After New Years I drove down to south Florida and the Keys in search of the Antillean Palm-Swift that was being seen over a three month period in Marathon, FL. Butterflies were also on the agenda highlighted by Miami Blue and Cuban Crescent. During part of this 4 day journey it was great to link up with my friends Jim and Susan Hengeveld from Indiana. We did not have any luck with the Palm-Swift as its last sighting was from December 31st. I also struck out on the Miami Blue. It is now re-established in Bahia Honda State Park so I plan to go back in March or April. Even with a cold front going through the temps were mostly in the 70’s for highs and that was better than anything going on at home. Some of our stops included eastern Miami-Dade county, Long Key Natural Area and Nature Center, Castellow Hammock and Navy Wells Preserve. In the Keys I visited Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock, Bahia Honda State Park, Big Pine Key NWR and the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens. It was nice to see how quickly the Keys had bounced back from Hurricane Irma in 2017. I tallied 31 species for the trip, some of which are seen below.
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