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Long layover at Miami (1 Viewer)

Arbu

Well-known member
I'm flying into Miami Airport at 6pm on 4th April and departing at 5pm the next day. Does it sound like a good plan to hire a car, drive into the Everglades, camp there somewhere, get up early the next day to bird before heading back to the airport?

The following would all be lifers for me if I can find them:

Chuck-Will's WIdow
King Rail
Piping Plover (OK it's not going to be in the Everglades)
Eastern Screech-Owl
Eastern Kingbird
Short-billed Hawk
Black-billed Cuckoo
Warbling Vireo
Blue-winged Warbler
Orchard Oriole

I appreciate that some of these breed further north, but perhaps in early April they might be passing through?

I'll check on eBird before I go, but grateful for any advice.

Thanks.
 
On my last visit to the Everglades quite a few years ago, I fell in love with it immediately. A super piece of land filled with all kinds of wildlife and birds.

I can't really speculate on what birds you will see in April, as I was there in November so you should see quite a bit of migrating birds and you can count on loads of large and small Waders.

Have fun and please let us know how it went ;)
 
Sad to say that the last time I visited the Everglades, we saw 0 mammal species. We did see lots of waders but not much else. The pythons have decimated the mammal population and probably impacted birds as well.
 
Most of these birds are possible in varying degrees but all that time you spend renting the car, traveling, camping and reversing all that might be better spent birding. Could you consider putting the car rental money into hiring a local guide (Carlos Sanchez for instance) for a half day to target one or two of those species? Having traveled in Miami on several occasions, the one way streets and toll highways can be confusing...
eBird will certainly help you determine which is most likely and which species to focus on.

My wife and I are traveling to Miami and beyond in the second half of April which is prime time for neotropical migrants in that part of the US.

Steve
 
Just got back. It was a bit stressful to fit it in in the limited time that I had, but I had time to do the bike circuit at Shark Valley which gave good close-up views of herons etc. The roads in Miami certainly were a bit challenging and I took a wrong turn at one point and couldn't get off to turn around for miles.

I got one bird on the list - Chuck-Will's Widow which was easy at the campground where I stayed - Monument Lake. Funnily I saw the Kingbird and Hawk (Short-tailed) in Panama before getting to Florida. Don't know why I've never been able to find the Kingbird in the States.

Also I got one mammal, Fox Squirrel.
 
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