Two photos from a quiet Friday afternoon at Pine Creek Ranch in Malabar.
Category: Birding
It was a very quiet morning at Turkey Creek Sanctuary. Here are a few of the things I saw today.
- Centrosema virginiarum (wild pea)
- Cicada
- Bumblebee
- A very worn Black Swallowtail butterfly
- Mini-lubber!
- A very shiny skink of some kind
- Little Blue Heron
Also saw some Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Northern Cardinals, a Brown Thrasher, Green Herons (adult and immature), and an American Coot. Heard, but did not see a couple of White-eyed Vireos.
[Edited to add: also there was a (un)Spotted Sandpiper near the weir and canal where the herons were, Common Ground Doves near the Harris broadcast tower, and Blue Jays here and there.]
Florida’s Official Bird of Awesomeness
I didn’t go birding this weekend (at least not as an “official” activity with birding specifically in mind), but seeing some Swallow-tailed Kites on several occasions, it got me to thinking about these most graceful of flyers.
Eating on the wing. Copyright David Oakley.
When we moved to Florida over a decade ago, I noticed these birds during our first spring and summer. By our second spring, they were a common sight almost daily on the stretch from our apartment out to the interstate (which was much less developed than now). In 2004, we got a “double whammy” from hurricanes Frances and Jeannie and along with other formerly common species (most notably the Brown Pelicans), the local population of Swallow-tailed Kites all but vanished from our skies.
The Great Florida Birding & Wildlife Trail uses the Swallow-tailed Kite as it’s “official” bird. Why not the State of Florida?
Slowly, since then, there are more and more of them overhead, and this year they are about as numerous as they were in 2003. I have seen family groups soaring together a few times and they are a comforting and familiar sight almost every day. [Note: other birds, like the Brown Pelican have also recovered nicely since 2004]
Florida and closely adjoining areas of the US are the northern limits of this species’ normal breeding range, and due to their aerial skill and prey choice (lizards, insects, frogs) have managed to adapt to human incursions on their territory. I have seen them soaring over The Villages, Kissimmee, Venice Beach, Lake Wales, Melbourne and Key West.
Florida is the USA’s Swallow-tailed Kite Central.
These kites are migratory and leave for warmer climates in Central and South America each autumn. They return around March and begin breeding through the spring and summer.
Some US states list them as endangered or threatened, but I believe this is in part due to these states lying at the extreme of this species’ range. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes that Swallow-tailed Kites have a very large global range and its population trend is increasing. This does not mean that these kites are unaffected by environmental degradation or habitat loss, but compared to some other animals and birds of prey in particular, they seem to be holding their own, at least globally.
Given their striking appearance, grace and population concentration in Florida, it’s strange to think that this bird is not the official State Bird. That honor belongs to the Northern Mockingbird. Although it’s insignificant to many other social, legislative and ethical problems today, I would be glad to see an initiative to see Swallow-tailed Kites as the State Bird of Florida.
Fay Lake Wilderness Park
My birding adventure this Sunday was a damp one at Fay Lake Wilderness Park. It has been fairly rainy in this area through the week, and the park was still wet from the previous day’s showers. It was mostly overcast, too, which helped keep the temperature down and I didn’t need to squint much.
The park is pretty, with mostly wide paths (looks like they use a 4-wheeler to keep things clear) and a series of wooden overlooks around the lake perimeter.
Fay Lake.
What struck me first upon entering the park trails was the almost unbelievable cacophany of tree frogs. When walking by a grove of palms when the frogs were calling, this has to be the loudest natural sound I’ve heard since the 17-year cicadas in Wheeling in 1999.
Like most of Brevard County’s parks, Northern Cardinals were just about everywhere. I like this shot of a singing female. In the bird world it’s rare for the females to sing, but for cardinals, both males and females sing regularly.
Female Northern Cardinal singing. This shot looks way too much like a winter scene up north!
Another constant companion throughout the morning were these grasshoppers. Some friends over on the Gulf Coast call the large grasshoppers there “lubbers” and the ones out there I have seen can be over 4 inches long. A few of these approached that size, but most were about 2-3 inches in length. I’ve been calling them “mini-lubbers.” 
Mini-lubbers were everywhere.
There were plenty of butterflies and skippers, too. I counted at least 6 different species. This one obliged me by sitting still for a while so I could get a decent shot.
Gulf Fritillary.
This about a close to a Turkey Vulture as I’ve ever been. Vultures get a bad rap for eating carrion and lurking about dead things, but they provide a crucial service in “recycling” dead animals.
Turkey Vulture.
I got some good binocular views of an Eastern Towhee and a Red-shouldered Hawk, a brief glimpse of a White-eyed Vireo, and at least one Common Ground Dove. At one point a Little Blue Heron in mid-molt from white to blue flew overhead. It looked like it was marble.
I noticed that just about every square foot of the park showed some evidence of burning. The park sits just to the west of the interstate and adjoins the St. John’s National Wildlife Refuge, so regular burning is easier here than in many other parks.
Scorch marks and new growth.
The area shown above was the sight of a little bit of action, too. Some grackles were trying to harrass an adult Cooper’s Hawk and managed to drive it away. As I was watching that (sorry, no pics!) I was lightly pelted from something above me. A squirrel was having a pine cone breakfast. 
Squirrel!
As I said, the park borders the St. John National Wildlife Refuge, and the border was marked by some barbed wire and signage. The barbed wire was not continuous, and the path systems of the two parks intersect and merge here and there. I found myself on the “wrong” side of the fencing a few times and had to back-track out. I could hear Bobwhite calls deep in the Refuge area, but was unable to see anything in my binoculars. The Refuge looked pretty, if a bit empty of visible animal life.
St. John’s National Wildlife Refuge.
That was about it for the morning. The paths back toward my starting point were very wet at this point and the tree frogs were nearly deafening. I’d like to stop back to this park in the fall and definitely next spring before the hot weather sets in. Here’s a parting shot of one of the mini-lubbers.
Mini-lubber says bye!
Some outtakes from the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary the other day.
Crane Family Sadness
I’ve been avoiding this for a few weeks now, but you can probably tell from the lack of Sandhill Crane updates that all is not well with the crane family. The surviving chick seems to have perished as well, a few weeks ago. The parents have been near the front retention pond intermittently since then, but I have not seen them on the premises since early last week. It’s a sad fact of life for birds like these cranes. Like a lot of other wildlife (and feral animals as well), they face tremendous natural and man-made obstacles for survival. I remain hopeful that next year they will be able raise at least one chick to adulthood.
Scrubbing it Up in Malabar
I spent the morning in the central part of the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary. My post from April 14th discusses how much of the sanctuary was overgrown too much for the Florida Scrub Jay. The central part, however, is being managed to keep the habitat more amenable to the jays and other scrub-adapted wildlife.
The Malabar Scrub Santuary was set up in the early to mid 1990s, using a failed housing development from the 1980s.
Malabar Woods Blvd. You can’t have a more exclusive address
Here are a few photographs of what post-burn scrub habitat looks like from ground level. I am not sure exactly when this was burned, but probably some time this year. Vegetation grows back very quickly; these plants are adapted to fire. 
Burn-managed scrub.
You’ll notice the lower part of the tree trunks are charred, but there’s no evidence of buring in the upper part. Management fires, like the natural fire they mimic, are fast moving and low to the ground. The taller trees here are relics of pre-management days. Left to its own devices, a scrub habitat would tend to be devoid of any taller trees. You can see that the burns have caused many of these taller tress to die, though. 
Lack of shade is par for the course in scrub country.
There were some Blue-grey Gnatcatchers calling in their wheezy-complaining way along the paths off the paved boulevard, but as I walked down the defunct street, I noticed something ahead that excited me a bit. I couldn’t be sure until I got closer, but yes! Florida Scrub Jays! One was acting as a look-out on top of a dead sapling while another foraged on the ground. The foraging jay actually came within 2 feet of me and was very curious. I know that many people tend to feed them (which is illegal), so I don’t know if this jay is habituated to hand-outs or if this was just a normal level of curiousity seen in the species.
Sentinel.
The blue coloration was very varible, depending on the sun angle. This shot shows it to best effect.
Hello neighbor!
I walked along some of the paths that led into the more forested parts of the sanctuary. I saw a White-eyed Vireo, but wasn’t able to get a photo (again!!), but was hearing what sounded like an Eastern Towhee. I know that the White-eyed Vireos in this area love to mimic towhees, so I was skeptical. It took some careful and lonely stalking, but sure enough, there was male Eastern Towhee singing in the shade of a tree. The race of Eastern Towhee here in Florida has white eyes (rather than the red eyes of northern bretheren) and a slightly less musical and slurring voice.
Eastern Towhee singing his heart out.
Pause for breath.
At this point the sun was really beating down and I started to head back out. I saw a few more jays and another towhee. I noticed on my way back out to the scrub habitat a six-lined racerunner and creepy flies (like I’ve seen at Turkey Creek Sanctuary).
The only other resident I saw before exiting the sanctuary was this small Gopher Tortoise. It was about the size of a small bagel, but I don’t know how old that would make it, but I expect pretty young in turtle-years.
Looks like the kids play outside in this neighborhood.
Both the Florida Scrub Jays and the Eastern Towhees are firsts for this year, bringing my 2013 total to 132 species.
Migration?
A note to my followers: I’m going to try and make a primary blog for Lonely Birder, which will entail:
- Temporarily renaming this blog (you’ll automatically still follow me)
- Moving to a new primary blog with the lonelybirder.tumblr.com URL (you’ll have to find and follow me “manually”
Is this something you’d all not mind doing? I’ll try to keep in good communication through the switch, if I do it. There’s no way to convert this to my primary blog, so I’ll have to migrate (mainly by “hand”) all my posts to this point. That’s not an insignificant undertaking, but I want to keep continuity if possible.
Thanks.
2013 Species Count Audit – 130
With the first sighting this year of a Common Nighthawk, my 2013 species count is now up to 130. I expect it will remain close to this until fall with the migration and perhaps a trip or two to the Gulf Coast. Other notable species in the past few weeks for the 2013 count are the Canada Geese I saw in Massachusetts last month, a Northern Flicker just down the road.
Summer at Turkey Creek
I was feeling well enough yesterday to head out to Turkey Creek Sanctuary, despite the oppressive humidity and only 3 hours of sleep! Now that summer is in full force, my expectations tend to be low in terms of my birding, but just having a hike in the woods is a good treat. Of course, things never quite turn out how one expects and I ended up having a pretty good outing.
I started out heading toward the Scrub Trail area first, which immediately paid off. I could hear raptors calling in the area. From the sounds of the calls (which sounded like overworked squeak toys), I believed them to be immature Red-shouldered Hawks. There were two of them and at first glance as they quickly flew off toward the Scrub Trail and Harris radio tower area, I thought I could confirm my suspicions of their species; however, first one, and then the other obliged me by perching in the trees right overhead. Closer inspection showed them to be juvenile Cooper’s Hawks.
The first of 2 juvenile Cooper’s Hawks (possibly a female).
The second juvenile Cooper’s Hawk (smaller, likely male). I barely captured its awkward landing onto the branch.
These two characters provided a constant backdrop of sound and comical aerial displays for the whole morning wherever I was in the sanctuary. As they called out and flew circles around the immediate area, I happened to notice this Northern Parula sitting very very still, occasionally glancing nervously up at them. After the hawks passed by and were out of sight, it became more active and several more voiced their tiny displeasure at my presence. I suspect a nest was nearby, and the whole clan chipped and chirped at me along the path as I went.
Northern Parula nervously scanning the skies.
I walked from there to the dam overlook (technically a weir) and spillway, where the Melbourne-Tillman Canal empties into Turkey Creek. Although the weir and the “tuff boom” flotation barriers end up catching quite a bit of trash, the area upstream does provide habitat for wading birds and other species that appreciate the slow moving water. There were a few Green Herons and a Tri-colored Heron working the area, as well as a solitary American Coot. I also spied a tiny baby alligator. [Edit 10-28-2013: Not a tiny alligator, but a Florida Softshell Turtle. They have very flexible necks, and can hold their heads up in a way that doesn’t expose their shells.]
Tricolored Heron.
American Coot. Love the red eye.
Not a tiny alligator, but a Florida Softshell Turtle.
I watched the birds there for a few minutes, but that part of the sanctuary area is not shaded, and it was already getting oppressive. I headed back down the trail and toward the boardwalk to head up to the Sand Pine Ridge Trail while the lighting was still good and the sun not so high. Aside from a couple of Carolina Wrens and two Fox Squirrels (no pics), it was already fairly quiet. I did hear one or two White-eyed Vireos, too. As I started to head west along the trail, I noticed a new trail sign, “Turkey Oak Trail” and decided to check it out. As the sign on the other end of the trail suggests, this trail is fairly primitive. In part, it crosses through the upland part of the sanctuary that saw the most damage and tree-fall from the hurricanes in 2004. If I remember correctly, hurricane Jeanne did the most damage here. In some parts of this area over 70% of the canopy was removed from fallen trees or stripped branches. The remaining trees are still leaning.
Leaning trees from 2004 hurricane damage.
Some parts of this new trail are in some denser vegetation, though, with some evidence of fire. Quite a few logs that had laid on the path have sections cut out, which provided this nice looking mushroom a place to live.
This mushroom is a fun guy (fungi).
There were quite a few Blue-grey Gnatcatchers in this part of the sanctuary too. Two things about gnatcatchers that I really came to appreciate yesterday: they are tiny and they never stop moving. One managed to sit still just long enough for me to snap this photograph.
Mighty mite!
This Turkey Oak Trail basically runs north of and parallels the Sand Pine Ridge Trail, so I came out very close to the start of that trail and the boardwalk. I decided to retrace my steps and head back toward the Scrub Trail, but instead of go back toward the dam, I headed back in towards McKinnon’s Way. On the way, I stopped at the emergency boat ramp and had a sit-down for a few minutes. While there, a very pretty butterfly landed close by. To me, it looks like a Monarch, except it was much more red than any Monarch I’ve seen, which are typically orange. [Edited to add: this is, in fact, a Viceroy. It is considered a Müllerian mimic of the Monarch.]
Viceroy butterfly
The morning ended with the most exciting part of my outing, which I unfortunately was unable to capture on camera. As I was sitting, I saw a large elongated shape coming out of the water near the edge of the creek (there’s no bank to speak of, really). My instinct was it was a gator, so I started to jump up to run back up the ramp away from the water, but I realized it was a manatee! It raised its head up onto the side of the creek and mouthed at some vegetation. By the time I regained my composure, it had turned and submerged back into the creek. I was disappointed I didn’t get to take a photograph, but thrilled to see a manatee up close. With that, it was getting really oppressive (despite the breeze that had picked up), so I walked back out to head home.
Lonely Birder 