Today was another exciting day in Southwest Florida! We spent most of our time at J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, driving the Wildlife Drive twice to look for the Mangrove Cuckoo. The staff at the entrance told us that a cuckoo was seen yesterday between Mile Marker 1 and 1.5, so we checked that section really carefully… but still no luck today. Maybe next time!
After that, we headed to Bunche Beach Preserve. Then, following Jodhan F’s suggestion, we went to the Corkscrew Rd to try for the Snail Kite. We were super lucky — about 15 minutes before sunset, one finally appeared! We even watched it catch a few snails. That was definitely the highlight of the day, haha.
After sunset, we started our drive to Palm Beach. Looking forward to another great day of birding tomorrow!
A short video created by my father to show the summary of the whole day: