We have been busy. Arrived in Ft. Myers on March 22 to enjoy the company of Mom and Dad Woods and Frank and Brian Woods. Brian left that day but not before we enjoyed some conversation with another of the great Woods grandchildren. We stored our motorhome at Siesta Bay Resort and stayed at the Davidson/Woods condominium at Hertiage Cove. We relaxed and enjoyed more than a week there. We found a few year birds and even one life bird, a brown booby of all things, while there. Bunche Beach was great as always with lots of sandpipers and plovers. Possibly some of the same piping plovers that are with the Woods on Cape Cod in summer are with them in Florida in the winter. Six Mile Cypress and Shark River Valley were quiet – between the departure of some winter birds and the arrival of spring migrants – but still delightful. We toured the first with Frank and the last with our son Alex who came to visit on our last weekend in Southwest Florida. We also enjoyed a bit of domestic tranquility, baking bread and making granola at the condominium. We enjoyed returning from a morning out to relax in the pool with Mom and Dad in the afternoon. On April 1st we departed for the Long Pine Key Campground within Everglades National Park. Here we “dry camped” to enjoy the park “off season.” We found the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, but the least bittern continued to elude us. We adjusted to the April warmth and watched a five-foot diamond-back rattlesnake glide across the campsite. The evenings were quiet except for the occasional call of the chuck will’s widow and the great horned owl. Only a few campers could tolerate the heat and insects. This is a place where DEET and PABA make you safe. You become used to the oily feeling. While we spent most of our time in the park, yesterday we drove to Miami to look for exotic birds that now frequent its neighborhoods. We found several including a few kinds of parakeets, mynas, and doves. We parked at a public housing development and walked a sea wall to look up at a turnpike bridge in search of Caribbean cave swallows. We found them and an iguana too. A black gentleman looked down from the bridge and asked what we were doing. We told him and he too watched the little birds dive under the bridge to their nests. Finally we stopped at the Florida City burger king to seek out the common mynas that love French fries. We found them at the dumpster. The only target bird we failed to find was the red-whiskered bulbul. This was our second effort at this bird, but it was not at the tennis club, the elementary school “native plant garden,” nor on any of the lovely residential streets of Kendall. We may not go back again. Birding the City is not as much fun as birding the country. This morning we walked on the famous Anhinga Trail at dawn. The slough was full of swimming alligators. Then we made our next move to Key Largo. The drive was short and without adventure. The site here is small, but shaded by mahogany and gumbo limbo trees. The clear water of Blackwater Sound adjoins the RV park. We have an electrical connection and even wireless Internet. How sweet. As Chuck started the gas stove up outside he noticed a five-foot iguana in the tree above him. This is definitely not Kansas. Tomorrow we will look for black-whiskered vireos and mangrove cuckoos. It may still be a few days early, neither has been heard from yet. They may be having a last tango in Cuba before returning to Florida to settle down to nesting. After that we have snorkeling and paddling in mind. Lots to do in the sub-tropics.