Florida AVICATION Part I

Last year I came to the sad realization that it had been 11 years since I had been on a 'vacation'.  I'm talking about traveling to a place just to do what you want and nothing else.  And I had never taken a big, non-work trip that was solely based on birding.  What kind of a birder was I?!  

Fortunately a friend, colleague and fellow bird nerd was also in dire need of getting away to bird for fun.  And that was when the plan was hatched.  We could take a vacation for fun-birding (versus work birding which no matter how fun, just isn't quite the same), in a place we might actually desire to bird, and we'd do it all for cheap.  

Wow.  We could really pull this off...we quickly dismissed talk of Arizona as a delusion of grandeur - we needed a place in the east where we could converge from our respective states for a reasonable price.  We needed to go in late winter/early spring and we wanted to escape the frigid northeastern climate.  Bingo - Florida!  But do you suppose we were headed to the beach to relax?

No way - we were going to the swamps!

Seven days of bird-packed adventure awaited us.  All we had to do now was plan it...yikes.  Florida is a big state, with a lot of great birding places and a lot of potential lifers.  We booked for February and got snowed out by the largest storm of the year.  Fighting depression, we rescheduled the whole trip for mid-March.  Chins up - we had more planning time...we prioritized places...

We dreamed of Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks. herons, egrets and alligators...

I rubbed my hands together, laughing like Mr. Burns from the Simpson's as I dreamed of the potential lifers: Florida Scrub Jays, Cape Sable Seaside Sparrows, Short-tailed Hawks, Swallow-tailed Kites, Purple Gallinules, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers...

We planned the major stops, birded some hot places in between, and stayed flexible enough to allow for extra time when needed.  We saved loot by cashing in rewards points for hotels and the car rental (which got 40+ mpg woohoo!) and by using our federal duck stamps to get into refuges for free. There were hilarious moments of road-side 'Sible' and Gazetteer consultation and much guidance was sought from A Birder's Guide to Florida by Bill Pranty.  

We birded obsessively, having to remind ourselves to eat and hydrate...but we saw a male Painted Bunting (yes it's wild - it's in a feeder, not a cage, at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary!)...

A major highlight was the numerous Red-shouldered Hawks - subspecies Buteo lineatus extimus.  We lovingly referred to these pale gray beauties as  'extimus' from day one, as in "it's just another extimus".  We took the pronunciation lightly, and born was the golden describer for all future bird vacations: "Nextimus"...as in "Nextimus we're going to Arizona" or "we absolutely have to hit the Florida keys Nextimus"...

That's all for Thistimus, stay tuned for Florida AVICATION Part II...