Yesterday was a pretty amazing day! I took a couple of out of town birders down to Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park: https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Windley-Key
We wanted to try and see the previously reported Bahama Mockingbird seen in a Strangler Fig over the parking lot. We arrived at the opening time of 8:00 a.m. to find the gate already open which was nice. Several other birders were already present looking for the Bahama Mockingbird. While we looked, there were several Cape May Warblers calling nearby. Debbie Segal from Gainsville said "oh look there is a Western Spindalis". Yup, a male Western Spindalis the black backed race! We all got great looks, these were spoiled by Audrey Whitlock who said look at that mockingbird. Yup, it was the Bahama Mockingbird! We had prolonged looks at each bird, the Bahama Mockingbird even chased the Western Spindalis from the fruiting tree a few times. It even chased out a Northern Mockingbird a couple of times. We walked the beautiful Hardwood Hammock trail but did not see much else. From there we eat at Lazy Days Restaurant: http://www.lazydaysislamorada.com/
Always excellent food with a nice setting. After lunch we traveled to Long Key State Park: https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/long-key
This park has a beautiful nature trail and has had many great birds over the years. The park was really put on the map by Rafael Galvez and his crew from the Florida Keys Hawk Watch. They did many birding surveys and found some amazing birds here.
Audrey Whitlock let me listen to a recording she had that she thought was a Western Spindalis from this park. I heard the call note of a Western Spindalis from her phone, so she was correct. We walked to the area but did not see or hear anything. In the mean time, Noah Frade was texting me that he thinks he has a La Sagra's Flycatcher. Of course we were in the opposite direction on the trail from where he saw the bird. Once we arrived at his location, we could not relocate the bird. The La Sagra's Flycatcher was down the Golden Orb Nature Trail. You enter the trail on the north side opposite the bathroom building. Follow the wooded trail about half a mile, the trail turns to the right just before the transition zone into Mangroves. There is an orange flagging tape placed here with La Sagra's Flycatcher written on it. (Recent report, the La Sagra's Flycatcher was near the bathrooms)
What a great day with some great birds!
