Palm fronds rustled in the breeze. Spanish moss hung luxuriantly from the live oaks. Small lizards scurried about. Boat-tailed grackles gave their screechy calls as they chased each other around, and the “fee-bee, fee-bay” whistles of Carolina chickadees floated out in the morning air. The scene is probably familiar to those who spend time in Florida, humans and birds alike.

While we were on family vacation in central Florida in April, we did lots of traditional vacation activities like swimming in the pool and playing tennis and shuffleboard. But even while doing these things we couldn’t help but notice the abundant bird life.

It was especially fun to see and hear some of “our” birds that either winter in Florida or are migrating north from the Caribbean or South America. The noisiest by far were the flocks of wintering American Goldfinches chattering and singing in the tops of the live oaks near backyard feeding stations

In Maine, the common redpolls, close cousins to the goldfinches, were doing the same as they prepared to fly north into Canada for the summer. Although not as noisy, flocks of cedar waxwings were also conspicuous. Like the American goldfinches, the cedar waxwings do not nest in Florida (they only come south for the winter).

It’s interesting that of some of the species wintering in Florida, you can find a few birds still down in the sunny south, even though they have begun arriving in Maine.

Yellow-rumped warblers and ruby-crowned kinglets, for example, have already begun arriving in Maine, though a few still can be found in Florida in April. One of our favorites is the well-named palm warbler; well-named, that is, for some of the vegetation in its wintering area in the southeastern U.S. and Greater Antilles, but less well-named for where it travels to raise its young.

The palm warbler is really a northern specialist in summer, when it might be better named the “peatland warbler” because its favorite nesting areas are cool peat bogs from northern New England and New York north into the Boreal Forest region of Canada.

In Florida, you’re apt to see them just about anywhere that’s somewhat open, flitting around close to the ground or higher up in a tree. They can be identified even with a passing look by their habit of constantly wagging their tail up and down, and by their flat, almost metallic “chup” call.

The form that nests from Maine north to Quebec and Labrador has all yellow undersides while the form that nests from Ontario west to Alberta and the Northwest Territories has yellow just on the throat and under the tail and an off-white breast and belly. Both forms have a reddish crown.

Palm warblers are being seen throughout Maine this week; so keep an eye and ear out, especially in open areas near freshwater.

Dr. Jeff Wells is the senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's national bird conservation director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. Jeff's grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, also formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a widely published natural history writer and a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Together, they have been writing and teaching people about birds for decades. The Maine natives are authors of the highly acclaimed book, “Maine's Favorite Birds.”