The whole time I was on the Dry Tortugas, flying overhead were multiple soaring Magnificent Frigatebirds. In this image the all-black one is a male, and those with white are females. I love their angular wings as they fly--I counted as many as 30 birds flying at a time!. About 100 pairs of these birds nest on Long Key, not far from Garden Key, where the ferry docks. 4/27/22 www.sparhawkphotography.com
After an hour and a half ride on the Yankee Freedom, ferry from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. This was the sight--the water really was this color, the sand this white--beautiful! Off in the distance, those specks in the sky are not dust specks on my camera sensor, but are birds flying over Bush Key. On that island there are 80,000 nesting Sooty Terns and 10,000 nesting Brown Noddies. They were all flying about, feeding, noisily proclaiming territories, and gathering nesting materials. For a birder like me, it made for an exciting chaos. As I stood there taking it all in, I realized that in 1825 John James Audubon had been there, seeing the birds from which he created his famous bird art paintings. And there had stood Kenn Kaufman, birder extraordinaire, who in 1973, at the age of 16, had made his way there in search of birds for his "big year" list, from which came his book, "Kingbird Highway." For years I had wanted to be there, and finally I was! I felt the loss of not having my good camera to try and capture the essence of the place and the chaos of the nesting colonies. I came away with fewer photos than I would have liked, but I had my experience and memories to carry home with me. 4/26/22 www.sparhawkphotography.com
One of the reasons I went to Florida was to get out to the Dry Tortugas, a group of keys 70 miles off of Key West. This is a birding destination I have read about for years, and always wanted to go. So I made reservations back in January for April 6th, for a day trip out to Dry Tortugas which is now a National Park. It is the site of Fort Jefferson, an early fort for defense of the Florida coast, and which acted as a prison long ago. A variety of sea birds nest out on the islands, which would not be seen closer to the mainland. It was a wonderful experience, although most of the birds eluded my limited camera's capabilities. I'll post more pics from this trip. 4/25/22 www.sparhawkphotography.com
