My oh my-na!

What a long day, Sunday, December 30th! We looked for lots of birds in the Kendall area of Miami, Florida. This park, that neighborhood, try that dead end street, how about this school, the hospital? John did get some fair pics of Monk Parakeets. He had seen and photographed them in Texas, but was not sure they were countable. Maybe the Common Myna down in Florida City? Again, that street, the next parking lot, how about there?

Mid-afternoon, John decided to change pace and head into the Everglades. First time on the Anhinga trail. Lots of alligators, anhingas, various herons, and great pictures of a Purple Gallinule harvesting a water lily fruit. John had only had a distant poor view of a gallinule last April.

Back through Florida City, we drove through an outlet mall for the second time. Looking across the turnpike, we both spotted mynas but on separate light poles. Scurry around, find ourselves in a Walmart parking lot, locate the light pole and photograph the mynas. 689!!!! Lots more mynas flew in as it got dark.

For the last two nights, we stayed in a Motel 6 in Cutler Bay. Poor thing is stuck right up against the turnpike. Not very much sleep for us. I booked us into a Quality Inn for tonight but only a smoking room was available. We got there about 6 PM. For twenty dollars we could upgrade to a non-smoking room. YES!

We have all day tomorrow to try for one more bird. Come on Miami! Give John a break!

Over the last couple of days, we have been communicating with Robert, the guy who is trying a big year without ever having birded before! Amazing! Close to 600! He happened to end the year here too. He was out on Stock Key without a place to lay his head. I steered him to Boyd's Trailer Park and they had one tent space left. He slept in his car and tried for the Western Spindalis this morning. He got it!! He flies out tomorrow to New Jersey. May add a few birds there.

The places John has gone, the people he has met! What fun!

The last resort!

Here we are in Miami. There are birds here John has not yet seen. They are listed on this year's local Christmas Bird Counts. Now he just has to see them.

Today, we went to Virginia Key, no Western Spindalis, but a glimpse of what looked like a LeSagre's Flycatcher, too poor a view.

Then, we went to a BirdingPal's neighborhood south of the university. It is nicely overgrown. The Spot-Breasted Oriole and the Mynas have been seen there. We will have to try again there and elsewhere.

Finally, we went to the neighborhood just north of the Baptist Hospital on Kendall. We still didn't see anything new for John, but he got excellent pictures of the White-Crowned Pigeon and saw several Monk Parakeets. We saw them in Texas, but they are more surely listable in Florida.

We will muddle around here for a few days and fly home January 1st. Whether or not we add to his total of 687, his big year will be over!

Cape May days

John got to New Jersey Thursday, September 5. He called me after checking into his motel, exhausted, and I persuaded him to go down and case Cape May. He saw his first Mute Swan that evening. 643  Friday, he got two more birds that I already blogged about, the Veery and the Least Flycatcher. Later that day, he got the Philadelphia Vireo, a very good look. 644 With that bird, you have to have a VERY good look to be sure it isn't a Warbling Vireo. He also got a picture of a Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher. He had only heard it before. John then looked around Cape May some more and met Pete Dunn at the Lighthouse Hawkwatch. Pete gave John some Cape May insiders' info, but the best was yet to come.

Bad weather!

Saturday afternoon, John went back to the hotel to hole up with tidings of great joy from fellow birders. Their area didn't get that bad of weather from the storms and Sunday wasn't that great for birding, but, Monday morning, all the warblers had piled up at the south end of the peninsula and all decided at once to go back up the peninsula to the mainland together, enmasse, knee-high to the birders on the dike. John said it was quite the spectacle, but no way could he pick out any of the species he needed.

Tuesday, John tried the platform beneath the dike and still didn't ID any new species. Others might remark, 'Oh, there goes a --------'. John can't list that. Sigh!

I might as well bring you up to date. John flew back to Texas Tuesday afternoon. I picked him up in Austin that evening. Today, Wednesday, September 12th, John and I got up early and checked out some Birdseye reports of Eastern Screech Owls. We started at Laguna Gloria, looking in tall cane on the peninsula. Robin showed up after we had been there for awhile. He had gotten a response from the owl for about two months until two days ago. He thought that perhaps the local pair of Barred Owls had done away with the screech owl. MISS! But Robin told us where to find the Monk Parakeet. Off we went and found a cooperative one at the first place. HIT! 645 

Tomorrow, September 13th, we will head for South Texas for Aplomado Falcon and more reports of Screech Owls. Maybe there will even be a few warblers wandering around.