We celebrated Henry's 2nd birthday on Sunday.  After taking Mater for a spin across the top of the cake, skipping the fork and eating handfuls of icing validated Henry's favorable opinion of grandma's cake.

   

You know you've had cake when you need to take a bath to get it all off.

For sure, Henry liked the cake but, the new cars were clearly his top priority.  To Chip the cat's dismay, Henry turned the dining room table into a traffic jam.

  

Little brother Owen was generally pleased with the goings-on.

But, it was all very exhausting for Chip.   He was watching weeks of productive man cub coaching unravel quickly.  Finally, he decided there was nothing left to do but have a tall, cold drink.

Per usual, the man cubs were happy to share some peaceful repose from Chip's constant coaching.

We did manage a couple of days of birding around Miami and Fort Myers, picking up these Scaly-breasted Munias.

It's also very helpful when the bird you are looking for lands on the roof of your hotel.  In this case, a Mitred Parakeet.  The YTD count has edged up to 425.  I'm counting on trips to Texas and California this fall to push us to 500.

At Sanibel we managed a quick 3-hour shelling frenzy after locating and digging through one nice vein of shells on the beach. While digging, a storm blew in so we were shelling in a light rain with thunder several miles away.  Happily, the wind blew away the biting no-see-ums so, we had that going for us.  Most folks were walking around an empty beach picking up nothing or digging for slim pickings in the water.  But, if you know what you're looking for, the shells are literally just beneath the beach surface. It's almost as much fun watching folks scavenge through our digging rejects as it is to find the shells.  And, it's fun to make a kid's day by giving them some of the shells we find.  

Meanwhile, the incompetence of our contractor knows no bounds.  However, we're loading the first truck from Charlotte to Key West on August 1st.  Ready or not... here it comes!

With Henry's approval, we made the 50 mile trek to No Name Key in search of yet another life bird... the La Sagra's Flycatcher.  This species is typically found in Cuba or the Bahamas but a few make their way to South Florida each year.  Driving that distance and locating the one individual is no small feat.  I heard this one call as we were driving down a street on our way back to Key West.  I got a few quick shots from the car window and it was gone.

And, in spite of the mosquitos and a 23-month old tugging at my belt, I managed to get some better photos of the Black-whiskered Vireo, including this in-flight shot.

Without Henry's approval I spent a day in Miami this week looking for some of the exotic  species that have established themselves as residents.  Among my sightings were Red-masked Parakeets and Blue-and-Yellow Macaws.

My favorite find of the day was the Red-whiskered Bulbul.  This species is native to tropical Asia.  But several escaped captivity in the 1960s and found the Miami climate to be quite suitable.

Other recent South Florida finds include the  elusive Least Bittern  and the fairly common Gray Kingbird.  I picked up  the bittern a couple of weeks ago during our  most recent trip  to Key West.  We stopped near Fort Lauderdale which gave me time the next morning to make a quick visit to Green Cay in search of  the bittern.  These birds are  tough to  spot as they tend to sulk stealthily  through reeds  and grasses.  I  came upon  a woman who  was  birding and asked if she had seen any bitterns.  She said she had briefly seen one on the other side of the marsh. 

After she moved on, I took three steps and this Least Bittern flew over my head and landed 40 feet away.  Like the La Sagra's... I'll take dumb luck all day long.

This pair of Gray Kingbirds spent the spring nesting in a pile of plant debris at Fort Zachary Taylor.

With the house in Key West still not ready to move into, we may get more birding done in July than previously anticipated.  That's good and bad.  Probably more bad than good.  

The YTD count now stands at 421 while the life list has grown to 526.