On January 31st was the Super Blue Blood Moon with a partial Lunar Eclipse - the Trifecta. Last seen in 1866. Thankfully the sky was clear and a perfect view from the dike of Lake Okeechobee.
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| Anhinga with nuptial blue eye |
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| Brown Anole |
On February 1st, we traveled southwest to Chokoloskee Island just south of Everglades City on the west end of Everglades National Park. This area was hit extremely hard by Hurricane Irma with an eight foot storm surge, covering most of the island in muddy water. All RV's were totaled at the Outdoor RV Resort where we are staying. Amazingly, the clean-up has been great and you would hardly know that it had happened. The other amazing thing is the resilience of the plants, birds and animals that made it through the storm with over 130 mile an hour winds. There is still damage to be fixed but in the five months since the storm, people have gotten together to put things right.
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| Royal Tern |
One of the best birding areas was the very small Smallwood/Hancock cemetery with beautiful Gumbo Limbo Trees. Here we found most of the songbirds that winter here.
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| Blue-headed Vireo |
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| Brown-crested Flycatcher Note all dark bill and light breast which separates it from the Great-Crested Call is different too. |
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| Gray Catbirds were everywhere |
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| Great Horned Owl The pair usurped an Osprey nest near this palm |
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| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drilling a Palm |
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| Eurasian Collared Dove pair being serenaded by N. Mockingbird with moon behind |
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| Purple Martins arrived on Groundhog Day -Spring has arrived here |
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| Bella Moth |
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| Mangrove Fox Squirrel, must have hung on tight for Irma |
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| Northern Mockingbird finds a large Sphinx Moth Caterpillar |
One day we traveled to the Fakahatchee Strand boardwalk, Bald Eagles and Red-shouldered Hawks greeted us with their calls. Yellow-rumped Warblers were in great supply and many were getting their nuptial plumage.
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| Gambusia/ Mosquitofish - 3-4" long, by the hundreds |
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| Banded Water Snake suns at Fakahatchee |
Many of the people here on the island are avid fishermen, each day as they clean the fish, they throw the scraps to the waiting Brown Pelicans. Quite a food fight!!
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| White-crowned Pigeon South Florida specialty |
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| Am. Kestrel dries off the morning dew |
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| Guess what? Another Bald Eagle, this one right by our RV park |
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| Curly-tailed Lizard |
People here on the island got to know us and that Ty was taking photos of the birds. It was suggested that we write an article about our birding adventure for the local newspaper called the Mullet Rapper. We submitted our tale with our list of 56 birds seen in our 10 days on Chokoloskee Island.
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| Common Ground Dove does a high wire act |
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| Eurasian Collared Doves are abundant on the island |
Tomorrow morning at sunrise, we head east to Homestead, hoping to explore the eastern end of Everglades National Park, Kendall, and Biscayne Bay. Always looking for what God has in store for us next.
Love & Prayers, Ty & Ida Baumann
Nice experiences to share. I'm actually in the area right now (2/2/18) and would really like to see some of these birds -- especially the brown-crested flycatcher and the white-crowned pigeon. I assume the flycatcher was in the cemetery. Where did you see the pigeons? (bjim7006@gmail.com)
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