I decided to go to Turkey Creek Sanctuary this weekend, as it had been a while since I last checked in. The area had some weather move through that made me hopeful some early migrants had made a pit stop overnight.

Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes. It turned out to be another eerily quiet morning for the majority of the sanctuary. There were pockets of Northern Cardinals and the winter residents are still hanging on, though their numbers are much lower. Any activity was in widely spaced pockets, with only a few individual birds.

Besides the cardinals, I encountered a couple of Gray Catbirds in the Saw Palmetto along the boardwalk loop and I could hear Northern Parulas up in the canopy. I also came upon small bands of Prairie Warblers both on the boardwalk loop and later, along the Sand Pine Trail.

I heard Yellow Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos together as I approached the canoe deck. It’s been a mild source of frustration for me that for a few years in a row, in the same general location, I can hear Yellow Warblers high in the canopy but have been unable to get any decent binocular views, to say nothing of photographs. Some patient watching did get me some good looks at the vireos singing and hopping below the canopy, though.

I saw almost no birds at all along the creek overlook boardwalk (though there were quite a few Northern Parulas singing). I spooked an Osprey down by the boardwalk on the Flood Plain Trail, but otherwise there were no birds present there either. I met up with an out-of-state couple who were visiting the sanctuary for the day. They asked me if I had seen “anything good,” and I had to admit it was seriously quiet. They had heard that the sanctuary was a decent place for spring migrants. I explained that it was probably still a bit early for most of the migrants, but that also the sanctuary has been very quiet for a couple of years now, even during migration seasons. But, as I told them, you never know what you might see on any given day.

I had two surprises on the Sand Pine Trail which would later come to cause me some small embarrassment. First, somewhere near the mid-point of the trail I heard some distinct whistling notes close by. I knew the birds had to be very near, but I was not detecting any movement. I noted, in the back of my mind, that further up the trail I could hear something that sounded somewhat vireo-like as well, but I was trying to focus on the birds at hand (or at ear, I guess). Finally, after trouncing back and forth on the trail trying to get a good vantage point I saw movement and got a look at a brown warbler skulking in the mid-story, and then another nearby. Based on the facial pattern and overall shape (and later confirmed when I played the bird’s song) I identified the bird as my first of year (FOY) Swainson’s Warbler. How exciting! A spring migrant after all!  I took a few photographs that I thought would be pretty decent and clear enough to convince the (at times) über-skeptical e-mail lists that I had indeed seen Swainson’s Warblers. This would come back to haunt me.

I walked further up the trail, and again heard the vireo song, but much closer. About 10 or 12 feet up in some of the smaller trees I saw two Red-eyed Vireos. One of them let me get some great binocular views before moving off a bit. The light and shadow through the trees made the photographs a bit tough, but I got some good shots, including this one.

At this point I did not realize that my Swainson’s Warbler photographs did not properly write to my camera’s memory card. Later that afternoon I went to post to BRDBRAIN and FLORIDABIRDS-L that I had seen FOY/FOS Swainson’s Warblers, and only quickly looked at what photographs I had pulled form the card, I attached this vireo photograph! As you can imagine, I received some properly amused replies that I had actually seen a Red-eyed Vireo, not a Swainson’s Warbler. You can imagine my dismay as I checked and sure enough, in my excitement I had posted the wrong photo. I had not realized I had no Swainson’s Warbler pictures! I quickly posted another message to the e-mail lists explaining my error, but I am sure it’s already added to the body of lore I’ve managed to accumulate there (to examples: I once jumped the gun that a winter American Goldfinch was a Snow Bunting, and my hearing two Carolina Chickadees at Erna Nixon Park was roundly scoffed at by a couple of list members).

This isn’t the first time my camera (or the memory card) has failed me like this. Since my trip to Minnesota the camera hasn’t been right. Whether or not it was due to the cold, or just a coincidence, I seem to lose some pictures and the controls react more sluggishly than they used to.

I heard more Prairie Warblers on the Sand Pine Trail, but had my best photo opportunity interrupted by a loud, if well meaning family. I couldn’t stay too angry about it, since the kids were genuinely interested in nature and the wildlife they might see. They weren’t being obnoxious, and the parents were encouraging this in them. I also reminded myself that the bird photographs are icing on the cake. It’s great just to be out and see these magnificent creatures.

As a last minute decision, I went down to McKinnon’s Way and then over to the weir and canal, but there wasn’t much happening there either.

The boat ramp has yellow caution tape at the entrance to the path leading to it. I peered around it and saw that the decking had been removed. I don’t know if this was from the minor flooding a few months back or from the planks being removed for repair (the wood seemed to be a bit rotted from what I could tell). The creek level is down to normal now, and the lower and newer parts of the ramp’s deck seem fine, if a little more crooked.

At the canal and weir there was one Little Blue Heron and one Cattle Egret. The canal level was surprisingly low. We’ve had a relatively wet winter and early spring, but the past few weeks have seen some above normal temperatures with little rain. This must have been enough to drop the water level down quite a bit. Even the heavy showers from previous days must not have made much of an impression. Only one discharge was open on the weir, and there were turtles stacked up at the edge of the others, taking advantage of some prime basking real estate.

The low discharge can be explained better by looking at the next two photographs, showing how low the canal level is.

The canal bottom is starting to get exposed.

The floating barrier is resting on the bottom now.

I stirred up some more cardinals on my way back toward the sanctuary entrance, but saw little else in the way of bird life. I saw one Black Racer (a snake species), which quickly slid away from me before I could even get my camera up to take its picture, and of course the lizards are ever prevalent.

Here’s the total species list. Except for the Prairie Warblers, most of these were single or pairs of birds, widely spaced apart throughout the sanctuary.

• Common Grackle
• Mourning Dove
• Eurasian Collared Dove
• Osprey
• Northern Mockingbird
• European Starling
• Carolina Wren
• Northern Parula (♫)
• Northern Cardinal
• Gray Catbird
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Fish Crow
• Prairie Warbler
• Great Blue Heron
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (♫)
• Purple Martin
• White-eyed Vireo
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Swainson’s Warbler
• Blue Jay
• Yellow Warbler (♫)
• Blue-headed Vireo
• Little Blue Heron
• Cattle Egret

The lack of bird life here and in many other parks is perplexing. Certainly the amount of insect and reptile life seems to be about the same, and the plants (apart from some more invasive species than a few years ago) seem healthy. There are still very large gar in the creek, and the manatees come upstream as they always have. But something is affecting the birds’ ability or willingness to stop and stay at many of the areas they used to frequent. Last year Shirley Hills told me that it was the quietest year to her recollection, and she had been birding Turkey Creek for decades. I really hope things pick up in April, as the main body of spring migrants make their way through. The birds have either found better places to stop or are vastly reduced in numbers. How much of that would be part of normal population fluctuations and how much from something we ought to be alarmed about isn’t something I am able to know as yet.

With Spring starting to get under way in Florida, I thought it was a good morning to check in on the Turkey Creek Sanctuary and see what was going on. Bird migration is still some weeks away, so I wasn’t expecting an influx of warblers or anything. The morning started off a little cool and foggy in spots. Here’s the view from the Sand Pine Trail as the Sun was burning off some mist.

The first birds I heard after getting on the trail were Northern Cardinals and Carolina Wrens. These species are usually the staple of Turkey Creek Sanctuary, though as I’ve previously discussed, the cardinals have been down in numbers of late. There was a pretty strong contingent this particular morning, though. It amazes me how well hidden Northern Cardinals can be, given how brightly colored they are, but both the males and females tend to stay low in the brush, occasionally popping up into a pine tree. When one does venture into the open, even a far way off, it’s unmistakable.

Throughout the sanctuary the Winter and year-round residents were active and vocal, as the longer days help gear them up for the Spring. A large number of the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were singing their soft, bubbly songs in between bouts of their nasal call-notes.

Commonly, other birds (like vireos or warblers) associate with gnatcatchers, so I paid close attention to any other movements in the canopy. I had heard Northern Parulas singing, so I knew they were around. The Northern Parulas that I saw were quite active and in either the canopy or the thick brush. There were males, already with their breeding colors, and females foraging.

Deciduous trees in Florida do lose their leave every Autumn, though there’s no real period with bright red and gold colors like there is further north. By February they are beginning to leaf-out, and by the time the migrant songbirds start arriving in March, there’s plenty of canopy for them to hide in.

The understory and ground cover has been growing in as well. Ferns figure in fairly prominently in the habitats adjacent to Turkey Creek.  Away from dumpsters and trashcans, raccoons forage on the forest floor looking for bugs, nuts and anything else edible.

Racoons are perhaps an ultimate victim of human development. They are intelligent and highly adaptable, which has made them pests in some places, as they scavenge for food and find places to live that don’t always agree with human settlement. But that adaptability has made them survivors, (despite us infecting their population with rabies) and we should at least admire them for that while taking humane measures to keep them out of harms (peoples’) way.

Butterflies have been an almost constant all Winter where I’ve looked, and this day was no exception. The majority of the species I saw this time were the Zebra Longwings, which are Florida’s official state butterflies. Here, you can see where they get their name.

I walked out to the canal and weir, and there was a small collection of herons nearby, as well as some Mottled Ducks. This drake was standing alone on the edge of the canal, his bright yellow bill and recently refreshed plumage should make him a striking figure and a good catch for the lady-ducks!

Back in the Sanctuary, as the morning progressed, more birds were foraging in the middle layers of the woods, including White-eyed Vireos and some warblers. Soon, more vireo species will be moving in, as the wintering Blue-headed Vireos move out. White-eyed Vireos are resident all year, though.

Black-and-white warblers are also Winter residents in Florida, and the time of year just before migration finds them gleaning bugs from tree bark as they prepare to fly north. They tend to be a little less shy, too. You can find them associating with vireos and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, as I did. I couldn’t remember what their song was like, and had intended to quietly play it on my phone, but had the volume up louder than I expected. This resulted in this bird flying down to eye level to scold me.

Yellow-throated Warblers also hang around all year, and the Space Coast is near the southern limit of their breeding range. You can usually find some hanging around during the summer, but they generally stay out of sight. I often find them on the underside of palm fronds, like this, eating insects and spiders. It’s easier to see their brilliant yellow throats when they are up in the canopy.

The Sanctuary was certainly coming alive with the longer days and hopes of warmer weather ahead. Only time will tell how this year’s migration will go, but the amount of activity among the resident birds was perhaps an encouraging sign that the ecosystem is healthy enough to support the migrants, should they stop by this year.

Here’s the list of identified species for the morning, mostly in order of first encounter:

• Carolina Wren
• Purple Martin
• Gray Catbird
• Northern Cardinal
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• White-eyed Vireo
• Northern Parula
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Fish Crow
• American Robin
• Eastern Phoebe
• Downy Woodpecker
• Black Vulture
• Turkey Vulture
• White Ibis
• Tree Swallow
• Blue Jay
• Cattle Egret
• Little Blue Heron
• Green Heron
• Mottled Duck
• Anhinga
• Common Gallinule
• Great Blue Heron
• Red-shouldered Hawk (♫)
• Brown Thrasher
• Yellow-throated Warbler
• American Goldfinch
• Mourning Dove

I finished the morning with a couple of satisfying things. One was finally confirming to myself that there are American Goldfinches in the Sanctuary (I’ve heard snippets of their calls now and again) by seeing a winter female (I believe). I also noticed some trail maintenance near the canal and Harris radio tower, making access to the weir a little easier. The trail leading from the canoe deck to McKinnon’s Way was also clearer, making access to that area of the park much easier. Much thanks goes to the volunteers for that!