Hello, tweeters.

These islands are about as far from here as you can get in the Lower
48, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go there. Netta and I went out
to the Dry Tortugas in mid April while on a trip to Florida, and it
was fabulous. We saw a bit over 100 species of birds on a three-day
trip, about one day of which was spent getting there and back. We
lucked into a fine fall-out of migrants, brought on in part by westerly
and then northerly winds. We saw 23 species of warblers, definitely the
highlights, but there were scads of Orchard Orioles, Indigo Buntings,
four species of thrushes, Bobolinks, and a great variety of other
migrants. As there are only a few breeding species there, you have to
have a great trip when you see 100+. Our rarest birds included
Mississippi Kite, Caribbean Short-eared Owl, and Lesser Nighthawk.
Rarities that didn't get so much attention included Northern
Mockingbird, House Sparrow, European Starling, and Eurasian Collared
Dove.

The seabirds were great, as expected, with clouds of Sooty Terns and
Brown Noddies breeding next door to our anchorage and good numbers of
Masked (at Hospital Key, where they nest) and Brown Boobies. Prevailing
winds weren't good for pelagics, of which we saw none, although there
were a lot of migrating Northern Gannets. From the boat they often see
Audubon's Shearwaters, jaegers, Bridled Terns, and other birds rarely
seen from shore in Florida.

The Dry Tortugas, and Fort Jefferson, are among the wonders of the
natural and historic worlds in North America. There are many ways to
get there, but we went with Larry Manfredi, who runs tours there both
spring and fall. Larry is a superb birder and good company. You travel
and sleep on a very nice boat and are served excellent meals by helpful
staff. I should add that this is entirely unsolicited praise. This way
to go there is not cheap, but it's worth every penny, especially when
you have as great an experience as we did. The snorkeling used to be
fabulous there; now it's only mediocre, as the reefs have been degraded
by processes both human and natural. The neatest thing to us was
snorkeling right up to pilings that held cormorants, pelicans, terns,
and shorebirds and having the birds merely look down at us from a few
feet away, apparently unafraid of the odd fish.

Check out Larry's website: http://www.southfloridabirding.com/

Dennis
-----
Dennis Paulson & Netta Smith
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382