Ezekiel Dobson is doing a Big Year in the lower 48 states of the U.S. He is winding down with only two weeks left to go. I was able to get special permission to take him into a private neighborhood in Key Largo to get his 753rd species, the White-winged Parakeet! I met him at my house at 5:15 a.m. to drive to Key Largo to meet a resident who had permitted us to enter this very private area that was not open to the public. We arrived in the dark and were welcomed with a nice hot cup of coffee. After a nice talk over coffee, we drove over to a known roost of these birds. It was just starting to get light when we heard the first squawks of this species. I think that it took perhaps 20 more minutes before we saw some. And then around 7:00 a.m., the birds bolted out of the Royal Palms that they like to roost in and flew quickly south squawking the entire way. We estimated that there were 28 birds in this flock which is a large increase from the previous years.
We left the roost area and then drove a golf cart over to the golf course about a mile away. We were able to hear them from a distance and were able to drive up to a flowering Eucalyptus Tree. There we found the flock feeding on the flowers of this tree. We had great looks and high fives were in order. We thanked the resident for the invite into this beautiful neighborhood. We left this area, and as we were driving out we spotted a Caribbean Osprey perched on a pole. Unfortunately, the bird was trying to remove a fishing line that was around its feet. Ezekiel and I birded for a few more hours adding some new birds to his Florida State list. It was a beautiful morning to be out birding!
A pair of White-winged Parakeets.
A Caribbean Osprey which is smaller than our normal Ospreys with hardly any black on the head.
It is a real shame that this Osprey has fishing line on it.
