Day 97: April 6th – Hontoon Island

Partly sunny, high 70s, West winds

       With some chores to do at home, we decided to go out birding for a half day so that we could get all our obligations taken care of later in the day.  Having heard of a nice eco-tour running out of Hontoon Island Marina, the Blue Heron Tours, we drove over and found that there were 7 members of the Halifax Audubon who had reserved the boat.  Having been on many a field trip with these folks in the past, we were welcomed aboard and headed out on a two-hour cruise on the St. John’s River, an old logging canal, and the Dead River.

The Dead River

       It was a wonderful morning of birding and of once again seeing spring in all its glory.  Birds of all sorts were in the process of finding mates, building nests, and tending to their young. We found these two ospreys sitting on a nest they had built upon a “No Wake Zone” sign.  Rarely, we could see a little head of a chick pop up.  It surely must have been a young bird, and I was surprised to see that both parents were on the nest rather than one of them out hunting as I’ve seen more often in the past.

       Captain Gary found a beautiful pair of Purple gallinules skulking in the deep vegetation.  It didn’t take long to realize that they were building a nest.  The drake would bring in vegetation to his mate, hand it off and let her arrange it in the proper location to suit her needs.

       We found a number of young birds like this juvenile Little blue heron.  We all commented on the fact that we had not seen so many Little blues together in a long time, and it was surprising as well to see how early in the year these were molting from their white mantle to the blue feathers of adulthood.

       We were reminded that all is not so idyllic as it seemed in the wild.  After seeing all these signs of “love and peace” in the avian world, we saw a bit of a skirmish as a Common gallinule and a Purple crossed paths.  Apparently, the Common had wandered into the Purple’s nesting territory, and the latter bird took exception.  Then, we saw a near disaster for another Little blue heron.  As we watched and photographed the bird, a gator rose up and tried to snatch it!  The blue’s reactions were just fast enough to get up and out of the way and the story had a happy ending (at least for the heron).

Little blue's evasive action

        All in all, it was a great way to spend a morning and we’d heartily recommend Blue Heron Tours and Captain Gary to all who would like to see some elusive birds like the American bittern,

  

the Limpkin

and the Purple gallinule.