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Posted by Larry Manfredi on 17:04:10 03/21/08
I took out two birders from Canada on Thursday March 20th., Gordon and Laure Neish birding. Laure took a photo of a bird on Garden Key that she wanted me to I.D. She knew it was a kingbird but thought that maybe it was a Gray Kingbird. She has a very nice Canon 40D with a 100-400 mm lens, this camera has a nice big viewing screen in the back of it. She brought up the photo so that I could view it on her camera, I was thinking how nice the photo was going to be of a Gray Kingbird! When I saw the photo I was a little bit in shock not believing what I was looking at! Yes, it was a Loggerhead Kingbird!! When I told her that this would only be the second record for the A.B.A. area she was pretty surprised! I was able to get the word out quickly so that other birders may be able to go see the bird. She photographed the bird on Friday March 14th. on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas. The bird was near the north coaling docks near the brick pile. Thanks Murray Gardler and Roberto Torres for posting the bird when I called them.
I called the Yankee Freedom II boat in Key West and left a message for Deb Hess, a birder who works on the Yankee Freedom II as a naturalist. I sent her a photo of the bird that Carl Goodrich found last March 8th. in Key West. Today she called me from Fort Jefferson (not an easy thing to do, only satellite phones there) and said she relocated the bird. This would make it a week that the bird has been there. The bird was seen in the campground area today and inside the fort.
Good luck to those that can get there and look for it.
Larry Manfredi
P.S. I will be there tomorrow so I hope the bird is there, I will try and get photos.
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