Welcome to our Blog! Check here for updates and stories to keep you in the loop including reports from birding trips, chapter successes and events.
On Sunday, March 24, twenty-two birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for our annual spring field trip to birding locations in Martin and northern Palm Beach County. This trip was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 23, but with heavy rain predicted for that day, the trip was moved to Sunday. Though Saturday turned out to be not as rainy as expected, Sunday’s weather was much improved, so everyone who attended was happy with the one-day delay.
On Saturday, March 2, twenty-five birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The caravan trip began at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center and ended in Flamingo. Our itinerary included stops at Royal Palm Visitor Center (Anhinga Trail and Gumbo Limbo Trail), the Bill Robertson Center on Research Road, Long Pine Key Campground and Picnic Area, Mahogany Hammock, West Lake and the Guy Bradley Visitor Center and Amphitheater area in Flamingo.
On Saturday, February 24, ten birders joined Luis Gonzalez and Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s Miami Exotics tour. Locations visited in search of exotics (non-native/introduced species) included Tropical Park, Brewer Park, Pine Woods Park, Coral Reef Park, Dolphin Mall, Pine Tree Park and Morningside Park. Of the sixty-five species tallied during the day, twenty were exotics.
On Saturday, February 10, thirty birders joined John Hutchison and Brian Rapoza for the TAS trip to Shark Valley and Big Cypress National Preserve. Highlights included Purple Gallinules at Shark Valley, a Roseate Spoonbill at Oasis Visitor Center and both Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons at Kirby Storter Boardwalk.
On Saturday, February 3, twenty birders joined TAS field trip leader Larry Manfredi for a morning of birding along the L-31W Canal along the eastern border of Everglades National Park. Over fifty different species were seen during the three-mile round-trip hike.
On Saturday, January 27, thirty-six birders joined Rachel DiPietro for a full-day caravan trip through Everglades National Park. This trip focused on wintering songbirds, seabirds, and resident wading birds.
Nancy Freedman, Ann Martinez, Yadira Pedraza and Jim Sigsbee joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza this weekend for Tropical Audubon’s four-day North Florida birding tour, our first such tour since 2019. This tour typically targets wintering waterfowl, sparrows and other birds that are rarely if ever seen in south Florida. Locations visited included St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Tall Timbers Research Station and Sweetwater Wetlands Park.
On Saturday, January 6, forty-one birders joined TAS field trip leader Luis Gonzalez for a half-day of birding in the “Lucky Hammock” area on Aerojet Road in Homestead. As participants assembled in the parking area, they were treated to great views of a Vermilion Flycatcher that has been present in the area for several weeks.
The 74rd annual Coot Bay (Everglades National Park) Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 30. On count day, 22 volunteers counted 61,748 birds of 119 species, plus two additional taxa. The totals were 31,880 more birds and two more species than in 2022.
The 54th annual Miami (Dade County) Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 16. On count day, 35 participants counted 13,187 birds of 128 species despite heavy rain and gusty winds throughout the day. Compared with 2022, there were 1,832 less birds counted but only two less species.
On Saturday, December 9, nineteen birders joined TAS field trip leader Luis Gonzalez for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The trip began in Flamingo, at the end of the main park road and ended at Frog Pond WMA, just outside the park’s entrance. This “backwards” itinerary, which requires a drive of an additional 38 miles to reach the trip starting point, allowed us to bird the Flamingo area first thing in the morning, rather than late in the afternoon, as we typically do on all other TAS trips to the park. On this particular day, that strategy, which requires participants to leave home at least 45 minutes earlier, paid immediate dividends.
On Saturday, December 2, twenty-six birders joined TAS Feild Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of birding at Black Point Park in south Miami-Dade. By trip’s end, a total of thirty-six species of birds had been spotted in the park.
On Saturday, November 25, twenty-five birders joined author, photographer and TAS Board of Directors member Kirsten Hines for Tropical Audubon’s second annual Accessible Inclusive birding trip at Crandon Cardons on Key Biscayne. We were greeted at the garden entrance by a Sandhill Crane, the last surviving descendent of a small flock of cranes that were introduced to the gardens over 20 years ago.
On Saturday, November 18, seventeen birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of birding at Tropical Park in Miami. In spite of threatening skies, the group managed to tally forty-three bird species before calling it a morning.
On Saturday, November 11, twenty-eight birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The trip began at the Coe Visitor Center and ended in Flamingo. Along the way, we visited Anhinga Trail, the Hole-in-the-Donut restoration area, Long Pine Key picnic area and campground, Pa-hay-okee overlook, Mahogany Hammock, Paurotis Pond, West Lake, the amphitheater area at Flamingo campground and Eco Pond.
On Saturday, November 4, twenty-eight birders joined TAS field trip leaders John Hutchison and Bruce Pickholtz for a full day of birding at Green Cay and Wakodahatchee Wetlands in southern Palm Beach County. The birding at Green Cay was so productive that we ended up spending the entire morning there! Notable sightings included several Sora and Least Bittern, an American Bittern and a couple of Marsh Wrens.
On Saturday, October 28, twenty-five birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s annual visit to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples. Most of the group met at the Miccosukee service plaza on Alligator Alley (I-75), then caravaned to Corkscrew via CR 833 and CR 846, searching for roadside birds along the way.
On Sunday, October 22, thirty-one birders joined TAS field trip leader Bill Boeringer for the second and final half-day birding trip at A.D. Barnes Park for the fall migration season. Among the 58 species tallied during the trip were fifteen warblers.
On Saturday, October 21, thirty-two birders joined TAS field trip leader Stephen Paez for a pleasant morning of fall migration birding at Kendall Indian Hammocks Park. By morning’s end, the group had encountered 51 different species. The most unexpected sighting of the morning was a White-crowned Pigeon that was entirely white. This leucistic individual was perched in a tree near a typical-looking White-crowned Pigeon at the east end of the park.
On Sunday, October 15, twenty birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza at Highland Oaks Park on Ives Dairy Road in northeast Miami-Dade for a very productive morning of birding. Among the 46 species tallied were fourteen different warblers.
On Saturday, October 7, twenty-two birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full-day trip to three state parks in the Florida Keys: Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park, Long Key State Park and Curry Hammock State Park. We encountered a total of 54 bird species in these three state parks.
Fifty birders joined Bill Boeringer on Saturday, September 30 for a morning of fall migration birding at A. D. Barnes Park. Due to the large number of participants, the group was split into two smaller groups, one led by Bill and the other led by Luis Gonzalez. Fifty-two birds were tallied before a thunderstorm prematurely ended the outing.
Sixty birders joined TAS President Joe Barros on Saturday, September 23 for a half day of birding at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables. Due to the large size of the group, we broke into two groups, one led by Joe and the other led by Luis Gonzalez. As is often the case when we break into smaller groups, one group will see birds that the other group doesn’t.
Twenty-two birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a birding excursion to two parks in northeastern Miami-Dade County. We began the morning at Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach, where we saw or heard 27 species of birds. After a picnic lunch, we birded for about an hour at nearby Highland Oaks Park before a rainstorm chased us back to our cars.
Since Hurricane Idalia passed through Florida at the end of August, American Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) have been found in at least 18 Florida counties, mostly along the coast, but also in a few inland areas.
The American Flamingo is normally found throughout much of the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Yucatan Peninsula, and the northern coast of South America, with occasional appearances in South Florida. There is also an isolated population in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. While American Flamingos are now considered native to Florida, there is only anecdotal evidence that they have ever bred here.
Forty-nine birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a half-day of birding in the Lucky Hammock area, located on Aerojet Road near the main entrance to Everglades National Park. Over the course of the morning, the group was able to tally over fifty species of birds.
On Saturday, September 2, thirty-one birders joined Bill Boeringer and Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s annual birding trip to the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee in western Palm Beach County. We began the trip at sunrise at the southern end of A1-FEB (Flow Equalization Basin) on the west side of US 27, where 32 species were tallied.
With nearly 2,000 bird species recorded within its borders, Colombia is home to more birds than any other country on Earth. This astounding avian diversity is due in large part to Colombia’s incredibly diverse topography, with coastal and Amazonian lowlands separated by three massive cordilleras (parallel mountain ranges): the eastern, central and western Colombian Andes. This tour, which began in Medellin on July 23 and ended in Pereira on July 31, focused almost entirely on birding hotspots in Antioquia and Caldas Departments, an area known as the Coffee Triangle. Elevations ranged from about 4,000 feet to over 13,000 feet!
Five birders joined TAS field trip leader Luis Gonzalez from May 13-28 for a sixteen-day birding Safari in Kenya. Above is a group photo, taken beside our safari vehicle in Maasai Mara National Reserve. Left to right: Nancy Freedman, Brian Rapoza, Teresa Abandonato, Barbara Johnston, Dave Griswold, Cisticola Tours guide Alex Mwangi and Luis Gonzalez.
Banner Photo: Burrowing Owl by Federico Acevedo
On Saturday, April 20, twenty birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of birding at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. We began the morning at Crandon Gardens, followed by walks on the beach at the south, then the north end of the park.