On this tour we had the following participants: Carl Jaslowitz from New York, Jamie Wright from Memphis, Tennessee, Dave Reichlinger from Indiana and Fred & Alice Cutts from Pennsylvania.
Day one February 26, 2000.
I picked up the group at the Wellesley Inn in Kendall, Florida at 7
a.m. We started the first day of
this tour in Everglades National Park. The weather was
warm and the skies were clear. Below is a list of birds we saw that
day.
| Pied-billed Grebe | White-winged Dove |
| American White Pelican | Mourning Dove |
| Brown Pelican | Common Ground-Dove |
| Double-crested Cormorant | Belted Kingfisher |
| Anhinga | Red-bellied Woodpecker |
| American Bittern | Downy Woodpecker |
| Least Bittern | Pileated Woodpecker |
| Great Blue Heron | Eastern Phoebe |
| Great Egret | Great Crested Flycatcher |
| Snowy Egret | Western Kingbird |
| Little Blue Heron | Purple Martin |
| Tricolored Heron | Tree Swallow |
| Cattle Egret | Cave Swallow (West Indies race) |
| Green Heron | Blue Jay |
| White Ibis | American Crow |
| Glossy Ibis | Fish Crow |
| Roseate Spoonbill | Carolina Wren |
| Wood Stork | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher |
| Blue-winged Teal | Gray Catbird |
| Black Vulture | Northern Mockingbird |
| Turkey Vulture | Brown Thrasher |
| Osprey | Loggerhead Shrike |
| SNAIL KITE | European Starling |
| Bald Eagle | White-eyed Vireo |
| Northern Harrier | Blue-headed Vireo |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | Northern Parula |
| SHORT-TAILED HAWK | Magnolia Warbler |
| American Kestrel | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| King Rail (heard only) | Black-throated Green Warbler |
| Purple Gallinule | Prairie Warbler |
| Common Moorhen | Palm Warbler |
| American Coot | Black-and-white Warbler |
| Limpkin (heard only) | Common Yellowthroat |
| Laughing Gull | Northern Cardinal |
| Ring-billed Gull | Red-winged Blackbird |
| Herring Gull | Eastern Meadowlark |
| Caspian Tern | Boat-tailed Grackle |
| Rock Dove | Common Grackle |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | House Sparrow |
Day two February 27, 2000
Today, we birded the Miami area in search of exotics. From
there, we headed North to end the day in Central Florida.
Below is a list of new species seen for this day.
| Mallard | WHITE-WINGED PARAKEET |
| Red-breasted Merganser | YELLOW-CHEVRONED PARAKEET |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | Macaw species |
| Red-tailed Hawk | SMOOTH-BILLED ANI |
| Wild Turkey | Burrowing Owl |
| Sandhill Crane | Ruby-throated Hummingbird |
| Black-bellied Plover | RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER |
| Wilson's Plover | FLORIDA SCRUB JAY |
| Semipalmated Plover | RED-WHISKERED BULBUL |
| Killdeer | Eastern Bluebird |
| Ruddy Turnstone | American Robin |
| Sanderling | HILL MYNA |
| Least Sandpiper | COMMON MYNA |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | Eastern Towhee |
| Royal Tern | SPOT-BREASTED ORIOLE |
| WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON | Baltimore Oriole |
| MONK PARAKEET |
Day three February 28, 2000
On this last day of the tour, we birded Central Florida and then headed
back to the Miami area. I dropped off each person and couple at their
motels in Miami. Here is what we saw on the last day of the tour:
| Mottled Duck | Northern Flicker |
| CRESTED CARACARA | BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH |
| LIMPKIN | House Wren |
| Lesser Yellowlegs | Pine Warbler |
| Common Snipe | Savannah Sparrow |
| Hairy Woodpecker | BACHMAN'S SPARROW |
One of the best parts about this tour for me, and I am sure for my participants, was NOT missing Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. On my January Tour, which is the same as this one, we MISSED Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. Yes, I hate to admit missing a specialty but I have to be honest. Last year I found them in a different area, I have now concluded that these birds are extirpated from the area where I used to find them. This is really sad because the previous area was a protected area. This may show just how sensitive these birds are to a changing environment. I don't think that much has changed in the last 10 years in this previous area but, what had been done to the area years before. I personally think that the birds had to forage far from their nesting area to be able to survive. Plus I think that competition from other woodpeckers for their nest cavities did not help the situation. I believe that these birds need large expanses of Pinewoods to be able to have a self sustaining population. When habitat becomes fragmented, which was the case in my previous location, the birds have a much harder time to survive.