ORLANDO, FLORIDA — I had a chance to walk around a bit this morning (I’m in Orlando for about 25 hours). The first thing I saw was not a bird but an armadillo! I don’t see live armadillos very often, so this was fun.

Three Sandhill Cranes were the morning’s best birds, as far as I’m concerned. My most unexpected sighting was a single Western Kingbird. Some Western Kingbirds winter in south Florida, so I don’t think the sighting is rare, but I haven’t found any good information yet. Anyone have any thoughts?

Songbirds like House Wrens, Common Yellowthroats, and Palm Warblers were fairly active but secretive, and I had one yellowish warbler that was probably a Prairie (why did I leave Sibley at home?). I’ll look it up later.

I had a couple of distant Fish Crows and a Red-shouldered Hawk. The Boat-tailed Grackles here sound different from those on the Texas Gulf Coast. Their songs are more varied and slightly more musical. Like the Texas birds, though, they are dark-eyed.

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