Tropical Audubon Blog
Ten birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for this 11-day tour of southern Guatemala’s highland areas, which began and ended in Guatemala City. The first two days of the tour were spent visiting birding locations near Antigua, Guatemala’s colonial capital. The remainder of the tour was spent birding on or near the dormant Atitlan volcano and around scenic Lake Atitlan.
On Saturday, March 29, TAS President Joe Barros and TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza led Tropical Audubon’s annual spring birding trip to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables. The assembled group, which included both Tropical Audubon and Fairchild Garden members, was split into two smaller groups, one led by Joe and the other by Brian. Both groups made a complete circuit of the garden, but in opposite directions, then reassembled at the end of the morning to compare sightings. As is often the case when we split into two groups, each group saw a few birds that the other group didn’t.
On Saturday, March 22, twenty-six birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in Martin and Northern Palm Beach Counties. Locations visited include Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Pine Glades Natural Area and John C. and Mariana Jones/Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area.
On Saturday, March 8, twenty-seven birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a very pleasant morning of birding at Wakodahatchee and Green Cay Wetlands in southern Palm Beach County. We tallied 41 bird species at Wakodahatchee and 42 species at Green Cay; our combined total for both locations were 51 species.
On Saturday, March 1st, twenty-three birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The trip began at the Coe Visitor Center; other locations visited while in the park included Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo Trails, the Gate 13 restoration area, Long Pine Key picnic area, Pa-hay-Okee overlook, Mahogany Hammock, Paurotis Pond, West Lake and the Flamingo area.
On Saturday, February 22, ten birders joined Brian Rapoza and Luis Gonzalez for Tropical Audubon’s annual Miami Exotics tour. The tour began and ended at Tropical Park: we also made stops in South Miami, The Falls area, Palmetto Bay, Kendall, West Kendall, Sweetwater and Miami Beach. A total of 65 species were tallied during the tour, including 20 introduced species.
On Saturday, February 8, forty-one birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a very pleasant morning of birding at Black Point Park and along the Black Creek Trail in southern Miami-Dade County. Fifty-one different bird species, plus one additional taxon was recorded during the morning.
On Saturday, February 1st, twenty-two birders joined Larry Manfredi for a hike along the L31-W Canal, which forms the eastern border of Everglades National Park near the park’s Homestead entrance. The morning began very foggy, but that didn’t stop Larry from finding eight different flycatcher species, including this Cassin’s Kingbird, during the hike.
On Saturday, January 5, an astounding 61 birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for the first birding trip of 2025, a full-day exploration of Everglades National Park. Among the 76 species seen were eight species of ducks and thirteen species of warblers, along with Purple Gallinule, American Bittern, Roseate Spoonbill, Bald Eagle and many more.
The 55th annual Miami (Dade County) Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 14. On count day, 38 participants counted 11,491 birds of 115 species in spite of intermittent rain and gusty winds throughout the day. Compared with 2023, there were 1,696 less birds counted and 13 less species.
