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Posted by Elsa Alvear on 10:38:03 08/20/13
We are super excited to announce the first BNP field trip for the Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival. Date: Monday Sept. 23, cost: $65.00, reserve on link below. Limited space so reserve now for you guided pelagic birding and optional historic shipwreck snorkel on a charter boat from park concessioner Biscayne National Underwater Park Inc. Meet anytime between 6:30 and 7:30 am in the Visitor Center parking lot of Biscayne National Park. Boat check-in begins at 7:30 am, but if you arrive early (gate will open at 6:30 am) we will bird for land birds such as migrating warblers and Mangrove Cuckoo. The biggest density of Mangrove Cuckoos in Florida is found in this park. Then a pre-boarding safety talk, snorkel gear distribution, boarding the boat at 8 am, and boat through Biscayne Bay, Caesar Creek, and out to the open ocean. The guides on the boat will include a National Park Service biologist (me) who will discuss the park's natural resources, a park interpretive ranger who will discuss the park's maritime heritage including shipwrecks and lighthouses, and volunteer pelagic birders (Robin Diaz and Roberto Torres) from Tropical Audubon Society who will point out pelagic specialties. On the way we are sure to see Double-crested Cormorants and Royal Terns and possibly migrating shorebirds. We'll approach Pacific Reef Light to look for Brown Boobies, one of two places in Miami-Dade County to see Brown Boobies. Then we'll go north to the Mandalay shipwreck to have a guided snorkel with the archeologist pointing out the features of the wreck. After that, the boat will return south while looking for shearwaters, petrels, and jaegers, returning to the park's visitor center by 1:00 pm, where you will be on your own to explore the center or go on a jetty walk or have a picnic or continue birding.
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