Buona sera, from Naples!
Florida, that is. We're on the west coast of Florida, which offers some of the best sea-shell-finding beaches in the country, let alone the world. That is, according to people who hunt for shells. And me, who glanced at the beach and saw more shells than I could shake a stick at!
Our last two days have seen Birding Highs and Birding Lows. The highest High was getting a brief but fantastically clear glimpse of a Key West Quail-Dove yesterday at Long Key State Park.
Allow me to lay down some facts that illustrate how crazy rare this guy is:
The last Florida record for one of these was 2002. There were 4 (four) records in the 1900s of the bird in Florida, but none in the Keys. The bird bred in the Keys until the late 1800s, but was exterminated because they're apparently easy to shoot and good eating. They have hid out on some Caribbean islands, but almost never come here any more.
Do you feel factualized now? Do you get the monumentality of this???
Apparently 2 or 3 of these doves have been hanging out in the Keys for a few months--they heard about our new attitude toward Cuba, and wanted to be among the first visitors here--, and we took a shot at finding them. Thanks to a wonderfully nice birder from Massachusetts, our first view was about 5-10 seconds long, and nearly as good as this. Our second view, the next day and without Mr. Massachusetts, was more like this one.
The Low was spending all afternoon at Bahia Honda State Park, finding a total of 5 birds (not species, actual birds). Burning 5+ hours of your trip and getting fewer than 1 bird per hour was somewhat demoralizing. That said, there are many worse places in the world to spend an afternoon than Bahia Honda, and one of the birds was a Magnificent Frigatebird:
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| Our model, Julio, is sporting this spring's newest look: a sexy red cravat! |
But, this post is about Karma. Many birders believe that Karma is a Thing; do something good and proper, and the Birding Gods will reward you. Here is how this works:
Today, we were at Everglades National Park, trying to find a Limpkin(*), a somewhat rare and hard-to-find denizen of Florida swamps. We hunted and hunted, and happened to see a glimpse of something in the underbrush. It was skulking like a Limpkin. It was brownish like a Limpkin. Walks like a duck, colored like a duck, is it a duck? Oh, probably... so we checked Limpkin off our year list.
A while later, feeling guilty at not seeing it better and maybe calling it prematurely, we decided that maybe a better view was desired. Returning to the area where we'd sighted it, we waited quietly. After only a few minutes, we again heard something skulking, and peered through thick grasses into the dark to see it. With a few changes of angle, we finally figured out what it was: American Bittern! A great bird to see, but not exactly what we wanted. So, we took Limpkin off the list.
Happy that we'd done the right thing, but somewhat sad at missing out on a Limpkin, we took off for the 75-mile drive to our hotel. Nearly to our destination, I had a glimpse of something in a canal next to the road. Could it be??? Nah... Limpkins don't hang out in the open! But at Her recommendation, I swung the car around and drove back to where I'd seen the mirage. Pulling onto the shoulder of the busy highway (but at a safe distance from traffic, Mom!), we scanned the ditch to discover not one, not two, not three, but EIGHT Limpkins hunting for snails:
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| Yay, Limpkin! |
Otherwise, the past few days have included a number of amusing people encounters(**), and birds such as Northern Parula and Lesser Black-backed Gull. Tomorrow, our destination is the famous Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Preserve, and maybe Sanibel Island in the afternoon.
Good shelling,
Me
(*) The Limpkin has a distinctive scream and stars in several movies, including "The Incredibles" and "Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban".
(**) People encounters!
From the "Boys Will Be Boys" department, overheard at breakfast at our hotel:
Boy, about 7-8 years old: "Dad, are we really going to the aquarium?" (I suspect they were going here)
Dad: "Yes, son."
Boy: "I hope we see a shark."
Dad: "Uh, we probably will."
Boy: "If we see a shark, I'm going to punch it in the eye! And then turn it on its back and punch it in the belly!"
From the "Girls Will Be Girls" department, overheard as two teen-age girls rode by us on bikes later in the day:
Girl 1: "I really like that hat you bought."
Girl 2: "I know! It has tassles! And they're gold! And sparkly! Isn't it amazing?!?!?!"
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