went to sleep we heard Heinrich return with the two guests he had picked up from their night drive in Kruger. I went outside and told Heinrich that we had been unable to say goodbye properly to Luda and would he please give this money to Luda. I handed Heinrich 500 Rands.
December 20, 2007 was our last day with Bushwise Safaris (I hope it is patently obvious by now that under no circumstances would I recommend anyone pay to go on a safari with Bushwise Safaris). After breakfast Susan and I took a last long walk along the path in Marloth Park. On our walk we saw more exciting butterflies, a Giant Kingfisher, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Brown-backed Honeybird, Olive Tree Warbler, Rattling Cisticola, African Pied Wagtail, and a Klaas’s Cuckoo. We reluctantly concluded our hike and returned to the Bushwise Lodge. We packed our bags and Heinrich took us to the Nelspruit Airport. On the way he spotted a Long-crested Eagle in the sky. Heinrich stopped to pick up his girlfriend on the way to the airport; he said it was her birthday and he was taking her to lunch after dropping us off at the airport. On the drive to the airport Heinrich gave his girlfriend a birthday card and inside were 400 Rands. Hmmm.
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