Sunsets in Man of War Harbor

April 10, 2025

One of our favorite end-of-the-day activities is to watch the sunset in our anchorage in Man of War Harbor. We’ve been watching sunsets for years, and it never gets boring. Each one is unique and beautiful.

We often try to catch the elusive “green flash.” We see them occasionally out here in the harbor when the conditions are just right. The green flash is a brief, momentary flash seen at the very top of the sun as it sets or rises, caused by atmospheric refraction where light bends as it passes through different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. If you blink, you miss it!

Green Flash: February 14, 2025

Here are a few sunset photos that Tim took recently from our boat. There are a lot of sunset cruises for the tourists, and it’s nice when one of the clipper ships passes in front of the sun.

An unfortunate sailboat that ran aground on Frankfort Bank


Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets, and she wrote this about the sun…

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

 

A Day at the Beach

March 20, 2025

We spent Denise and Cheryl’s last day in Key West hanging out at the beach in Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. Denise and I went swimming in the ocean and climbed up on the nearby rocks.

Later in the day we picked up some sandwiches and took them back to the boat to watch the sunset. It was Cheryl’s first dingy ride and visit to our boat.

A thrilling ride to the boat!

Shortly before sunset, we were treated to a double sundog. Look for a bright spot of light that appears on both sides of the sun, caused by the refraction of sunlight through ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Sundogs

The end of a perfect day and a fun visit from friends!

 

 

Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

March 19, 2025

Denise, Cheryl and I went to the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory on the second day of their visit. The conservatory is a very large greenhouse, filled with over 50 species of butterflies, numerous exotic birds, 2 flamingos, and tropical trees and plants. It’s not unusual to have a butterfly hitch a ride on your back, so once we left the conservatory, we had to enter a room where we checked each other out to make sure we didn’t accidentally take a butterfly with us.

The captions of the photos give a bit of information about the birds and butterflies.

I’ll start off with the two American Flamingos, Rhett and Scarlett. It’s mating season, so Rhett is very noisy, trying to attract Scarlett’s attention. Here are a couple of videos. One is a short clip, and the other is about 2 minutes long.

(Click on the links to see the videos).

https://youtube.com/shorts/W2VXB1L8XuA

https://youtube.com/shorts/_x1qEqOVZeQ

 

American Flamingo

Gouldian Finch from Australia

Blue Morpho: Native to the rainforests of Mexico and Central and South America, but can also be found in Florida

Blue Morpho

Saffron Finch: A tanager from South America that is common in open and semi-open areas in lowlands outside the Amazon Basin

Malachite (Siproeta stelenes), from Florida

Knysna Turaco, from South Africa

Spangled Cotinga: Found in the canopy of the Amazon Rainforest in South America.

Fisher’s Lovebird, from South Africa. Endangered species.

Fisher’s Lovebird, from South Africa. Endangered species.

Red Postman. Native to Mexico, this species can also be found living in Central and South America.

Chocolate Malchite (Siproeta epaphus). from Malaysia

 

Southern birdwing (Troides minos). India

Kallima sylvia from Southeast Asia

Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas). From Malaysia

 

Denise and Cheryl: Day 2 Continued

March 19, 2025: Day 2 of Denise and Cheryl’s visit continued…

After our visit to the Botanical Gardens and some lunch, we paid the traditional visit to the Southernmost Point of the continental US. The buoy has been a big tourist spot since 1983. The last time Denise was in Key West, we went there for the obligatory photo-op, and someone had vandalized it the night before. It was right after Christmas, and the vandals set some Christmas trees on fire right next to the buoy. Denise’s photo at that time was in front of a charred buoy. The photo on this trip is nicer!

Southernmost Point Buoy

After visiting Southernmost Point, we went to the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. I’m going to create a separate post for that visit.

We met up with Tim at the Southernmost Point Beach Cafe for a really nice dinner. We had beautiful views of the beach, and our food was delicious!

Dinner at the Southernmost Beach Cafe

After dinner we took a short walk on the beach, and then headed to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park to watch the sun set. This was the first time I’ve been there for a sunset. I’m usually at the park during the day birdwatching, and we all enjoyed the spectacular views.

 

Denise and Cheryl: Day 2

March 19, 2025

On Day 2 of Denise and Cheryl’s visit to Key West, we went to the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens on Stock Island. I always enjoy visiting the gardens to look for birds and butterflies. According to their website, it is the  only frost-free, sub-tropical, natural conservation habitat, native plant botanical garden with three fresh-water ponds in the continental United States.

We took Dakota and Gizmo with us. Dogs are allowed, and it gave them a chance for some adventure.

Great Egret

Cheryl, sitting on a bench in front of a weird scarecrow.

Dakota

Walking the dogs

Gizmo

To be continued…

 

Denise and Cheryl: Day 1 Continued

March 18, 2025

After our visit to the Hemingway House, we walked over to Garbo’s for lunch. On the way, we stopped for a photo at Mile Marker 0. It’s located on the corner of Fleming and Whitehead streets. Highway 1 ends in Key West at Mile Marker 0, and it’s a popular photo-op for the tourists.

Mile Marker 0

After lunch we rested a bit at the airbnb where Denise and Cheryl stayed during their visit. It was a really nice place and located in the heart of downtown Key West.

The courtyard of the airbnb.

Gizmo and Dakota hate it when Denise is in another room without them!!

After dinner at Dante’s, we all went over to Mallory Square to watch the sunset.

 

 

Denise and Cheryl: Day 1

March 17 and 18, 2025

My friends Denise and Cheryl visited us in Key West this week. Denise’s dogs Dakota and Gizmo were here too! Denise and the pups have been to Key West before, but this was Cheryl’s first visit to the island, and I had a lot of fun showing them around.

The first day was unfortunately a bust. We woke up to winds that were 35 miles per hour, and the waves were over 3 feet. It was too dangerous to take the dinghy to shore, so I was stuck on board our boat. Denise and Cheryl were supposed to land at 11:30. Their plane touched down and immediately took off again. The high winds were too much for the plane, and the pilot aborted the landing. They circled Key West 3 times, and then diverted to Miami.

From Miami, Delta put the passengers on a bus and drove them to Key West. By the time they finally arrived, it was around 6:00 p.m. It’s stressful enough to deal with that, but having the pups made it even harder. Dakota and Gizmo coped just fine with their ordeal.

Denise was able to take them out of their carriers while on the bus, and they got a nice nap while driving to Key West.

Dakota and Gizmo

The next morning I was able to get to shore, and we started our day of sight-seeing. Our first stop was the Hemingway House, but they were interested in seeing the church where I sang for a couple of years, and it was on the way. So we made a slight detour to visit The Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.

The Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.

The Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea.

After visiting the church, we headed to the Hemingway House. My favorite part of the tour is seeing all of the 6-toed cats. There are signs all over the house that say sitting on the furniture is not allowed, but the cats completely disregard that warning! There are over 50 cats at the house.

Sitting on the furniture is NOT allowed!!

Butterflies in Key West

March 17, 2025

I have a couple of friends who live on Big Pine Key, and they invited me to meet up with them in Fort Zachary Taylor park to look for butterflies. Those two women have an amazing knowledge of butterflies, plants, flowers, and trees, and they eagerly shared their knowledge with me.
It’s butterfly migration season, and they identified over 20 species in the park. We spent 5 hours looking into a world that is really easy to overlook.
The butterflies in these photos look large, but they are tiny!
Phaon Crescent. Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, Key West FL. March 13, 2025
The Phaon Crescent (Phyciodes phaon) has a wingspan of 1 – 1 1/4 inches. Their range is Guatemala, north through Cuba and Mexico to southern California, east through South Texas and Florida to coastal South Carolina.

Phaon Crescent

 

American Lady. Fort Zachary Taylor Park, Key West FL. March 13, 2025
American Lady (Vanessa cardui) has a wingspan of 1 3/4 – 2 5/8 inches. Resident in the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America south to Colombia. Migrates to and temporarily colonizes the northern United States, southern Canada, the West Indies, and Europe.

American Lady

American Lady

Banded Birds from Massachusetts

Orange J7

March 14, 2025

I recently received an update on a Black Skimmer that I encountered this winter.  Orange J7 was banded in Massachusetts on 9/4/2018. J7, and Orange K2 (banded 7/10/2020), have spent the last two winters in Key West, FL. They both spend nesting season on Martha’s Vineyard.
In addition to reporting my resightings of these Black Skimmers to the North American Bird Banding Laboratory, I also send photos of the skimmers to the banding team in Massachusetts. I recently received an email from one of the banders, and she told me that thanks to my photos, they are reasonably certain that J7 is female. She was banded as a chick, and her gender was unknown at the time. Male and female Black Skimmers look identical, although females have smaller, shorter bills.
My last resighting of J7 this season was on 2/23/2025. I last resighted K2 on 2/9/2025, and gender is still unknown. Hopefully they are safely on their way to Martha’s Vineyard.
I think it’s cool that something I do for fun has the added benefit of helping scientists study these wonderful birds.

Orange J7

Orange K2

White Ibis

March 9, 2025

Since Key West is a small island, we can walk to just about anyplace we want to visit. As we walk the streets of Key West, we see lots of Red Junglefowl (AKA chickens) and White Ibis. It’s not unusual to see flocks of White Ibis roaming the streets, foraging for food. We are seeing lots of juveniles now. The adults are white with black-tipped wings, and distinctive curved bills. When baby White Ibises hatch their bills are straight. Their bills don’t start to curve downward until they are 14 days old. The young Ibises are brown above and white below.

Here are some of the White Ibis that I’ve seen in Fort Zachary Taylor park, and also foraging in Truman Waterfront Park.

White Ibis (juvenile)

White Ibis (juvenile)

White Ibis (juvenile)

White Ibis at Truman Waterfront Park

White Ibis at Truman Waterfront Park