2013: Week 11 – Two Forts and a Pintail…

March 10^th – 16^th

Matanzas Owlets from 2012

       It was a busy week as we headed up to the northeast corner of the state to bird the Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach areas.  We met our traveling companions from the West Volusia Audubon at Fort Matanzas National Monument.  Later in the year, this can be a hot spot for warblers in migration and it has also served as home to a pair of Great horned owls over the past several years.  Above and beyond the birding aspects, it is of historical interest, serving as a fortress built by the Spanish in the 1740’s to thwart British attempts to seize this area of Florida.  It is now a nature preserve as well as a historical monument.  We had sightings of some early arriving warblers such as the Northern parula, Palm warbler (actually a winter resident), Black and whites, and Yellow-throated warbler.

       Along the waterfront, we watched as we waited for the ferry to carry us across the river to the fort a Snowy egret closely trailing a Little blue which had snagged a fine morsel from the shallows.  The little blue managed to ingest the meal before the snowy could convince him to give it up. 

       We continued our drive north up to Amelia Island and checked out several birding spots along the way.  Our next historical spot to visit and bird was Fort Clinch, built in 1863 and briefly occupied by the Confederates until it was abandoned and later seized by the Union army.  This seizure gave the Union control of the coasts of Florida and Georgia until the end of the war.

       Regarding the birding, we found our first of the year Oystercatcher working the water’s edge.  Other waders, terns, and sparrows as well as the omnipresent Yellow-rumped warblers were also present.  Indeed, touring the fort and exploring the grounds occupied most of our time, however.  Birds were not the only game in town as we also observed a white-tailed deer browsing on the dry beach grasses and a number of baby gators in the waters further into the surrounding forests.

       Our final destination of the three-day adventure was a trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine.  This is a commercial gator farm, raising the reptiles for meat and hides.  The swamp in which the gators are confined (hopefully) serves as a rookery for hundreds of nesting egrets and herons.  The trees in which the birds’s nest are surrounded by the gator infested waters and deter predators from preying upon the eggs and young chicks.  There were a few babies already in the nests such as these Roseate spoonbill chicks.  Click on the frame below to see some of these chicks in action.

       Most of the activity was concerned with nest building by Wood storks, White ibises, and Great egrets.

       As the egrets staked out their territory, more than one squabble broke out as the birds took exception to other members of their species getting too interested in what they considered “their” turf.  The increases coloration of plumages, legs, and lores signal an increase in the hormones driving the mating process, and these increased levels are observed in a bit more aggressive behavior than we see at other times of the year.

       The final day of the week produced a new “Life-bird” for Sharon and I as we continued our pursuit of the White-cheeked pintail we had failed to find two weeks ago.  We were rewarded for our efforts this time however with some nice close-up looks and photo-ops.  We know that some of these birds normally found in the West Indies and not common to Florida can be escapees, but this bird was not banded and had really clean plumage.  We are assuming that it was blown off course by a storm such as Sandy and ended up here in Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, our nation’s first installment in the now wide network of such preserves.

       The upcoming week will include a trip down the St. John’s River in search of more visitors passing through on their way north.  Look for our next posting next week end.