A couple of visits to local birding hot spots Fort Zach and the Key West Botanical Garden yielded several new species for 2026 as the spring migration hit its peak here this week.
This Magnolia Warbler was showing off the spider larvae it had found.
While this Hooded Warbler stopped its hunt for bugs just long enough to pose for this portrait.
This Swainson's Thrush was also searching for its next meal.
Toss in Northern Yellow Warbler, Veery, Chimney Swift, Scarlet Tanager and Bay-breasted Warbler and the 2026 count now stands at 236.
We are set to spend most of next week with Grandson Henry at Walt Disney World and may hit a couple of birding locations on our way to and from Orlando. The following week, we are headed to West Virginia where we should be able to push the 2026 total toward 300.
Henry and I have been putting together a penny collection. It's like collecting baseball cards only a lot cheaper. What we don't keep for our collection goes back to the bank. Henry presents his dollar bill at both the bank and at Publix and is rewarded with two rolls of pennies. We have done this routine enough now that he talks to everyone at the bank during each visit. Why not, he knows all of them by name and they all know him. One loan officer at the bank gave Henry her plastic crab pencil holder on our last visit. The crab is now a regular guest on our penny-hunting bike rides through the neighborhood. And the ladies at the customer service counter at Publix no longer need to ask what Henry wants as he approaches with this dollar. They just get two rolls of pennies ready for him.
Henry also had the opportunity to save a box turtle this week that showed up in our yard. We dropped it off in the lush vegetation of the Key West Botanical Garden... a much more suitable place for a turtle than our yard. Today, Henry helped Grandma take a days-old chick to the wildlife rescue center. It had somehow become separated from its mother hen and ended up in our yard. Each day is a wonderment for the little fellow.
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