Audubon Worked the Florida Keys From a Revenue Cutter in 1832

In the spring of 1832 John James Audubon sailed aboard the U.S. revenue cutter Marion and spent weeks working the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas for birds.

He had tried the St. Johns River first, going upriver from St. Augustine that winter on the schooner Spark, and by his own account it was a poor trip for birds. The Keys were different.

What He Painted

Birds of America, his life-size plates of every American bird he could find, has some of its most striking pictures from this coast: the roseate spoonbill, the great white heron, the brown pelican, the white-crowned pigeon and the double-crested cormorant.

What to See

The Audubon House in Key West is named for him, though he never lived there. It was built by John Geiger, a harbor pilot and wrecker. The museum’s tradition is that Audubon sketched on the grounds and drew the white-crowned pigeon on a branch of a Geiger tree from the yard.