FRESH AUTHENTIC ITALIAN CUISINE

Mark Hedden

... is a photographer, writer, and semi-professional birdwatcher. He has lived in Key West for more than 25 years and may no longer be employable in the real world. He is also executive director of the Florida Keys Audubon Society.

There are two ways to look at summertime birdwatching in the Florida Keys. First, there aren’t many birds around, so it’s kind of boring. Second, there aren’t many birds around, so it’s a great time to start birdwatching. A little over 800 species of birds have been recorded in North America. About 350 of those have been seen in the Florida Keys, which is loosely defined as everything from the 18-Mile Stretch down to Key West. (If you define the Florida Keys as Monroe County, then a large chunk of it is the Everglades, a whole different — alligator-filled — ballgame.)

Of those 350 species, about 70 can be seen pretty readily year-round if you spend a bit of time outdoors. Seventy species may seem like a lot, but not if you break them up into smaller, more easily identifiable groups – ducks, gulls, songbirds, chickens, etc.

(Birding in the summer is a great way to get your footing, but it’s best to do it in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the heat, unless you like the dizzy, de-energized feeling that comes from the relentless noonday sun.)

Herons and egrets —creatures of shallow waters and shorelines — are a great starting point for beginners. We have a lot of them. Also, they’re rather large, easy to find and not too difficult to tell apart. A field guide really helps, but this list should narrow down the possibilities.

Great blue heron

Approximately 4 feet tall, it’s the tallest bird you’ll see in the Keys. It’s got a solid, railroad spike of a bill, and plumage that is primarily a slaty blue, but with a whitish face and a black crown. Their range is all over North America, stretching down through Mexico and Central America. You see them most often standing statue-like on the shore, as if posing for a postage stamp photo, but they’ll occasionally be flying or hunting for fish in the flats.

Great white heron

The great white heron only occurs in the Florida Keys and extreme South Florida. They are officially considered a subspecies of the great blue heron, but that could change, depending on how the folks at the American Ornithological Society define a species. Many people call the great white heron the wordier, more technically correct, “great blue heron, white color morph.” (That’s how it’s listed on most checklists.) But they’re a hometown bird, and I’m rooting for them to be considered their own species again, so I always refer to them as great whites. They are essentially the same size and shape as the great blue, with the same