Florida Bird Trip - late post

Well, I said I'd post about my birding trip to Florida, so, better late than never. I'll make it short! I had a great time, and saw 23 new birds which brings my North American total to 575. I have a ways to go to get to 600, but this was one of the areas where I could add a lot of species. I saw my first new bird - a smooth-biled ani - within 1/2 hour of leaving the airport, so that was a great start. I really enjoyed my trip to the Dry Tortugas. These islands are pretty remote, but there is an old Fort there, dating back from about 1860 or so. They have a very small camping area, and I stayed overnight. One of my favorite parts of being there was sitting quietly by a fresh water fountain, where I saw many different species of birds, including warblers, vireos, cuckoos, buntings, etc. I also saw species of terns and sea birds that don't occur anywhere else in North America, so this was a good place to be! Other highlights of my trip included visting a man-made weltand with a boardwalk, a trip to Everglades National Park, birding around Miami for some of the parakeets and other birds that have established wild populations there, and seeing some of the tiny Key deer. I actually didn't take time to get many photos, but here are a few. The blue colored bird is an indigo bunting. The bird in the circle (my scope) was a new one for me - a Cape May warbler. Both of these were coming for a drink or bath on the small brick water fountain. The bird on the wood rail is a tri-colored heron, and the island photo is of a colony of thousands of nesting sooty terns, another new bird.