Thanks to everyone who helped me plan my Florida trip. I ended up choosing
as a guide Carlos Sanchez, a relatively young up-and-coming guide who was
very responsive, helpful and hardworking (not to mention knowing all the
best foodie joints in town)! I'd like to put a plug in for him for anyone
visiting south Florida. You can reach him at
<mailto:tsunamicarlos at gmail.com> tsunamicarlos at gmail.com.



Together we visited many locations around Miami, areas in the southeast and
south-central part of the Everglades, and Lucky Hammock/Annex, and then
later I went on my own to Green Cay and Loxahatchee (Waxahatchee was
unfortunately closed, but nearby Green Cay was great despite it being
election day and a polling station - huh? Lol). Birding was a bit slow this
time of year and Carlos had to really work for each bird, nevertheless I saw
a great variety of east coast warblers and vireos I have not seen before, as
well as some of the local parrot/parakeet populations and of course the
thousands of wading birds :) My favorite warbler was probably the
yellow-throated, so beautiful. We also easily found an Eastern Screech-Owl
one evening, much to my delight. Our rarest bird for the area was probably a
familiar one to all of us at home, a Wilson's Warbler at the most productive
location we visited - the University of Miami campus, where there were large
flocks of warblers and by far the largest variety overall of any locale we
visited. Funny that he was all excited about that bird, while meanwhile I
was reading reports of palm warblers and tropical kingbirds in WA on
Tweeters ;)



Highlights in addition to the above:



- Male Painted Bunting at Green Cay

- Blue-and-yellow Macaws at UoM campus - wow, what a bird. Someday I'll see
them in their natural habitat, but until then.

- Large flocks of ibis at my feet behaving for all the world like Canada
Geese on every manicured grassy area near water. Then there were the ones
standing on the telephone wires. I'm not sure they knew how silly they
looked ;D

- Lots of raptors including light and dark-morph Short-tailed Hawks

- Swamp Sparrows and several other sparrows at Lucky Hammock

- Black-bellied Whistling Duck at Green Cay



Another strange moment was when I rounded a corner on the boardwalk at Green
Cay and found many large lenses pointing in one direction, always a good
sign. I was expecting a great bird, but was puzzled to find no scopes or
binos among the lenses and the large gaggle of people gathered to watch the
action. It turned out to be an alligator with a small bobcat in its mouth,
which proceeded to swim directly under the boardwalk, closely followed by a
large carnivorous turtle on its tail intent on getting part of the action.
On a nearby hummock, a Wood Stork stalked and an Anhinga struggled to
swallow a very large fish. Only in Florida.



Overall, 10 life birds and a much larger Florida list :)



Teresa Michelsen

Olympia, WA