January 15, 2021 Our next stop is Big Pine Key, the Blue Hole National Key Deer Refuge in search of the Cuban Pewee and Black-Faced Grassquit. It was a beautiful sunny day and the Cuban Pewee was easily found, however it was across the pond. This photo here is from our trip in December. The Cuban Pewee has a white eye ring that stands out making it distinctly different from other Pewee's here in the US These small insect eating birds have the classic out and back flight pattern which makes identifying them s bit easier to find. The Black-faced Grassquit on the other hand remained a little bird of mystery. We weren't able to locate it.
Later on that day we made it down to Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden in search of an extremely rare and elusive bird, the Red-legged Thrush. We had tried several times back in December to find this bird with no luck. However, this time we found this very special Robin-sized bird. Thrush that are found here in SC, such as the Hermit Thrush, are normally found skulking on the ground and low in thickets. This Red-legged Thrush however liked the fruit way up in the tall Palms. This gave us limited views of this bird, but views none the less. Red-legged Thrush is normally found in Bahamas and Hispaniola. Many birders have made the trip to Florida in hopes of seeing this bird. It's number 99 on our list for this year.
We spent the next two nights at Boyds's Campground on Stock Island. During our time at the campground, we saw Brown Pelicans, a beautiful Dark Morph Short-Tailed Hawk, along with one of Ken's favorite birds a Magnificent Frigatebird and lots of Laughing Gulls.
January 17, 2021 We made another trip to Blue Hole in hopes of finding the Black-faced Grassquit, once again we turned up empty. However, we did meet a couple other birders from other parts of the country, also in search of the Black-faced Grassquit and Cuban Pewee. None of us were able to locate the Grassquit. We did find another Short--tail Hawk, along with a few Warblers, a Black & White, Palm and Prairie and a Bald Eagle. We are making our way back up to Frog Pond, in Homestead, Fla in search of the Smooth-Billed Ani.
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