Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

A sad day indeed. Went out after lunch to look at the Mountain Bluebird and saw it right as I got there. It was perching on the fence and other structures and would fly down to the grass to hunt and return to the fence with its catch. I saw it catch a grasshopper then a large caterpillar. Shortly after I arrived, a car full of tourists pulled into the parking lot and instead of parking in one of the spaces, proceeded to park on the grass right where the bluebird was feeding. The little bird must have been distracted with another catch, since the car's tire went right over the poor little guy. Attached is photo of the corpse.

I couldn't contain myself and went over and chewed out the driver, but he didn't speak any English. I showed them the bird and they replied something. I'm not sure if the said they were sorry for running over the bird, or that I looked liked Gary Cooper. A sad day indeed.