Birding Bust

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!

Christmas in the Keys

Our annual week in the Florida Keys came very early this winter - over Christmas break.  It was kind of surreal to be surrounded by tropical blue waters and palm trees on Christmas.  Despite the Rudolph and Frosty tunes blaring at the tiki bars and Christmas decorations clashing with the usual pinks and pastel colors of the keys, it didn't feel very Christmas-like.  Which was fine.  The kids especially had an amazing week of sun and sand and water- and it's good to know these delights trump even the guy in the big red suit with a sack of toys on his back.  On Christmas eve we asked the kids, "Do you think that Santa will come tonight?"  and they looked at us like we had ten heads.  "No."  Haley said.  "Really?" I replied, "because it's Christmas eve!"  "Oh, then okay, yes." said the girls.  They had a great time emptying their stockings and opening a few presents on Christmas morning, but we literally had to wake them up to go over to Grandma's to see if Santa had come, and all of it paled in comparison to "CAN WE GO IN THE POOL NOW?!?" or "CAN WE GO FISHING NOW?!"

The pool was every day, twice a day, if necessary.  Fisher was beyond obsessed with the pool, and Haley and Phoebe both improved their swimming skills ten fold.  We also all got out on the flats boat in various shifts of fishing or island exploration, or just "to go fast!" as Haley, Phoebe and Fisher preferred.  We took the three "littles" out fishing with their brand new mini-fishing rods, but their attention spans were not held long by the fish.  They really just wanted to speed along the channels with the wind whipping their hair back.  Aiden, on the other hand, was fish-obsessed.  He got to go out three separate times, thankfully, and caught a good mix of grunts, snapper, jacks and even a pufferfish.  He's working on his Dad to save for an offshore fishing trip next year... we'll see.

We did some of our usual favorites, like Everglades National Park, Robert is Here and Bahia Honda, and it was fun to have Micah, Becky, Phoebe and Fisher along with us and Grandma this year.  We had Fisher's 2nd birthday party at the Conch House.  We also made it to Theatre of the Sea to watch dolphin and sealion programs, had an xmas pizza party in the POURING rain (Andy and Micah were soaked to the skin firing pizzas in the outdoor oven) and ate lots of seafood at outdoor restaurants, to be finished up with key lime pie, traditional or dipped in chocolate and eaten from a stick.  All in all, a very successful Christmas vacation!  I'm not quite sure how we are going to make it through the entire rest of the winter without a tropical trip to look forward to, but I'm sure we will survive.  And we're already looking forward to next winter's trip to the keys, whenever it happens to land.