Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

At 8:20 this morning I saw the grassquit. It flew from the nest to the ground, picked up some nesting material (pine needles) in its beak, and returned to the nest. It sang several times and began relentlessly chasing a male cardinal around its territory. After a few minutes the bird flew off, and I didn't see it again for the next hour or so. From the first parking lot in the Long Pine Key Picnic area in Everglades National Park walk the wide grassy trail to the lake and find a pine tree marked with a red ribbon. The nest is in a cluster of dead pine needles at the end of the first branch sticking out from the right side of the tree.