January 13, 2021 We packed the van, and hit the road. Its take 8 hours to get to Frog Pond, Homestead, Fla. On the trip, we were in search of the White-tailed Kites. We arrived at Frog Pond, which is just outside of the Everglades, on the afternoon of January14th. It was a perfect day for birding but not the best timing. We quickly located several Eastern Meadowlarks and our first rare bird, a Tropical Kingbird. We spent the night at Long Pine Key Campground, inside the Everglades National Park.
January 15, 2021 We started our day before dawn. Chuck. our lab, wanted to go out about 4:30am, but when Ken opened the door he heard an unusual call coming from the darkness. I was quickly awaken and we both listened to this call wondering what it might be. Since we were in Florida Panther territory, we decided to not let Chuck out until it was a bit lighter. After a couple Google searches, we came to the conclusion it was possibly an adult panther calling to a juvenile. It was an amazing intriguing.
When we were making our way back to Frog Pond, we saw a Barred Owl fly overhead as we existed the Everglades. We arrived at Frog Pond about 7:30am, once again finding Eastern Meadowlarks singing from the tops of the scrub brush. We walked about a 1/4 of a mile and came across some Sparrows in the tall grasses and several Hawks. We had a Red-Shouldered Hawk, and possibly a juvenile Swainson's Hawk, but, no White-Tailed Kites were seen. We did find some Eastern Meadowlarks playing in a mud puddle. As we started to head back to the road, there was a bird souring low over the field moving away from us. The bird had a white tail. we found the White-tailed Kite. We followed the bird back down the path, and watched with excitement as it went into a full hover over the field, showing off it's white tail. It caught a air pocket and swooped across the path and flew to a stag, where a second White-tailed Kite was perched. They stayed perched as we approached a bit closer. Ken was able to get some great shots of these striking birds with their red eyes. The day was warm and sunny with a slight breeze. It could not have been better. We wrapped up this part of our trip and started to head down to the Keys.
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