Birds and Other Nature Sightings

     This past weekend my wife and I traveled to the Tampa area of Florida.  We spent nearly a week there to visit some family and to just get away.  It was no surprise to us that it was going to be hot, but damn, it was very hot.  I did not get in much birding, so I only added a few new year birds during this trip.  A few weeks earlier, when Hurricane Debby passed, I likely could have seen sooty terns , brown noddies and other tropical specials that had been pushed in along the coast.  While we were there, two South American rarities returned to the Sunshine State: a large-billed tern and a gray gull .  I had to pass on both birds because Florida is as big as it is hot.  From our hotel, the tern was at least a three-hour drive to the south, and the gull was at least a six-hour drive to the north. All the other birds reported on eBird in my general area were already on my life and Florida lists.  This trip I was intent on finding a subspecies that has eluded me on every previous vis