2013: Week 17-Last week in the Sunshine State

April 21^st  – 27^th

       Well, it’s the final week of April 2013 and we wonder “Where have these first four months of the year gone?”  It seems as if we just arrived and headed down to the Space Coast Birding Festival….but that was 3 months ago!  It’s been a great year with such rare highlights as the Vermillion flycatcher, White-cheeked pintail, Thick-billed vireo, Cassin’s kingbird, Spot-breasted oriole, Gray kingbird, Western kingbird, Long-billed curlew, and the Ash-throated flycatcher. We added six new life-birds while here in Florida and visited several new preserves we had never birded before.  So….in summary, it’s been a wonderful productive 3 ½ months.  But we still had one week left, and so we took a last run down to Merritt Island to see if we could pad the numbers.

       At Merritt, we ended up with just under 40 species on a chilly, windy and drizzly day.  The numbers are down as many of those species so common in the earlier part of the year have done what we are about to do….head north.  We did not come across a single species of duck!  Waterfowl are so abundant down here in January that you cannot look upon the waters of a single impoundment without spending an hour combing through the throngs to pick out each and every new species.  Coots numbering in the thousands during January and February were non-existent today.

       There are numbers of certain species which are increasing as we enter into spring, however.  Spoonbills seem to be more numerous than previous months.

     

       The number of tri-colored herons was very high today.  It seemed that every open body of water was home to several of the species.  Many are sporting their newly acquired white plumes, typical of the breeding season. 

       The Eastern kingbird, absent for the past three months, is happily once again on territory, a summer resident across most of the United States.  As the spring and summer wear on, these birds will become more and more common.

       One other quite common species was also found in some abundance at Merritt this week.  Unfortunately, it was the feral hogs that were out digging through the soil cover in search of grubs and roots.  These mammals have become a major pest in the southeast, doing considerable damage to forest, meadow and roadside habitat.  When they move through an area, they leave behind plots of land that literally look as though a backhoe had been used to excavate the land.  They are being hunted in an attempt to “cull the herd”, but they are prolific breeders and we now see them almost every time we visit Merritt Island.

       Later in the week, we drove north to Washington Oaks Gardens State Park in Palm Coast.  With some strong north winds accompanying stormy weather for the past couple of days, we had hoped to find migrating songbirds taking cover here in the heavily wooded gardens.  Sadly, we did not find too much we did not already have.  We did locate Prairie, Black and White warblers, and our old buddy the Northern parula.  The parulas are prevalent in the early spring in Florida, truly one of the harbingers of the season.  I had one of my closest encounters with one at the gardens as the bird flew in within a couple of feet of me and landed in a shrub…checking me out as much as I was him. Normally, these little guys are difficult to see clearly as they prefer to forage in the canopy of the live oaks, often feeding and hiding in the Spanish moss which adorns the limbs of these massive trees.  At such close proximity, it was amazing to see exactly how tiny these warblers are.  Many of these little beauties will join Sharon and me as we head north next week, and we look forward to seeing or at least hearing them in the hardwood forests of the northeast.

       Later in mid-week, we had yet another chase as a Neotropic cormorant had been reported along Biolab Road back down in Merritt Island.  The directions were pretty explicit, so we hopped in the RAV and headed south.  We scouted out the first possible cite and came up with many Double-crested cormorants in various plumages.  Several of the breeding males had the tell-tale crests which in spite of their name are not seen very commonly.  Plenty of other species were around, but try as we may, we could not “morph” any of the DC’s into the desired Neotropic.  But we persisted, and as luck would have it, we eventually spotted a noticeably thinner and smaller cormorant perched on a piling right where the rare bird alert posting had noted.  Out came the scope and sure enough, we got the visual confirmation we wanted…..our first Neotropic cormorant in several years and the first we ever had in Florida.  This sighting was doubly sweet as we had chased the bird earlier this year  down to Wakodahatchee Wetlands in DelRay Beach and came up short. 

Dark morph Short-tailed hawk

        Finally, on Friday night we decided to go for one more rarity.  A member of the Halifax Audubon, Steve, had reported sightings of multiple Swallowtail kites and the very elusive Short-tailed hawk at Central Park in Ormond Beach (naturally when I plugged the park into the POI’s of the GPS, it wanted to send me back to NYC!)  We found the park and we found Steve ready and willing to give us the guidance we needed to find the birds.  Early on, we had a quick sighting of what we believed to be the Short-tail.  Unfortunately, the view was brief and the one shot I could get was back-lit, but it sure looked like the quarry we were after! Later examination of the photo(s) by a local expert in the field (chief ornithologist for the Marine Science Center at Ponce Inlet) confirmed this sighting!

       The grand finale came when the Swallow-tailed kites Steve had promised finally arrived. And what a show they put on!  First one, then another, then several more all sailing gracefully as only kites can do right over our heads and out over the lake.  As the sun was setting, we had 14 kites visible at the same time, kettling, then peeling off only to rejoin shortly thereafter.  It was truly and avian air show being staged as if totally for our exclusive enjoyment.  What a way to wind down our three and a half months here in Florida!

2013: Week 16 – “Two out of three ain’t bad….”

April 14^th – 20^th

       As we count down the days until our return to the Empire State, we still have some unfinished business down here in Florida in regards to unrecorded sightings.  Three glaring omissions on the year-list for us include the Bachman’s sparrow, the Red-cockaded woodpecker, and the Brown-headed nuthatch.  By this time last year, I had all three in the bag and had actually seen the nuthatch on several occasions.  With only a little over a week, it’s time to scramble to see if we can finally get these birds.

       One area nearby could possibly yield all three of these targets, so Joe T and I hop in his Prius early on Friday morning and head out to Christmas, Florida.  What a great name for an area known to give out some wonderful birds as presents to those who bird Orlando Wetlands, Hal Scott Preserve, and Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area.  We’re going to begin at Hal Scott, a sight known for all three of our quarry.

       Hal Scott has a pretty decent sized prairie of mostly palmetto and grasses.  The Bachman’s sparrow prefers mature pine forests with grassy understory.  The bird spends most of its time down in the grasses, popping up onto a low hanging pine branch occasionally to sing.  Unfortunately, much of this habitat across the southeast has been developed, and this sparrow has adopted to nesting in brushy open fields.  This is the habitat we are searching today.  The song of the Bachman’s is pretty much unmistakable, and at this time of year, the song is easily heard as the males begin staking out their nesting territory.  Our job was to hike through the vast fields and stop and listen every so often for the whistles.  Then, we carefully follow the song to its source and watch for the bird to pop up on a low branch.  That’s our photo-op. 

       

       Well, the birds were present as promised and we did find some handsome individuals singing throughout the prairie.  Finally, our first Bachman’s sparrow of the year.  Sadly, with habitat loss, the bird is becoming more rare and is believed to be declining in numbers.  Hopefully, the acquisition of more and more of the remaining prairies by local, state, and federal governments to protect these lands will help preserve the remaining stock.

       One down and two to go.  Next up, the Red-cockaded woodpecker.  This bird is known to nest in the Hal Scott Preserve.  To “guarantee” sightings, however, you have to be here at either sunup or sundown to see them leaving and returning to their nesting trees.  Like the Bachman’s sparrow, these birds prefer large tracts of mature pine forest to thrive.  Unlike the sparrow, however, they do not easily adapt to changing environmental conditions and have therefore seriously declined in number over the past years as their habitat has been removed and natural fire has been suppressed.  They are now considered an endangered species with less than 10,000 individuals remaining across the southeast.  The photo provided here is one I took several years ago since we did not have any luck finding any today.  Hopefully, next winter we will once again be privileged to catch a glimpse of this beautiful species.

 

Red-cockaded woodpecker (2010 archive)

       With no luck finding the woodpecker nor the nuthatch at Hal Scott, we moved onto the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area several miles to the east.  The Brown-headed nuthatches have used this area as a breeding ground in the past, and we can only hope to find some of these little foragers.  Like our two previous targets, these birds love the pine forests, although they do not need the more extensive forests that the Red-cockaded woodpeckers require.   This little nuthatch is the least numerous of all our North American nuthatches, but still seems to be holding its own in the remaining pine forests of the southeast. 

 

Brown-headed nuthatch

      Once again, we had to walk through a considerable amount of acreage of sparsely vegetated pines stands before we finally heard the chatter of the nuthatches.  They are generally found in small groups or at least in pairs, so when you find one, you’ll find more.  As a group, their vocalizations make for quite a chorus, so when finally located, it is easy to follow the song to its source.  Up in the canopy and then working their way down the trunk in typical nuthatch inverted orientation, they provided us with nice views of our second target bird of the day.

       And so our day ended with one other notable sighting.  A shaft of light through the hardwood forest we passed through at Tosohatchee fell upon a strange couple….a Broad-headed skink and a Southeastern five-lined skink entwined as other skinks I have observed mating.  I seriously doubt that these skinks were that confused (although the Broad-head had the red face typical of breeding time).  Why these two were found together like this, I have no clue.  I glanced away for just a few seconds to make an adjustment to the camera settings and the five-line was gone.

 

       Well, we scored on two of our targets today and as Meatloaf sang out in one of his more popular hits…..”Two out of three ain’t bad”.  With one week left to try and get out for a final couple of final Florida birds before we head north along with our fellow avian migrants, we’ll see what few new species we can add to the year-list which now stands at 208.  Our goal is to reach 200 different birds by the time we return north, so that plateau has been reached and puts us on a good track in an attempt to get past 375 for 2013.  After returning to New York, our next major new territory to explore will be a July trip to North Dakota and the “potholes”.  We are looking forward to the next few months after three great birding months down here in the Sunshine State.

2013: Week 15 – South Florida rarities

April 7^th  – 13^th

     ^{Last week, I mentioned that it was a pretty quiet time bird-wise and that we were looking forward to a major birding trip this week down to the Miami area and the Everglades.  It turned out to be more than we ever expected.  We missed only one major target bird….the Mangrove cuckoo.  That truly would have been a major find, but it was not to be.  Friends had located the bird just last week and one of them, Joe from our New York birding club,  was with us as our “guide” for the three day tour.  Nonetheless, we had excellent weather (albeit pretty warm with highs in the 90s) right up until our departure time on Saturday when we were hit with some powerful thunderstorms.} 

       ^{We left New Smyrna, our winter quarters, on Thursday bright and early.  Our first goal was to reach Wakodahatchee Wetlands in DelRay Beach by around 8:30 in the morning.  Targets included Black-bellied whistling ducks, sora, Least terns, and Purple gallinule.  Although we scored on the ducks and the gallinule, we missed the other two.}

 

Black-bellied whistling duck

      

Purple gallinule

       

       ^{Not to worry as we did pick up the first-of-the-year terns later in the trip.  A bonus, however, was the appearance of the Least bittern.  I had heard this elusive bird several times during our travels around the central part of Florida, but visual contact was never made.  Finally, as we walked the boardwalk, Sharon almost jumped off the trail and into the impoundment as she called out the bittern.  We saw it land in a mangrove close to the boardwalk (I mean REALLY close!).  As we slowly approached, we could see the bird peeking out to see who it was that made all that commotion as it flew by.  Joe and I quickly snapped off a few shots before the bittern returned to its normal habits and disappeared into the heavier cover.   What a great way to begin our three day trip!}

       ^{After a couple of hours of checking out the myriad of birds at Wakodahatchee, we headed south for Chapel Hill Preserve just outside of Fort Lauderdale where our lone target bird was the Purple swamphen.  Without too much exertion, we found the bird browsing among the grasses of the swamp.  It preferred to keep its distance and was nestled in the vegetation to such a degree that it was had to photograph.  I did get a couple of “documentation” shots just to prove we saw it, but it was definitely not “blog-worthy”, so you’ll just have to take my word for this one.  From here, we traveled east to nearby Cooper City and the Brian Piccolo County Park.  Strange as it may sound,  in among the ball fields, skate park, and velodrome are found a good number of active Burrowing owl nests.  Each nest is carefully marked off with “police tape” and the local folks know enough to respect these nesting sites.  We found a picnic table near one of the burrows and proceeded to have lunch while keeping a vigil on the site.  Sure enough, before long, we saw a little brown tuft of brown sticking up above the ground.  He watched us watch him for a while before he ducked back underground.  We found quite a few of these including this one right next to yet another ball field.}

       ^{As we photographed this owl, (actually one of a pair occupying this nest), we took notice of the sound of monk parakeets flying overhead.  We followed a pair to a nearby tree and got some nice shots of these birds as well.  There may have been other species of parrots present as they have been reported in the past, but we had a schedule to keep and had to move on.  We continued south down Route 1 to Florida City, our headquarters for the next two nights.  We walked across the street from our Ramada Inn in the hopes of finding White-winged doves and Common mynas.  The mynas were present and added to the check-list, but all the doves were either collared or mourning.}    

 

Monk parakeet

       ^{The following day as we returned from the glades, Sharon remembered getting the doves at another nearby motel a couple of years ago.   What the heck.  We figured we give it a look.  Bingo!  There it was perched right out in the open as we had hoped for.} 

 

Gray kingbird

      ^{Another bonus!  Joe spotted a kingbird in the trees next to the inn.  He was quick enough to note that the tail was unmarked with the white banding of the Eastern species and thought it might be a Gray kingbird.  The bird eventually flew to a wire where I could get a decent shot of the bird and sure enough it was the Gray…..another year bird!}

       ^{But, I’ve jumped ahead of myself.  This day was spent traveling through the Everglades National Park.  As mentioned before, the Mangrove cuckoo was on our A-list of birds to get.  But you don’t always get what you want, and the bird was not to be found.  We did score some great birds here, however, including my life Shiny cowbird and a quick look at the elusive White-crowned pigeon.}

       ^{Also of note were the good numbers of birds in a mulberry tree near the marina.  Cape May warblers, a Scarlet tanager, a dozen or so Cedar waxwings, Orchard oriole, and a Black and white warbler.} 

       ^{As we scoped out the visitors to the tree, several Swallow-tailed kites made an appearance at low altitude, making for excellent subjects for my newest Nikon lens.}

 

Swallow-tailed kite

       

       ^{The final day was spent near and in the city of Miami.  We had several targets, but the premier bird we wanted to find was the Thick-billed vireo, a bird normally found in the Bahamas.  There have been several occasions in the past when an individual has strayed into southern Florida, and we were privileged to be able to travel into Bill Baggs Park in Key Biscayne where such an loner has been sighted for the past couple of weeks.  It took quite a while and quite a number of eyes as a dozen or so birders from locations as far away as Texas, Washington DC and New York were on hand to try and catch a glimpse of this life-bird.  Not only did we finally get a look, but the bird strayed into an opening in the vegetation where many of us got nice shots.  It was definitely won the “Best Bird” award for this trip.}

Thick-billed vireo

       ^{While we were waiting for the vireo to appear, several Magnificent frigatebirds flew overhead.  Yet another “year-bird”!}

      

Spot-breasted oriole

       ^{Our final stop before we had to head back “north” to New Smyrna was the campus of the University of Miami.  The target here was the Spot-breasted oriole, often seen on campus lately.  We no sooner got our of the car than we heard the distinctive oriole whistles.  Sure enough, high in a tree-top, there was our quarry.  The bird eventually flew a bit lower to give us a better opportunity for some good shooting.}

       ^{The other species we had hoped for (and got!) was the Yellow-chevroned parakeet.  There are quite a few species of parrots and parakeets which over the years have escaped from captivity and are now fairly well established in south Florida.  Sadly, this bird remained distant enough that we could not get a decent shot.  But , three days and 89 species later (including three life-birds) we were ready for the long drive back home.  It’s getting close to the time when we will be heading to our “real” home in New York, and this trip was the perfect way to start winding down this three month long birding adventure.}

      

      

2013: Week 14: The Links….

March 31^st – April 6^th

      The blend of friends visiting from the north, the call of the golf links, and cool chilly and even some rainy weather all added up to limited birding for the Bakers this week.  I did carry the camera with me on the golf course and snuck in a few shots between the multiple shots I took  with the mid-range irons, so it wasn’t really a washout (never actually is!).  The premier shots on the golf course were of the sandhill cranes with their young. 

      Normally, we see the family group of two adults and two colts, but today there was only one little guy.  Hopefully, the second was nearby and had not met with an early demise.  The family units are quite tight-knit with these birds and this time of year, it’s much more common to see a group of four than it is to see a lone crane.

      It’s April and the Swallow-tailed kites are here in earnest.  While not a common bird in any sense of the word, we do see them several times a week when out in the field on a regular basis.  They certainly have a level of elegance about them which makes them stand out in the avian world.  Always a thrill to have one or two pass overhead……

     

     We actually tallied about 25 species during our three golf outings this week.  White ibises can always be counted on aerating the fairways, and the multiple water hazards attract the ospreys, wading birds, and ducks.  Bald eagles are often seen cruising above the courses as well.  Sharon doesn’t play, but will normally ride along with here bins in hand creating a “course-list” for the day.  It’s one of the beauties of our past-time that you can pursue it just about any time and any place.

       

       Earlier in the week, on our weekly Tuesday bird-walks with the Marine Discovery Center, we encounted some odd behaviors by some of the birds we found on site.  The first was a Green heron perched on a power line.  It’s normally difficult to find these birds hidden in among the mangroves, but here was this bird perched and calling from a utility line!  As we watched, we realized that there was actually a second heron similarly situated on a line only a short distance away. 

     

         The second strange view was of Cattle egrets feeding on an oyster bar our in the lagoon.  There were certainly no cattle to be found out on the bar and what these egrets were feeding upon is anyone’s guess. 

 

       We did manage two short visits to two other preserves this week.  The first was at Gemini Springs in Deltona.  We were on our way to a photographic show and reception and had a half hour to kill.  We found plenty of the usual suspects along the shoreline and swimming along the creek….gallinules, coots, herons, etc.  There were also an abundance of Boat-tailed grackles taking advantage of any excess bait or leftover snacks left behind by the local fishermen.   This female approached us as if to ask if we had anything to offer.

       Finally, we visited Spruce Creek in the hopes of photographing a King rail we suspected we could find in the preserve.  We had no problem finding the rails…in fact we located at least 8 of them calling loudly at close proximity.  It was maddening to have them call from several feet away and not be able to locate them in the marsh grasses.  We did catch a quick glimpse of four of them in flight, but as soon as they landed, they were out of sight.  The lone shot before the winds picked up and the rain began to fall once again was of a Snowy plying the muddy shoreline in search of a crab for a snack.

       The forecast for the upcoming week looks to be a bit drier and warmer than this past week and as I just upgraded my old Nikon 80 – 400mm with the newer and much faster version of this same lens, I’ll be looking forward to getting out and putting it to the test.  Check back with us next week for the results…..