ben_tk's Identifications

With Valeri Ponzo and Charlie Fisher; two successful, epic chases of a Variegated Flycatcher at Fort Lauderdale and a Northern Wheatear at Lower Matecumbe Key! These records were gathered as we drove back from the Upper Keys.

With Valeri Ponzo and Don Fraser; an unsuccessful search for the Yellow-green Vireo discovered by Larry & Philip Manfredi on 7 Jun 2019. We found the vireo the next day, 22 Jun 2019. The weather was sunny, hot and humid, with calm winds. I forgot to note the time we left, but I have photographs through 1338, so I'll guess we were there through ~1354.

With Valeri Ponzo, Jon Greenlaw, Wes Biggs, Paul Sykes, and others. A birding trip en route prior to a planned three-day trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. We stayed on the boat for two days and one night before the trip was cancelled due to an impending tropical storm. This was the most frustrating and disappointing birding trip of my life.

Juvenile.

With Valeri Ponzo; we were driving separately from Miami as part of the Fairchild Tropical Gardens Birding Festival field trip to the hawkwatch at Curry Hammock State Park. We left at 1530 after a good watch.

Val and I got our lifer Mangrove Skipper in the parking lot.

On the left, with a Least Sandpiper.

With Valeri Ponzo and Don Fraser; a quick stop as we were leaving Grassy Key (after viewing the epic Antillean Palm-Swift), when we saw the flock of terns. Our photographs are blurry, perhaps because the car was running (because we would have died without the air conditioning)? We left Grassy Key at 1243.

With Willets and Least Terns.

With Valeri Ponzo; we spent quite a lot of time with the mass of shorebirds, and we spent some time searching for -- and finding several -- Miami Blue (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri), a critically endangered butterfly that is being released elsewhere in the park. The amount of trash on the beach -- probably washed in from offshore -- was appalling. The weather was furnacial. We left at 1640.

Sanderling #2.

With Valeri Ponzo; we spent quite a lot of time with the mass of shorebirds, and we spent some time searching for -- and finding several -- Miami Blue (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri), a critically endangered butterfly that is being released elsewhere in the park. The amount of trash on the beach -- probably washed in from offshore -- was appalling. The weather was furnacial. We left at 1640.

With Valeri Ponzo, en route to Big Pine Key, where we would miss the Black-faced Grassquit We stopped here when we saw a Common Myna perched on a utility line. The weather was partly sunny, hot, and with a light breeze. We left at 0931 and continued southwest.