On Saturday, September 19, forty birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of birding at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. We began our search for birds in and around Crandon Gardens at the south end of the park, where we found Egyptian Goose, Muscovy Duck, Indian Peafowl, Common Gallinule, Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, White Ibis, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Green Heron, Red-shouldered Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Gray Kingbird, Loggerhead Shrike, Fish Crow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, European Starling, Northern Mockingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Ovenbird, American Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler and Northern Cardinal. At the southern end of Crandon Beach, we added Rock Pigeon, Piping Plover, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, Laughing Gull, Royal Tern, Great Blue Heron and Brown Pelican.
The group then drove to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center at the north end of the park. A Great Egret and a couple of Western Cattle Egrets were found among White Ibis feeding in the large open space near the nature center parking area. Our goal was to walk north along the beach to the fossilized mangrove reef at Bear Cut Preserve, but the beach was a bit muddy, so we backtracked to an access point for the Osprey Trail, which we then hiked north to the fossilized reef area. We returned to the parking area via the paved bike path. New birds seen in this part of the park included Common Ground-Dove, Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper, Reddish Egret, Snowy Egret, Black Vulture, Osprey, Merlin and Eastern Kingbird. By morning’s end, we had tallied 48 different birds, all of which are listed in this eBird checklist.
The group at the fossilized reef overlook. Photo by Brian Rapoza.