Bird Signs

For the second year in a row, I departed a Key West marina, en route for the Marquesas, only to have my guide pull back on the throttle just a short run from our launch. In both cases – last January with Capt. Tom Rowland; this year with Capt. Rich Tudor – the spontaneous stoppage was well worth the slight delay. Why? Because of birds.

No doubt, the subtropical Key West habitat offers cozy digs for a variety of resident and transient birds from the herons wading shallow flats, to black skimmers and royal terns flocking around marinas, to the majestic white pelicans that winter around the nation's southernmost city.

However, one of the most welcome sites an angler...