Prothonotary Warbler. Photo: Lorraine Minns
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Happy news! Our birding field trips finally resume mid-month. Check them out below or visit our website calendar. Please note that REGISTRATION is now required for ALL field trips. Meanwhile, visit our Facebook Bird Board to discover what other birders are posting.
Everglades Agricultural Area Birding
Saturday, August 14, 7am-4pm
Brian Rapoza and Bill Boeringer lead an all-day driving tour in the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County. We'll tour A1-FEB (Flow Equalization Basin), then visit sod farms and flooded agricultural fields in the Belle Glade area. No fee. Meet at 7am at A1-FEB, on the west side of US-27 at Mile Marker 60. Walkie-talkies will be available for loan (one per vehicle). There will be a lunch stop at a restaurant. Registration Required.
Lucky Hammock Park Bird Walk
Saturday, August 21, 7:30-11am
Raul Urgelles (bilingual) leads this walk to "Lucky Hammock" along Aerojet Road in Homestead. Meet at 7:30am in the parking area at the Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area entrance gate on Aerojet Road (SW 232 Avenue) at SR-9336, 0.5 miles east of the Homestead entrance to Everglades National Park. Registration Required.
Greynolds Park Bird Walk
Saturday, August 28, 7:30-11am
Brian Rapoza will lead birders through Greynolds Park, 17530 West Dixie Highway in North Miami Beach. Meet at 7:30am in the parking area just past the tollbooth at the NW 22nd Avenue entrance (fee). Return is at approximately 11am. Registration required.
Click HERE to register for this field trip!
Gathering Guidelines:
- We follow the CDC guidelines in place at the time of the field trip.
- We strongly encourage all participants to be fully vaccinated.
- We request that children under 12 wear masks when within 6’ of individuals not in their household.
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Help Birds Thrive!
Cape Florida Banding Station “Adopt-A-Net”
Fall Migration Fundraiser
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Northern Parula banded at the Cape Florida Banding Station. Photo: Federico Acevedo
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Support migrating birds, field research and community outreach TODAY by contributing to the Cape Florida Banding Station (CFBS) “Adopt-A-Net” Fall Migration fundraiser. CFBS volunteer community scientists have been banding neotropical migrants during their Fall Migration since 2002 at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Funding is crucial for the Fall Migration banding season, which runs August 15-November 10.
Why Adopt-A-Net? Florida's punishing sun weakens and damages the delicate, nylon mist nets needed to gently and briefly capture migrating birds for examination, documentation, banding and release.
How does Adopt-A-Net work? Anyone interested in helping birds thrive can “adopt” one of the Station's 36-foot-long mist nets for $150, or commit to a half-net stake for $75. Adopt-A-Net sponsors will receive a season-end report and photos highlighting which bird species were discovered in the donor’s “adopted” net, as well as a list of all the bird species banded at the station during the Fall season. Custom signs displaying each sponsor name will distinguish “adopted” nets for the duration of the season.
Go Big! Full net donors who wish to step up to the $1,000 level will be invited for a private tour of the CFBS with Station co-founder and Director Michelle Davis, and also receive an original work of art — one of her distinctive 9x12” framed field sketch watercolors featuring a Cape Florida bird species.
Click here for more information about Cape Florida Banding Station.
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Check out our New Perch!
New Website — New Features
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Drumroll, please … our newly designed tropicalaudubon.org website has taken flight! It’s faster, easier to navigate, elegant and far more user friendly.
We hope you’ll visit with us often!
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Our Partners in Conservation |
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We can't do our most crucial conservation work without the help of formidable attorneys Richard Grosso and Paul Schwiep, who have generously donated their time and talent to Tropical Audubon’s ongoing conservation efforts. The duo helped mount a legal challenge to the proposed SR-836 extension. If built, the new tollway would breach the county’s Urban Development Boundary and intrude into Everglades Wetlands, putting our Drinking Water, Everglades Restoration and Crucial Habitat at risk. |
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Grosso, an attorney and former Professor of Law at the Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University is a widely recognized legal expert, practicing lawyer and policy advocate with 32 years of experience litigating and advocating on South Florida and statewide environmental issues.
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Schwiep, a partner at Coffey Burlington, P.L., focuses his practice on Federal and State business, and class action disputes. He also represents South Florida-based environmental organizations on environmental matters of national significance.
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We are ever grateful to these two great legal minds for their contributions to our conservation efforts, helping us preserve and protect South Florida’s natural treasures.
Photo of Paul Schwiep by Larry Gatz Photography.
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Join our Staff — we're Hiring! |
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Great Egret. Photo: Denise Dewire
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Tropical Audubon Society is looking to grow our team. If you have a passion for conservation and would like to help support our mission to “Conserve and restore South Florida's ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats,” then Tropical Audubon is the place for you.
We presently have two open positions: Senior Conservation Director and Stewardship Manager. Click the links below to view job descriptions for details. If you believe you are a good fit for either role, please send your résumé and cover letter to careers@tropicalaudubon.org. The subject line should include the job title.
Stewardship Manager position queries should be submitted by August 15, 2021.
The Senior Conservation Director position will remain open until a suitable candidate is engaged.
We will acknowledge your application upon receipt, and those candidates whose applications move forward will hear back from us again.
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Dine-in or Take-out @Whisk Gourmet
Tuesday, August 10, 5-9pm
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Make a dinner date at Whisk Gourmet and, in turn, Whisk will feather the proverbial TAS nest with 10 percent of its dinner revenues. The local bastion of Southern-accented American Comfort Food offers Take-out, Curbside-pick-up or two Dining options: indoor seating at 50% capacity or outdoor socially distanced covered seating.
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No matter how you choose to dine, you'll want to experience a few recent additions to the Whisk menu authored by sensational new Executive Chef Michelle Minotti (pictured). She brings generous helpings of New Orleans and Caribbean influences to a beloved menu still studded with time-tested house favorites, too. Born in Venezuela to Italian and American parents, Chef Michelle's colorful heritage and kitchen repertoire are simpatico with Whisk's always bright, boldly flavored seasonal cuisine.
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Before taking over the helm here, the self-taught chef made magic at now-closed Zest. Joining the Whisk family also marks a return to the South Miami dining scene, where she played a starring role from 2005-2015 as chef/owner of GEMS Café. For a delicious introduction to her eclectic fare, try her Caribbean rendition of the Whole-fried Yellowtail Snapper or her Bourbon & Brown Sugar-glazed Faroe Island Salmon.
Despite hurricanes, restaurant ownership changes and even a global pandemic, our near-neighbor has been a generous conservation ally, hosting the Dine Out series every summer since 2011, and helping TAS protect the places South Floridians cherish — Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and The Everglades.
Masks are required to enter the Whisk Gourmet dining room, but are not required for outdoor seating. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED for all on-site dining.
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Bird-friendly Gardening Day
Summer Hours!
Saturday, August 21, 8:30-11:30am
RSVP Required
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Zebra longwing butterfly on Firebush. Photo: Kristen Fonsenca
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Do you enjoy digging in the garden, learning about native plants that attract birds and other pollinators, or weeding invasives? Please join us on the third Saturday morning of every month to take an active role in maintaining our Bird-Friendly Demonstration Garden at our Steinberg Nature Center campus! You'll get hands-on experience creating wildlife habitat under the guidance of our resident Master Gardeners. The knowledge and skills you gain will enable you to establish a bird-friendly garden in your own yard, patio or balcony.
Interested volunteers MUST RSVP to Amy at volunteer@tropicalaudubon. org because group size is limited! Please note that volunteers will be required to adhere to our gathering guidelines.
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Visit the Florida Keys Hawkwatch
August 1-November 30
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The Florida Keys Hawkwatch (FHK) initiated its 21st raptor migration monitoring season one month early on August 1, in order to more comprehensively count Swallow-tailed Kites because they migrate south earlier than most other raptors. This new initiative is dubbed #KiteFlight2021. Additionally, the FKH season has been extended to November 30. All in, the counting window will double from two months to four.
Why the Florida Keys? The FKH takes place at Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon because it’s a geographically ideal place to count these birds of passage and monitor the health of their populations. Every year, thousands of raptors migrate through the archipelago. It is an amazing spectacle of nature. Some of these extraordinary birds of prey stay for the winter, some turn around and head north, but most continue on to Cuba, the Caribbean and points further south.
Visitors are welcome on site from 9am to 4pm daily through November 7, and then from 8am to 3pm through November 30. Staff will happily point out the different bird species as they appear, affording a great opportunity for birders of all levels to connect and learn more about these amazing creatures.
TAS supports this crucial annual count, along with Florida Keys Audubon, Florida Ornithological Society, Hawk Migration Association of North America, Kowa Sporting Optics, PhoneSkope and many individual contributors.
Location: FKH is headquartered at Curry Hammock State Park, just a few hours’ drive south from Miami at MM56.2 on the Overseas Highway in Marathon, Florida.
Click HERE for FKH’s Fall 2021 Media Advisory.
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Bird the Ruins of Mexico's Yucatán
January 20-30, 2022
ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT!
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The Mexican Sheartail is one of the many colorful species you may spot on this trip. Photo: Alexander Dzib
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Pack your binoculars and embark on an intense, 11-day, 10-night birding adventure to the environmentally diverse Yucatán Peninsula. Led by TAS Field Trip Coordinator Brian Rapoza, and a local guide, you’ll witness native birds soar above the breathtaking Hochob, Becán, Chacchoben and Uxmal ruins, as well as other archaeological sites of interest on this extraordinary journey through the Mayan world. Note: The new date is January 20-30, 2022. To view a detailed itinerary and sign up, click here. Email Brian Rapoza, TAS Field Trip Coordinator for additional information.
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The Birds Thank ... The volunteers and board members who worked tirelessly to help redesign our website, tropicalaudubon.org, including volunteer web designer and TAS Field Trip leader Luis Gonzalez, volunteer web consultant Wendy Webb, TAS Communications intern Federico Acevedo, former TAS intern Gabriel Curbelo, former TAS Communications Director Leticia de Mello Bueno and Board members Brian Rapoza and Elizabeth Smith. Thanks in large part to their contributions, our elegant, new website now offers more conservation content, a new Bird Board forum and many more user-friendly features!
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