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Posted by Toe on 23:15:17 05/15/07
I had a meeting at Hawk's Cay today so I started off early (like that's a surprise). My first and only stop before the meeting was at Key Largo Botanical State Park where I found two Mangrove Cuckoos. The first called right in front of me about halfway between the gazebo and the wooden fence at the far end of the trail. I only saw it as it flew away. The second never called, but did give me crippling looks. I found this one right at the wooden fence in front of the path to the tunnel.
After the meeting, I went to the Marathon Government Center but did not see any Roseate Terns. I continued to Ohio Key to look for shorebirds, hoping to see the Roseates at the far end of the 7-mile bridge as I often do. Zippo. On my way back, I decided to stop at the Government Center again and saw a Roseate come up briefly from the roof of the building. A little later I watched as two of them came out and put on a show over the parking lot. These are such beautiful and delicate looking terns, awesome!
I wanted to take advantage of already being down there, so I waited the extra hour at the Marathon Airport for the nighthawks to appear. At exactly 7:05, I heard and then saw an Antillean Nighthawk near the western end of the airport, in the vicinity of the orange wind sock. With my Keys trifecta complete, I had a very pleasant ride home. The meeting was brutal, and I got some beer birds, so I'm having a Mad River Steelhead Extra Stout as a reward. Cheers!
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