Florida Keys and Birds
December 12, 1996
Small waves are lapping over a rock about 30 yards from the front window of our motorhome. Well, actually it is not a rock, it is a broken piece of old coral that forms the base of these Florida Keys - but that is another story. Anyway, this "rock" is a favorite perch of various birds that show off to us during the day. The brown pelicans - which are beginning to enter their reproductive phase as characterized by a yellow head and neck - are "kings of the rock." In the pecking order for this "rock", the pelicans easily drive away the herring gulls which bully the royal terns, followed by laughing gulls, and ring bill gulls. Sometimes, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, black-bellied plovers, spotted sandpipers, semipalmated plovers and short-billed dowitchers temporarily hop onto the "rock". The "rock" rests on a sheet of old coral and is a favorite foraging site for these birds. The front of our motorhome is less than 10 feet from high tide and located on a point overlooking the Atlantic with a long, white, sandy beach to our right. It is a beautiful view. As the tide falls, more and more of this old coral is exposed, drawing flocks of birds for feeding. The turnstones, dowitchers and sanderlings feed together, sometimes up on the beach where they search for sand fleas under the seagrass that marks the high tide line on the beach. However, when flying, they usually segregate into distinct species again. At high tide, the red-breasted mergansers sometimes forage cooperatively, driving small fish into shallow waters. Redish egrets chase small fish, crabs, and shrimp across the shallow waters. Further offshore, the cormorants and pelicans dive for fish.
We are located at Long Key State Park, which is one of the nicest we have ever visited. There is some privacy in this spot because neighboring RV's are screened from view by Australian pine, wild hibiscus, and gumbo limbo trees. There are two other excellent state parks on the Keys that are nice but all state parks on the Keys are expensive. From the Bahia Honda State Park, we took day-trips into Key West, which is the tourist capital of the Keys. One of the major events there is to congregate with other tourists on the harbor front to applaud the sunset - very interesting. Ernest Hemingway's home is another of many other attractions. We biked over much of the city and enjoyed eating our bag lunch at the beach. Last night, we took a free boat tour of a small bird island to see the nesting magnificent frigate birds, brown pelicans, cormorants and great white herons. The owner of Porky's restaurant in Marathon provides these free rides every evening at sunset. His small, open-air, restaurant overlooks a harbor only a few hundred yards from the bird island. As an appreciative gesture, many who take advantage of his tours, can sit on tall stools overlooking the harbor and partake of his booze and seafood. The owner is a very friendly fellow who told us much of his life story and was interested in my Cloudcroft family reunion T-shirt.
Although Pat and I are infatuated with the Keys, there is a down-side. Small biting flies (punkies) come through the screen so we have the windows closed and the air conditioner on, even though the temperature outside is comfortable. When the wind is blowing, the beach is fairly safe, but when birdwatching in the mangroves we must keep moving or being eaten alive is a possibility. Many of the locals use Avon's Skin-so-soft to repel them. Mosquitos are not a problem now.
As we travel, we are always evaluating the various locations as possible sites to settle down when we can no longer drive our motorhome safely. South Florida or the Keys are definite possibilities although we have not experienced the heat of summer here. However, I suspect that it is much like summers on the Texas Gulf Coast - hot and humid with lots of salt marsh mosquitos. But, the beaches, birds, parks, museums, warm winters, friendly folks, nearness to good stores, libraries, and medical facilities are serious considerations that are available here. Someday we will be forced to decide, but we are having far too much fun with the vagabond lifestyle to give too much thought to a semi-sedentary existence. However, it would be very nice to have access to a full-time telephone.
From here, we plan to spend a few days in Everglade Nat. Park. Before coming to the Keys, we spent a couple of days in the northern part of the park. We especially enjoyed biking in the Shark Valley area where a river of water flows south very slowly to the sea. A very nice, paved trail took us out through the grass, water, and hammocks where we dodged the alligators lying beside the trail. One old fellow opened one eye as we approached, but appeared to fall asleep before we left. We added snail kites to our bird list while there. After the Everglades, we will travel slowly up the east coast of Florida from Miami through West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Melbourne, Cape Canaveral, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville, then over to Tallahassee and Pensacola. We will be at home (motorhome) for Christmas somewhere here in Florida then start our trip back to Texas unless we find something exciting to halt our progress.
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