Introduction.

All the places referred to are in the Pranty Guide (details at the end of the report) the couple which are not are described in detail in the text.

This is an additional trip report from my recent trip to Florida in search of wildlife and in this report non native species (plastics) only are covered. The rest of the trip is covered in another report. Florida Trip

We did bump into Muscovy ducks, starlings, collared doves, feral pigeons and house sparrows almost everywhere before then as they are very widely distributed in Florida. The Brown Anole (Lizard introduced from the carribbean) was one of the commonest Lizard and was seen in most places.

Sunday 19th

A lone Canada goose was found in a small development pond, part of a small introduced population in Florida.

Tuesday 21st

A brief trip to Mead Garden in Orlando was productive our first mallards of the trip and a few feral ducks.

Wednesday 22nd

We had three targets today our first a declining species on the Gulf coast in an area of Hernando Beach. It took some time before we found a lone budgerigar an escapee or part of the small population still present? Late afternoon we went to Walsingham where we found several monk parakeets and two black hooded parakeets around the substation.

Friday 24th

Mid afternoon we headed for the Pembroke Pines area of South Miami, here we were searching for purple swamphens, but no luck. At nearby Silverlakes no luck either, but here were a good number of Egyptian geese and Muscovy ducks. Some monk parakeets arrived but not much else. We returned to the original site and met a Florida twitcher from much further north also looking for the Swamphens but said that there had been an eradication programme. We could not find them in an extensive search. We did locate several plastic canada geese in several of the ponds and lakes in this area, and could not find the reason for their presence - any ideas appreciated. At the cave swallow site at Cutler ridge our first Green iguana was found. Onto some fast food restaurants in Homestead, where after a little search several common mynas were found and a Mandarin duck with the feral geese on a small pond.

Sunday 26th

Our drive down through the keys to Key West had several common mynas and dozens of feral pigeons. Red Junglefowl were found almost everywhere on Stock Island and Key west.

Wednesday 29th

Driving back up the Upper Keys we made a few stops mostly touristy picking up a couple of Giant Day Gecko's and a male common peafowl in the process. Early evening we headed to a South Miami parrot roost site Miller Drive (none roosted) but we had a couple of yellow chevroned parrkeets feeding in a nearby tree. Hill mynas were noisly harassing the blue jays and as we watched the muscovy ducks with ducklings the parrots started to fly over. We have several species mostly Red Masked Parakeets, but several White fronted parrots, blue fronted parakeet and a single lilac crowned parrot. A quick look at the Fuch's park roost was also parrotless.

Thursday 30th

After a look at some burrowing owls we went back to south Miami to try for spot brested orioles and red whisked bulbuls at the Royal Palm tennis courts. But an extensive search drew blank. Onwards to Mattherson Hammock park where also drew blank apart from several Iguana's. Several other local sites also produced blank so we headed to Hialeh Park which houses about 500 Caribbean flamingo's. It is closed to the public but the gates were open and I headed in. I could not see or access the flamingo lake so went into the office and asked about access, NO was the official answer but I was walked round the office area given a history of the site and a brochure as we walked away from some mangers and then quickly and distantly shown the lake with its Caribbean flamingo's. No photo's the condition of the detour, but at least I had finally seen something today. We headed to Miami springs where we found several monk parakeet nests well attended. A lone yellow chevroned parakeet flew over but not much else. Back to this mornings Tennis court area where we quickly found a red whiskered bulbul which showed quite well and we had another briefly, still no oriole but a trawl of a couple sites did not produce anything apart from a red crowned parrot and orange winged parrot flyovers. Trying a new roost and the others from last night only gave a few flyover parrots of the same species previously seen and more noisy Hill Mynas. Finding a roost is essential to get the most species. We drove to Fort Lauderdale for the night, booking into the Motel 6 at Dania Beach a sign on the wall caught my attention. It said not to feed the Green Vervet Monkeys - most interesting!

Friday 1st

I awoke at dawn and walked the grounds in search for the Monkeys. A photographer stopped me and showed me his feeding station saying that he had had success earlier in the week. We viewed from the cars as the no see em's (tiny biting insects almost invisible until the land on you) were hungry. The dustcart arrived and emptied the bins, I thought putting an end to our viewing, so I thought. When one of the bin men, took out his mobile phone and took a few pics behind the bins. The truck left and it was not long before we had success two Green Vervet Monkeys coming to the Banana's, they were quite timid but allowed a few pics before heading up the tree to eat. There are several stories of their origins, they came from Tarzan filming, a pet store that burnt down, a failed attraction or from a research lab. Dawn and Dusk are the best times here, but in further correspondence from the photographer they are quite easy near the airport. We headed on and tried a site for parakeets but no luck before heading to Wakodahatchee, starlings, feral pigeons and Iguanas the only exotics of note here. At Loxahatchee we had several monk parakeets nut nothing else.

Saturday 2nd

Our final day with starling, house sparrow, feral pigeons and collard doves the only exotics seen on what has been a very interesting trip.

Birds - 27

Caribbean Flamingo	Canada Goose	Collared Dove
Common Peafowl	Muscovy Duck	Mallard
Blue Crowned Parakeet	Monk Parakeet	Black Hooded Parakeet
Red Crowned Parrot	Lilac Crowned Parrot	Orange winged Parrot
White Fronted Parrot	White Chevroned Parakeet	Budgerigar
House Sparrow	Starling	Common Myna
Hill Myna	Red Whiskered Bulbul	Egyptian Goose
Mandarin Duck	Feral Pigeon	Feral Geese
Red Masked Parakeet	Feral Duck	Red Junglefowl