This was not a birdy visit to the keys for us... we generally get somewhere around 100 species for a week-long trip to Florida, but on this visit we got about half of that! We're happy chalking it up to a bunch of factors: certainly, the high water in the Everglades made birding less productive that it usually is, since birds don't have any need to congregate at waterholes like along Anhinga Trail. We didn't even see many alligators (only 4 total!) this year. But even more than that, this trip was about having fun with the kiddos, Christmas, and family. So birding was definitely accidental, a bird here or there as we concentrated on other activities. Plus, there wasn't the pressure of the "New Year" this winter- time to get a jump on your year list- because we'd already been to the keys in January of 2013. All of these added up to a pretty meager bird list on this trip.
But that doesn't mean we didn't see some cool birds, and other wildlife. We got to see three big crocodiles at Flamingo, which is unusual. And there were lots of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, fish and crabs to appreciate too. Andy's photographs always highlight well the natural wonders we find on trips, so enjoy these shots!
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