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Posted by Tom Friedel on 23:01:23 04/13/10
I wrote this for my web site on the bumpy boat ride back. There were a lot of birds on the Dry Tortugas, but suprisingly few in the Keys. And no shorebirds except turnstones anywhere.
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The Dry Tortugas National Park at the end of the Florida Keys is famous as birdwatching destination, especially during spring and fall migration. I had visited two times in the fall, camping for one night, and this time I stayed for two nights. My intuition told me that during the fall birds would follow the funnel shaped state of FLorida and get funnelled into the Florida Keys and finally the Dry Tortugas, and would be seen there in great numbers. In the spring I thought finding the needle of the funnel would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and expected to see far fewer birds. The only advantage, I thought, would be the nesting seabirds, including 75,000 Brown Noddies, 4,000 Sooty Terns, Magnificent Frigfatebirds, and Masked Boobies on a nearby islands. I found that spring migration is as busy if not busier that fall, and you had the added advantage of seeing the birds in spring plumage. At first the raptors seemeed absent, but a large group of falcons came in on the second day with a cold front. Only the hawks seemed to come in smaller numbers than in the fall, and that is something I've noticed
in Florida in general.
My wife and I left with the Fast Cat on April 10th. Tickets are $160/person and camping is $3/person/night. Overnight
parking is another $13/night or you can take your chances in the street. April 10th might be earlier in migration than
my other trips on October 15th during fall migration, and that might account for differences in birds seen. For example, for
many species the males and females migrate at different times.
A few observations: the number of fish in the snorkelling area seemed much fewer than in past years, and I wonder if this
is in part because of the giant protected groupers hanging around the dock. On my first day there some birders managed
to fix the fresh water fountain with some scrap rubber pipes and corks. The birds were very happy about this. And I had
the chance to see a Merlin crash through the brush at the fountain and cause some feathers to fly, but apparently he got nothing.
THe Brown Noddies nesting on Bush Key have to be seen to be appreciated. The birds are continuously flying around making noise, and it is hard to believe they can find enough food for all of the effort they appear to exert. The noise continues
all through the night. The Noddies can be seen from close at one corner of the island, but the Sooty Terns never come to
the main island with the fort, called Garden Key. Some birders were intent on finding a Black Noddy, but did not succeed.
Some other birders had talked the tour boat into pausing at Hospital Key, where the Masked Boobies nest, but I didn't ask
this of the Fast Cat. I figured we would be too far for photography.
A few birds seen, and probably some others forgotten.
Osprey (1)
Hawks:
1 unidentified
Falcons:
American Kestrels
Merlins
Peregrine (1)
Warbler:
Palm Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Hooded Warbler (males)
Northern Parula
Ovenbird
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warber
Kentucky Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothontary Warbler
Red-eyed Vireo
Yellow-headed Vireo
Blackbirds:
Orchard Oriole
1 unidentified Orange bird
Thrushes:
Wood Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Shorebirds: (not many species seen)
Ruddy Turnstone
Brown Noddy
Sooty Tern (seen only through scope on Bush Key)
1 unidentified Tern en route
Laughing Gull
Brown Pelican
Pelicaniformes:
Brown Pelican
Magnifican Frigatebird
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Belted Kingfisher
Grey Kingbird
Common Nighthawk
Northern Mockingbird
Grey Catbird
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Summer Tanager (males)
Clay-colored Sparrow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Id'ed by other birder)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (many)
unidentified Dove (Eurasian Collared Dove seen by others)
About a dozen other normal Florida species were seen in the Keys, including the Common Myna, Roseate Spoonbill and Common Ground Dove.
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