On Sunday morning it was reported again on the Tropical Audubon Society site, and then on Narba. I called my friend Bob Wallace who lives in Gainesville, FL to find that he was already on his way there with his brothers and his friend Dex. He and I had spent over a month together in East Africa birding in the summer of 2012, and stay in touch. I had met Dex and Bob originally in 2006 at Gambell, AK, and then reconnected in 2010 during my big year. By mid afternoon his group had seen the bird, and were already driving back north (photo below taken by Bob. Unless attributed to someone else, all photos were taken by me. Click on any photo to enlarge).
Neil and I decided to come down on Monday morning. He flew into Miami from Boston, arriving 2 minutes after my flight from Raleigh/Durham. We got our rental car, and headed up to the cemetery, passing thru a brief shower. As we drove in about 10 AM we passed a nice group of white ibis. We immediately headed over to where all the birders were staring up into a large tree.
With some friendly assistance we were able to locate the variegated flycatcher, but it took a few minutes because there were so many birds feeding in the tree including many warblers (photo taken by Neil).
As is common when a rarity is found, other birders from around the country had come to see it. Susan Clark came up to us to say hi. We had birded with her in September at the Pribs in Alaska. Then Neil saw that Brandon Reo was also there with a friend. They chatted briefly about Brandon's very successful year of birding (692 birds so far recorded on his 2015 ABA area ebird list).
After about 20 minutes the flycatcher flew back over to a strangler fig that has been its preferred feeding location, so we walked over to watch it some more. Neil proceeded to take a huge number of photos, and shared the one above with me. While watching the bird, Lucie Bruce and Nick Cooney walked up having flown in from Texas. I had last seen them also in Pribs back in the fall of 2013. While visiting, some other birders told us that there was a spot-breasted oriole feeding over by the canal that runs along the edge of the cemetery.
We walked over to try to find it, and ran into Monte Taylor who was in from California. He is at the top of the ABA area list for photographed birds. The variegated flycatcher raises his total to 851. We did not locate the oriole, but a huge lizard was hanging out in the tree where it had been seen.
We kept moving back and forth between the oriole site and the flycatcher site, and finally we were able to see the oriole (photo taken by Neil). The spot-breasted oriole is a Miami area specialty, so it was nice to be able to find one.
As it got closer to our time to head back to the airport, local bird guides Angel and Mariel Abreu arrived. I had met them back in 2013 at Bill Baggs SP which is located on Key Biscayne. I had come down that time to try to see a bananaquit and a western spindalis. Unlike this trip, I missed both of those birds. Jeff Bouton also showed up at about the same time. Another birder took a group shot of us (Neil, Mariel, Jeff, me and Angel). It was a nice way to end our short but very birdy visit. In the 3+ hours that we were in the cemetery, we were constantly seeing birds, and totaled over 10 warbler species alone plus we ran into so many other birders we know from around the country.
One last note for this post. On 10/26, Noah Strycker saw a flame-crowned flowerpecker in the Philippines for his 5000th new bird for 2015. He still has 2 months of birding, so who knows how high his new world big year record will be.
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