Saturday, August 10, 2019

The Keys and Miami (27-28Jul2019)

My flight to Colombia was via Miami.  I had secured the RDU to MIA flight with points on American,  and the flight was in the evening on a Saturday with an overnight stay in MIA.  So I decided to check with the airlines if I could jump on the earlier flight and give chase to the recently reported rarity of the Antillean Palm Swift on Grassy Key in Florida.  What luck! Not only could I get on an earlier flight, but Hertz was letting me use points for a car rental.  So off I went.

The flight and subsequent drive was fairly uneventful although I have to say traffic to the keys on a Saturday sucks. Do yourself a favor and travel late at night or super early to avoid the traffic. Grassy Key was low key, pardon the pun.  An unassuming key with not much commercial development, just a bunch of houses with some mangrove swamps in the middle.  Unfortunately the Palm Swift had seemed to have flown the coop, but my back-up target was eventually found.


Young Reddish Egret


Gray Kingbirds were plentiful.




White-crowned Pigeons were plentiful but only provided fleeting fly-by looks.  And finally just before dark, my back-up birds showed up...


Antillean Nighthawks!  I knew they were Antillean and not Common by the unique calls which I made a recording of.  I don't think the Commons had started migration yet and the Antilleans nest in the keys.





Sunday morning I had about half an hour before I had to be at the airport so I hit up a street corner in Miami just south of the airport that had recent Common Myna sightings.  It did not take long to find these suckers.


Common Myna - the brownish color distinguishes this ABA countable exotic from the non-countable Common Hill Myna which is black.



Next post will be Day 1 from Colombia which was spent in Barranquilla.

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