This was the habitat at Carysfort Circle on Key Largo, our first stop of the day, where we looked again in vain for the Mangrove Cuckoo.

Some interesting balloon-like seed pods along the road

Common Ground Dove

Cape May Warbler

Interesting seed pods

Those balloon-like seed pods and a morning glory flower

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Female Northern Cardinal

Snail attached to the leaf of a tree along the road

We next stopped at the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park and again failed to find a Mangrove Cuckoo.

Jane, Phoenix and Jan looked for birds and took photos at Dagny Johnson.

There were some interesting trees in the botanical park.

Another tree

We met the rest of our group, Lou, Mary, Annabel, Pat and Bill, on Long Pine Key and went to the nearby Blue Hole, a former limestone quarry.

From the observation platform, the Blue Hole looked liked great habitat but had few birds this day.

We drove over to No Name Key and found the area still damaged from Hurricane Irma.

Dead mangroves remain nearly two years after Hurricane Irma.

As we were driving around a nearby neighborhood, we came upon this dome house.

We found one tree with several birds flitting around it, including this Cape May Warbler.

Cape May Warbler

Cape May Warbler

There were also a couple of Black-whiskered Vireos in the tree, but they were too high and moving too fast to more than a single blurry photo.

One of the few birds we saw here was a female Brown-headed Cowbird.

We also saw a few Key Dear in the area. There were signs asking people not to feed them, but they looked very thin.

We left No Name Key and drove to Sugarloaf Key for lunch at Mangrove Mama's, where we had a great meal finished with tasty Key Lime pie.

Jane, Mary T, Lou and Dave at Mangrove Mama's

Jan, Phoenix and Mary L

Annabel, Dave, Bill, Steve (in the mirror), Wes and Pat at Mangrove Mama's

After lunch, we drove to the end of Old State Road 4A on Saddlebunch Keys. There were mangroves and interesting plant life, like this yellow wildflower.

White wildflower

Could this be a female Seaside Dragonlet?

Dragonfly

Green Heron

Green Heron

Is this Green Heron looking at something below or above?

Magnificent Frigatebird

Yellow wildflower

Yellow wildflowers

Male Cuban? Anole showing its dewlap

Flowers on mangrove?

There were several Spiny Orb Weavers hosting their webs at the edge of the clearing.

As we were leaving Saddlebunch Keys, we spotted this Gray Kingbird perched next to the road.

Back toward the Overseas Highway, on Sugarloaf Key, we stopped when Wes found this White-crowned Pigeon sitting on a power line.

Other White-crowned Pigeons landed on a nearby palm tree.

And another Gray Kingbird made an appearance.

Orange palm berries

Our next destination was Fort Zachary Taylor State Park on Key West. This is a path along the moat beside the fort wall.

Fort Zachary Taylor

Sea Grapes along a path at Ft Zachary Taylor State Park, Key West, FL

Sea Grapes

Sea grapelets?

Sea Grape

Sandy path at Ft Zachary Taylor State Park

Small palm tree

Palm Warbler

Palm Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Palm Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Palm Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Male Blackpoll Warbler

Male Blackpoll Warbler

Male Blackpoll Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Parula

Curly-tailed Lizard

Anole

After Ft Taylor, we went to El Siboney Restaurant for great Cuban food.

Phoenix and Pat outside the restaurant

After dinner, we drove to the campus of Florida Keys Community College. We were looking for birds, but saw a beautiful sunset as well.

Mary T, Jane, Bill, Wes, Phoenix and Pat have a conversation while Annabel and Mary L have another and we all wait for sundown and the possibility of nighthawks.

Lou and Dave waiting for nighthawks

Mary T, Jane, Bill, Wes, Phoenix, Pat, Annabel, Jan and Mary L in the parking lot of Florida Keys Community College, Key West, FL

We had a few Least Terns fly over.

A young Northern Mockingbird seemed to be curious about who was invading its space.

Northern Mockingbird

Boat-tailed Grackle

White-crowned Pigeon

Mockingbirds

Gray Kingbird
Alas, the Antillean Nighthawks refused to make an appearance, so we left the college and drove to rendezvous at our boat for the next part of our adventure.