Let’s try this again: A new Big Year birding adventure in 2015

Ospreys are quite common in southern Florida. It’s good to see so many because use of DDT was a serious threat to them not long ago. Photo by Colin Andrews.

There’s no sugarcoating it. Last year was a bust.

It’s not that my wife Fran, my brother Phil and another brother, Terry, didn’t try to see as many bird species as we could. It’s that I did such a lousy job of recording our progress with this blog. I can use the excuse that my workload (the money-earning kind) got really heavy, and it would be true. But I could have done a much better job despite the long hours and weekends spent writing for clients.

Anyway, enough of the blogging flogging. I’m ready to get going again.

In 2014, we logged 179 species. Certainly not a stellar showing, but there you go. By this time last year, we’d seen 42 species. This year, we’d recorded 62 by January 15, thanks in large part to a trip Fran and I took to Florida, January 1-7. There were some life-list additions made during our travels, including a Northern Parula, Blue-headed Vireo and Snail Kite. We also picked up several of the usual suspects: Roseate Spoonbill, Osprey, Tri-colored Heron, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Magnificent Frigatebird and others.

Warning: digression. Florida is really crowded. Traffic is a mess, and people drive like they’re all inebriated and suicidal. It’s hard to get out of town. It’s also sweaty. Despite all that, it is a birder’s paradise.

There are some great places to stay and to eat, too. We spent most of the time in Key Largo, with a day set aside to visit Key West, so we could say we’d been to the southernmost point in the U.S. and visit Ernest Hemingway’s house, and another day (obviously far to little time) for Everglades National Park.

In Key Largo, we stayed at the Marina del Mar Resort. It sits on a canal well off the Overseas Highway, the main and very busy drag, and is roomy and clean. The only problem for us was noise, and that pretty much went away after the final weekend of the holiday season when the kids went back to school. We’d recommend it, especially after the holidays, when the rates drop by about $100 a night.

Another strong recommendation goes for Doc’s Diner, almost directly across the Overseas Highway from Marina del Mar. It’s called “A Local Place,” and it has the hallmarks of one, including a grammatically challenged history of the joint printed on the menu. But, ah, the hash browns. Never have I had shredded potatoes so fluffy and delicious. Fran is still talking about her breakfast burrito as well. Fortunately, it’s not talking back to her.

But to return to the birds. In future posts, I’ll go into more detail about the most exciting (at least, for me) additions to the 2015 Big Year list, such as the Northern Parula, Blue-headed Vireo and Snail Kite . In the meantime, wish me luck at being a better correspondent.

I’ve promised myself one post a week for the rest of the year. Hold me to it.