Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West delivers on birding promise
Roger Simmons,
On our recent Keys trip, I decided to revisit Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West.
My wife and I had visited it years ago, but that was before I got into birding and discovered the park’s website page that said, “Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park is proud to be a part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. Come see the fall and spring bird migrations.”
Boy, did I see migrating birds.
I spent more than an hour walking around the park and coming across many birds, including lots of warblers plus some birds of prey.
But it was while walking back to our car that I hit a birding bonanza of new-to-me birds, which were feasting on ripe seagrapes from the parking lot trees. The Black-throated Green Warbler, Cape May Warbler, and Tennessee Warbler were all there fueling up.
Overall, the variety of birds at the park was very impressive. See for yourself:
Even though it’s the slow summer season for birding, I know that a visit to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive will usually supply something memorable. And that was the case when I visited on Saturday, July 22.
The variety of birds and other wildlife that you can see at Lake Apopka is pretty amazing, especially considering its sorry state just a few years ago.
I’ve seen plenty of adult ones before, but it wasn’t until August along Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island that I came across a juvenile Reddish Egret. And I got to see both generations together.