Nature Ali's Grand Adventure - Day 18, July 7th.

Key West is an interesting place. I had seen the White-crowned Pigeon the day before but was really wanting to get a decent photo, so I looked in my Florida Birding Guide (thanks Bill Pranty) and found a few locations listed. I went to the Pigeon Preserve near the airport and success! Not the absolute best photos but good enough to share.
The time of year as I have been told many times is wrong but I have seen a lot of birds in breeding plumage and many more fledglings this trip so it is worth it except for the never abating mosquitoes. I continued to the botanical garden which is really nice, not the best birding spot for the time of day or year though. The people there were really interested in talking but as this was one of the solo parts of my journey I was selfishly just wanting to get hiking and birding.
I left Key West for the return trip along the long chain of islands stopping only for the occasional bird. I did take the toll road back and found that quite charming and relatively good for birding. I continued north to the Everglades and had set a goal to watch the sunset at Flamingo. The visitors center was closed but it provided the first Common Nighthawks since California. I blasted down to Flamingo but didn’t beat the sunset… the mosquitoes were the worst of the trip and I beat a hasty retreat back to my car. I headed back toward the entrance with the intent of finding a place to pull over and sleep.