Marian and I had a nice vacation in a friend of Marian’s Big Pine Key home from Jan 21 until Jan 31, and it was very quiet and pleasant. Overall cooler than last year, and quite windy at times. We visited Key West one day, and a couple of beaches nearby other days, but overall I birded locally a bit each morning, and we relaxed a lot. Binged on a couple of Prime series, and read a lot.

Jan 31 I dropped off Marian, and that afternoon I headed north to Oleta River State Park, where for a few weeks an ABA first (accepted by the Florida Bird Records Committee, not yet by ABA) Yellow-headed Caracara has been seen. It has seemed to develop a pattern of a morning visit to fish cleaning areas, and in the afternoon, after things at the picnic area quiet down, stopping by the Pelican Pavilion Picnic Area to look for scraps. I got there about 2:45 and waited. At about 5:03 I spotted the caracara come in low over the beach, and three birders, including me, got great looks and photo ops for about 20 minutes.
Amazingly, after picking up Bruce that night, spending a day with Mariah Hryniwich and her spouse and partner Luis who took us out for a great day of briding, I took Bruce back and the bird gave a repeat performance on the next day.

On the day with Mariah and Luis we got several exotics, Spot-breasted Oriole, Red-masked and Mitred Parakeet, Orange-winged Parakeet (not yet listable), along with Limpkin and several other cool species. It was fun to be with Mariah and Luis for the day.

After getting the Caracara we headed north, spent the night in North Ft. Lauderdale, had a great dinner at a Jewish kosher deli for hummus and Mediterranean food, and a nice night at a the Fairfield Inn and Suites, we headed north to have a nice walk, but no Nanday Parakeets, at Loxahatchee NWR, before ticking Florida Scrub Jay at Jonathan Dickinson SP. A long drive back to Miami, then overnight and at the airport to head to Barranquilla, Colombia for a week of birding.