I had an unbelievable couple of days of birding with my friend George from Michigan. We started out on Monday going up to John U. LLoyd State Park for the reported Thick-billed Vireo. We did not get there until about 11:30 not the best time of day. We stayed there looking for the Thick-billed Vireo until 6:30 that day with no bird seen or heard. There were a few warblers around and a nice Black-whiskered Vireo but no sign of the Thick-billed Vireo. It had been seen earlier in the morning. We returned to John U. Lloyd Park for the very late opening of 8:00 a.m. (should open at 7:00 a.m.) It took about five minutes to get to the area where the Thick-billed Vireo had been seen previously. We immediately spotted the bird in the small Gumbo Limbo tree that it has been feeding in. It did not stay long and departed before we could get a good look. At 9:42 the bird came in again and gave all of us birders present a great view.
We decided it was time to leave, while walking out, I got a text from Josh Friers soon followed by one from Rangel Diaz about a reported Cuban Vireo in Key West! With Mark Hedden's wonderful photo posted showing a Cuban Vireo, It was an easy decision for George and I to immediately head to Key West. George changed his flight to the following day and made new motel reservations in Florida City. We arrived about 2:15 or so and found Josh Friers and Rangel Diaz looking for the bird. We ended up with great views of this amazing bird.
I learned after the sighting that it was an excellent team effort by Mark Hedden, Carl Goodrich, Murray Gardler, Lee Dunn and Thaton Dunn to track down the calling vireo. Great photo documentation was provided by Mark Hedden and Carl Goodrich.
George and I had an unbelievable three vireo day! This is only a sighting that you could only see in Cuba, not Florida!
