Southern Florida:
Migration Time in the Keys
April 24-30, 2023
Your place on this Venture is reserved when your completed registration and deposit of $300/person has been received. Deposit may be made via the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer, cash, check, or money order (payable to ‘VENTURES BIRDING’) sent to PO Box 1095, Skyland, NC 28776. This Venture is limited to 10 participants.
Cost of the FL Venture: $3100 per person, based on double occupancy, from Miami; Single supplement $650 Price includes: All ground transportation in southern Florida, all meals, taxes, entrance fees, trip information packet, bird list, and services of 1 Ventures guide, snacks and drinking water Not included: Round trip airfare to Miami, alcoholic beverages, snorkeling equipment, gratuities, laundry, and items of a personal nature
This venture will focus on southern Florida, a region known for its tropical weather, white sandy beaches, and palm-lined streets. After spending two days searching for southern Florida specialties, we will venture towards the Florida Keys, which is a gentle-arching string of coral cays that forms the southernmost part of the continental United States. The Florida Keys boasts an environment that is closer to that of the Caribbean than the rest of Florida. However, unlike most Caribbean islands (which have a volcanic origins), the Florida Keys trace their origin to animal and plant deposits, particularly the Lower Keys which is perched atop the remnants of a fossilized coral reef. Despite these diverging origins, the Keys and adjacent mainland share many wildlife species with the Caribbean—many of these species are rarely found elsewhere in the United States. This includes the likes of Grey Kingbird, Snail Kite, Mangrove Cuckoo, White-crowned Pigeon, and Golden Warbler (the Caribbean subspecies of the Yellow Warbler), all of which we have a reasonable chance to see on this trip along with all-time favorites such as Burrowing Owls and Swallow-tailed Kites.
Our seven-day tour will take us to the Keys in late April, when Florida's many resident species are augmented by tropical migrants on their annual pilgrimage to their northern breeding grounds. We will visit the majestic Everglades National Park, Jonathan Dickinson State Park where we’ll look for the Florida Scrub-Jay (the Sunshine State’s only endemic bird species), the city of Miami with its decidedly Cuban flair where we’ll be looking for exotic parrots, Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Park where we’ll be looking for Mangrove Cuckoo, and Key West which we’ll use as a base to visit the Dry Tortugas' magnificent seabird colony consisting of thousands of Brown Noddies and Sooty Terns, as well as Brown Boobies, Masked Boobies, and perhaps even a Black Noddy if we're really lucky. Note that southern Florida is a regular host of ABA-level rarities. As such, this flexible trip is built to maximize opportunities for a chase, should the opportunity arise!
Some of the Birds We Hope to See
Sandhill Crane, Limpkin, White-crowned Pigeon, Mangrove Cuckoo, Snail Kite, Antillean Nighthawk, Brown Noddy, Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Roseate Tern, Masked Booby, Brown Booby, Burrowing Owl, Black-whiskered Vireo, Grey Kingbird, Cave Swallow, Florida Scrub-Jay, Bachman’s Sparrow, migratory warblers, Golden Warbler, and many more.