Tropical Audubon Blog
On Saturday, October 5, nineteen birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for our annual fall trip to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County. The traditional starting point for this trip is the Miccosukee Service Plaza at Exit 49 on I-75 in Broward County. From there, we headed north on Snake Road (CR 833) through the Seminole Reservation, then west on CR 846 to Corkscrew.
On Sunday, September 22, twenty-one birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a morning of fall migration birding at Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach. Bird activity in the park wasn’t especially high, but we still managed to find 31 species after about two-and-a-half hours of birding.
Crandon Park, located on the barrier island of Key Biscayne, is one of the top biodiverse birding hotspots in Miami-Dade County. It’s situated in a critically important location, smack dab on the Atlantic Flyway, and is a prime spot for birds to stopover during fall migration. This strategic location, combined with a plethora of different habitats, have put it in the top ranks of Miami eBird hotspots with 271 bird species recorded to date. From tropical hardwood hammock, sandy beaches, coastal dunes, brackish water ponds, and other productive habitats, this is the place to be if you want to see a variety of birds within a compact area. Trip leaders Marc & Eliana Kramer chose this spot for the location of a Tropical Audubon Society field trip on Saturday, September 14, 2024.
On Sunday, March 24, twenty-two birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for our annual spring field trip to birding locations in Martin and northern Palm Beach County. This trip was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 23, but with heavy rain predicted for that day, the trip was moved to Sunday. Though Saturday turned out to be not as rainy as expected, Sunday’s weather was much improved, so everyone who attended was happy with the one-day delay.
On Saturday, March 2, twenty-five birders joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The caravan trip began at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center and ended in Flamingo. Our itinerary included stops at Royal Palm Visitor Center (Anhinga Trail and Gumbo Limbo Trail), the Bill Robertson Center on Research Road, Long Pine Key Campground and Picnic Area, Mahogany Hammock, West Lake and the Guy Bradley Visitor Center and Amphitheater area in Flamingo.
On Saturday, February 24, ten birders joined Luis Gonzalez and Brian Rapoza for Tropical Audubon’s Miami Exotics tour. Locations visited in search of exotics (non-native/introduced species) included Tropical Park, Brewer Park, Pine Woods Park, Coral Reef Park, Dolphin Mall, Pine Tree Park and Morningside Park. Of the sixty-five species tallied during the day, twenty were exotics.
On Saturday, February 10, thirty birders joined John Hutchison and Brian Rapoza for the TAS trip to Shark Valley and Big Cypress National Preserve. Highlights included Purple Gallinules at Shark Valley, a Roseate Spoonbill at Oasis Visitor Center and both Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night Herons at Kirby Storter Boardwalk.
Nancy Freedman, Ann Martinez, Yadira Pedraza and Jim Sigsbee joined TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza this weekend for Tropical Audubon’s four-day North Florida birding tour, our first such tour since 2019. This tour typically targets wintering waterfowl, sparrows and other birds that are rarely if ever seen in south Florida. Locations visited included St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Tall Timbers Research Station and Sweetwater Wetlands Park.
On Saturday, January 6, forty-one birders joined TAS field trip leader Luis Gonzalez for a half-day of birding in the “Lucky Hammock” area on Aerojet Road in Homestead. As participants assembled in the parking area, they were treated to great views of a Vermilion Flycatcher that has been present in the area for several weeks.
On Saturday, December 9, nineteen birders joined TAS field trip leader Luis Gonzalez for a full day of birding in Everglades National Park. The trip began in Flamingo, at the end of the main park road and ended at Frog Pond WMA, just outside the park’s entrance. This “backwards” itinerary, which requires a drive of an additional 38 miles to reach the trip starting point, allowed us to bird the Flamingo area first thing in the morning, rather than late in the afternoon, as we typically do on all other TAS trips to the park. On this particular day, that strategy, which requires participants to leave home at least 45 minutes earlier, paid immediate dividends.
On Saturday, November 25, twenty-five birders joined author, photographer and TAS Board of Directors member Kirsten Hines for Tropical Audubon’s second annual Accessible Inclusive birding trip at Crandon Cardons on Key Biscayne. We were greeted at the garden entrance by a Sandhill Crane, the last surviving descendent of a small flock of cranes that were introduced to the gardens over 20 years ago.
