Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area

      A great route to bird along in Central Florida is Route 50 between I-95 and the town of Christmas.  A short distance from the interstate, the water treatment plant of Titusville offers some fine birding at the site known as Blue Heron Preserve.  Continuing westward, you will pass the entrance to Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area off Taylor Road.  Further along, a right turn at the giant Christmas tree (really!) will bring you down to Orlando Wetlands.  I've already submitted several blogs about the Blue Heron Preserve and Orlando Wetlands, so this entry will feature the birding at Tosohatchee.

Northern parula

     When you first enter the preserve, there is a kiosk where you sign in and pay a nominal fee of $3.00 per car to use the area.  It is well worth hanging out at the kiosk for a while as invariably, there are birds of interest to be had right at this point.  My wife, Sharon, admonishes me to never use the term "always" when referring to the possibility of finding a certain species at an area.  That being said, if you are here in early to mid-March, you "always" be treated to sightings of the Northern parula.  This migrant is easy to spot by its song along which is an ascending trill followed by a sudden drop-off at the end.  Watch carefully, and you may well see this colorful warbler flitting among the Spanish moss where it feeds and builds its nest.  These that we are seeing in early March are the first "wave" which are coming into the state to set up their territories and to nest.  Later in the month and into April, a second wave of parulas will move through the state and these birds head north to the Canadian border and points beyond where they will nest and spend the summer months.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher

     While we birded this spot, we also heard and eventually sighted the bird which one of my birding buddies claims ranks a full 10 on the "Cuteness Scale".  A diminutive little member of the "Old World Warblers", the Blue-Gray gnatcatcher flits from branch to branch seeking out small insects that it finds on the outer branches of deciduous trees as well as some conifers.  Most of the time, it simply looks under the leaves of these plants, but will on occasion fly out to intercept an unfortunate fly or gnat on the wing.  In spite of its somewhat subdued color scheme, it does remain as one of the more handsome little birds you can observe.

Bachman's sparrow (archival image)

     As we drove down the dirt road (perfectly passable with a two-wheel drive vehicle), we pulled over to see if we could hear one of the specialties of this area, Bachman's sparrow. This elusive bird was heard, but not to be seen today as it preferred to stay low in the palmettos and stay out of our line of sight.  Having seen this bird and recorded images of it in the past, I will include one of my archival photos here so that you can see what we were looking for.  It's song is a distinctive "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty...." and once heard is hard to forget.  So this bird goes under the "heard only" column for today's list.

Limpkin

     As we continued down the road, we take a right onto Powerline Road (see map above).  This road parallels a canal and wetlands for several miles before ending at the St. John's River.  The park actually includes about 19 miles of the St. John's which in itself is a very productive birding venue.  Along the Powerline Road, we were able to view and photograph a good number of egrets, herons and several well camouflaged American Bitterns. Red-shouldered hawks were working the grassy wetlands habitat as well.    One of our most rewarding findings, however, was a bird that is found throughout Florida, but is in fact quite reclusive and can be a hard target bird to add to the list on any given day.  The bird I'm speaking of is the Limpkin which is most often found foraging along shallow water looking for Apple snails, its favorite delicacy.  As Apple snails have become more and more scarce, the limpkins have adapted by readily feeding on other snails as well as insects, crustaceans, worms, frogs, and lizards.

Brown-headed nuthatch

     As we came back up the Powerline Road, we veered off onto Fish Hole Road which takes us down into a mature pine forest.  In the past, we have found this to be a very productive area during migration.  So, while it is a bit early in the season, we hoped to find early migrants frequenting the area.  We were not disappointed.  One of the birds which is not migratory and is found in the area is the Brown-headed nuthatch.  We listen for the squeaky sound of their call and soon find one dipping down into a small puddle for a quick drink.  We soon find a number of others feeding in the pines in a upside down orientation so common to nuthatches.

Hermit thrush

     Along with the nuthatch, we locate a Hermit thrush which is also skulking along the pine litter near that same puddle.  I often think of this thrush as being a northern bird, but during the winter season they are found throughout the southern half of the U.S.  They will soon be headed north as they are one of the last birds to migrate south and one of the first birds to head back north in the spring.  Always a pleasure to see this handsome bird and a fine way to wrap up a successful day of birding at Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area.