Posted by Conrad Sankpill on February 20, 2002 at 12:38:46:
In Reply to: Ani sighting in Key Largo posted by Jim Duquesnel on February 17, 2002 at 11:07:05:
The Smooth-billed Ani was observed at power pole 228 at 11:00 am today (2/20). The bird was on top of a small thicket a few feet East of the concrete pole and was approached using the car as a blind to within 15 feet. It stayed within a fifty yard radius of the thicket for the half hour I observed it.
(: At 4PM Saturday (2/16), I spotted an Ani, probably Smooth-billed, across the highway from the new butterfly garden at the Crocodile Lake Wildlife Refuge's office on County Road 905 in north Key Largo. As this is the first first Ani I have seen on Key Largo in 15 years living, working and birding there, I am guessing it is a bit unusual.
: At first, from about 50 yards, I mistook it for a very uncoordinated grackle, awkwardly flopping about at the top of a clump of trees. But the odd call and continued strange behavior convinced me to take a closer look. Three other "friends of the refuge" also saw the bird, and one even got a few digital photos, despite a series of high perches against a glarey overcast sky.
: Using the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative's consecutively numbered concrete power poles as references will put you within a hundred feet of any sighting along CR 905. This bird flew from thicket to thicket between poles 228 and 229, staying on the east side of CR 905 and occasionally venturing as far as two hundred yards from the highway. Though it did disappear from sight now and then, he always made his way back to the top of each little thicket.