Saturday 3/10:
Today wasn’t a great day. I started with an early run to Little Hamaca Park in Key West. It was pretty quiet along the trail and I ended up getting lost on a side trail and having to crawl and bushwhack my way back. I walked the road a bit and had a cooperative White Ibis and a neat spider.
After going back to the hotel to finish packing, get breakfast, and check out, I realized my plans were a bit off. I was hoping to hit the Botanical Gardens for odes but they didn’t open for a good hour and a half, so I decided to just head out and work my way off the Keys.
The first stop was at the Blue Hole, where I had Antillean Saddlebags, Florida Duskywing, and a few other things.
The next stop was at Grassy Key, where I pulled in quickly and found a Red-breasted Merganser and not much else. Theere were a few festivals going on and traffic was pretty bad, so I kept going (making a quick stop for a muffin and drink) before reaching Dagny Johnson State Park.
The park had an admissions box, but no envelopes (and I didn’t have correct change), so I skipped in. There had been another La Sagra’s here a few weeks ago, but it hadn’t been reported recently and it was midday and very hot. I saw very few birds, but did get some nice butterflies (Giant Swallowtail, Mangrove Skipper, etc) and some Great Pondhawks. At the water, an iguana was running around (too deep into the vegetation for photos though).
From here, I headed onto the Tamiami Trail and towards Naples. Most of the way through, I did a quick loop through some of the Big Cypress preserve (adding meadowlark and Eastern Bluebird to the trip list but not a whole lot else). Reaching Naples, I found a hotel and then a Mexican restaurant (shrimp dish was not bad, the chips and stuff before were spectacular but I have no idea what the place was at this point).