Dry Tortugas

We spent Tuesday travelling to the Dry Tortugas via some pretty rough seas. Even though the waves were only 4-5- feet, it felt like much higher. The periodicity of the waves seems to cause each wave to arrive a bit faster than anticipated, so the waves felt much larger. The trip was well worth the effort (thousgh there were those aboard who might refute that) with several new life-birds being the spoils of the victory. The winds were heading out of the north, and as luck would hve it, those are the conditions birders hope for when spending the time and money to visit these outermost isles. Among our "lifers" for the day were the Brown noddy and the Masked booby. That makes the second booby for our Florida trip and we are thrilled to have gotten these two ellusive birds. We also were treated to some excellent photo-ops of the American avocet, the noddy, and a merlin which was taking advantage of the fact that a number of worn-out warblers were huddled at the water feeder in the campground. For the merlins and the peregrines, this was HOJO's on a Saturday morn. Just sit back and watch the buffet line grow richer and richer in "delicasies". All in all, one of the more productive days in Florida....and that's saying something.