Tropical Audubon Blog
On Saturday, September 19, forty birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of birding at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. Areas of the park covered included Crandon Gardens, the south end of Crandon Beach and the area at the north end of the park between the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center and the fossilized mangrove reef at Bear Cut Preserve.
On Saturday, September 12, twenty birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in the Islamorada area of the Florida Keys. We visited three different state parks: Windley Key, Long Key and Curry Hammock. We also made a quick stop at wetlands on Grassy Key before returning to Miami.
On Saturday, September 5, thirty-one birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for the first field trip of the 2026-27 season, to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County. The group assembled at the Miccosukee Service Plaza on Snake Road (CR 833) in Broward County, then caravaned to Corkscrew via CR 833 through Broward and Hendry Counties, then CR 846, through Hendry and Collier Counties.
Ten birders participated in this eight-day tour, beginning and ending in Panama City. The first three days of our tour were spent exploring rainforest habitat in the Panama Canal area and included visits to the Rainforest Discovery Center on world-famous Pipeline Road, Metropolitan Natural Park in Panama City and the canal’s Miraflores Locks. Our next three days took us to Boquete in the mountains of western Panama, where we experienced a breathtaking sunrise above the clouds at the summit of extinct Volcan Baru, Panama’s highest peak, hiked two different trails through cloud forest habitat on the slopes of the volcano, visited Finca Lérida, a working coffee plantation and Paraiso Birding Paradise, a private reserve where we encountered nearly 100 different birds! Our last day was spent back in Panama City, where we explored colonial areas of the city and scanned coastal mudflats teeming with waders, shorebirds gulls and terns.
On Saturday, February 21, ten birders from as far away as Michigan and New Jersey joined Luis Gonzalez and Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s annual Miami Exotics tour. Using a 15-passenger van to transport the group, we spent the day searching for as many of south Florida’s introduced bird species as possible. Among the seventy-four species tallied by day’s end were twenty-two different exotics!
From Friday, January 16th to Monday, January 19th, seven birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s annual winter birding tour to the Tallahassee area in north Florida. The group consisted of John Boyd, Nancy Freedman, Liz Gushee, Deb Magid, Ann Martinez and Jim Sigsbee, all from Miami-Dade County, and Ann Wiley from Broward County.
On Saturday, December 6, twenty-two birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding along Tamiami Trail in Collier County. The trip began at the Oasis Visitor Center in Big Cypress National Preserve. While in Big Cypress, we also made brief stops at Monument Lake Campground and H.P. Williams Wayside Park.
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.
