Birding Homestead all the way to the Dry Tortugas.

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: I spent the last three days birding the farming fields of Homestead all the way to the Dry Tortugas. Below is a list notable birds seen. : Thursday August 14. : Farm fields near Lucky Hammock, Homestead Motor Sports complex. : Directly across the street from Benito Juarez Park on the road going to Everglades National Park. : 5 Upland Sandpipers : Ruddy Turnstone, one seen in the farm field just west of Bentio Juarez Park. : Homestead Motor Sports complex area: : Short-billed Dowitcher 5 : Greater Yellowlegs 40 : Lesser Yellowlegs 3 : Semipalmated Sandpiper 1 : Least Sandpiper 33 : Pectoral Sandpiper 26 : Solitary Sandpiper 2 : Semipalmated Plover 2 : Black-bellied Plover 42 : Killdeer many : Black-necked Stilt many : Willet 1 : In the Lower Keys we added: : Wilson’s Plover 12 : : Friday August 15. : We visited the Dry Tortugas today and added: : Spotted Sandpiper 2 : Northern Parula 2 : Yellow-throated Warbler 1 : Prairie Warbler 6 : Yellow Warbler 1 : Worm-eating Warbler 1 : American Redstart 1 : Sandwich Tern 11 : Royal Tern 3 : Sooty Tern and Brown Noddies are still present. : Eurasian Collared-Dove 6 : Gray Kingbird 1 : Eastern Wood-Pewee : Empidonax sp. Probably an Acadian I only had brief looks. : Bank Swallow 1 : Barn Swallow many : Cliff 2 : Brown Booby 1 : Masked Booby 16 : Saturday August 16 Keys Pelagic trip. : We had scattered showers in the morning and sunshine in the afternoon. The Gulfstream current was very slow compared to my July trip. Chumming was not as productive as the July trip. These birds were seen traveling to and at the 409 hump. : Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 1 great looks as if flew past the boat. : Cory’s Shearwater 5 : Brown Booby 6 : Magnificent Frigatebird 7 : Glossy Ibis 5 : Bridled Tern 48 : Sooty Tern 75 : Brown Noddy 2 : Least Tern 50 : Osprey 6 : American Redstart 2 females 1 male. These were migrating low over the water about 18 miles from shore. : : Sunday August 17 Keys Pealgic trip. : We traveled 29 miles south, half way to the Cay Sal Banks located in the Bahamas. I wanted to put us on the east side of the Gulfstream to see what : was around. This area was not as productive as I had hoped. Chumming again was not as productive as the current was very weak. Below are some of the birds seen. : Storm-Petrel species, a probable Leach’s. It disappeared over a wave before we could we find it again and put a positive I.D. on it. : Magnificent Frigatebird 3 : Cory’s Shearwater 1 : Bridled Tern 40 : Sooty Tern 50 : Least Tern 23 : Black Tern 2 : Royal Tern 2 : Glossy Ibis 17 I still never expect these out there, I have seen them on almost all of my pelagic trips. : Also seen were many Dolphin fish, Tripletail, Ocean Tally, Yellow Jack and : assorted smaller fish. I hand caught a 3 ft. Lemon Shark that was eating chum from the chum bag. We really got great views of this one. I sure wish : we had a fishing rod on board. Perhaps next time. : Larry Manfredi : Homestead, FL. : E-mail: birderlm@bellsouth.net <mailto:birderlm@bellsouth.net> : http://www.southfloridabirding.com <http://www.southfloridabirding.com/>

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