Quacking time!

Had a nice morning counting at the refuge yesterday. Nothing exceptional, just lots of regular birds, gators and other critters. I suppose the most unusual bird I had was a juvenile White-faced Ibis, he had another one with him, perhaps a sibling? Duck numbers are still low but diversity is increasing. American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Redhead, Gadwall and Green-winged Teal were all first of the fall records for me. Swamp and Savannah Sparrows were very common and there are hordes of Palms and Myrtle Warblers. 2 Indigo Buntings eluded my camera as did a very shy River Otter that hid behind a clump of grass for over 10 minutes before swimming off! Didn't take many pictures as time was short but I did manage one or two.

ducks are starting to arrive for the winter; by January there will be 20+ species at the refuge, mostly on Stoney Bayou 2 and Mounds Pool 3.

Eastern Phoebe

now the water temps are starting to drop the refuge lizards are starting to show well!

Gnatcatcher

Had a quick look around the bushes at Miller Landing Road on the eastern side of Lake Jackson this morning. Nice looks at Swamp Sparrows and a Loggerhead Shrike. A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher seemed oblivious to my presence as it searched for bugs, presumably gnats! Not sure what kind of bug it is holding in the picture. A possible gnat maybe?

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Monarch's Galore!

Every year, on the 4th Saturday of October, St Marks NWR hosts their Monarch Butterfly festival. It's awesome! The festival is timed for peak Monarch migration in North Florida and dedicated staff, volunteers and amateur entomologists help put on a show for an admiring public. There are lots of activities for kids, information kiosks, Monarch tagging and field trips around the refuge. Here's some pictures.

Due to the vast amount of Goldenrod growing along our coastline, Monarchs have a plentiful supply of nectar to aid their long journey to the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, where they spend the winter

they are captured by a team of researchers and their volunteers

and are given a unique tag, which is basically a sticker that is applied to their wing

which looks like this. If you find a tagged Monarch then call the number on the tag

the festival is a great opportunity for kids to see this beautiful butterfly up close

once released the tagged Monarchs return to their normal routine. This tagged one is feeding on a saltbush

they allow close observation while feeding

For more information on Monarch butterflies and their migration click on the following link. An amazing animal, I am sure you'll agree.

Watch this amazing video of Monarchs at a winter roosting site in Mexico.

Bay-breasted Warbler - County Tick!

There's been a plague of these beautiful dendroicas in Florida this last week. The south have pretty much hogged the majority of them but we have had a few up here as well. I had one on St George Island on Wednesday, which was my first fall record ever...and this morning I was pleased to see one at Koucky Park, which is in the Indianhead neighborhood just east of downtown Tallahassee. Koucky Park is a great birding spot that has produced lots of warblers and other neotrops over the years. A fine male Wilson's Warbler wintered there in 2007. This mornings Bay-breast was my 253rd Leon County lifer. Sweet! Earlier I birded Tram Road sewage ponds and didn't really see much. Amongst the 100 or so Barn Swallows was a single Bank Swallow. There were also a few Northern Shoveler and Blue-winged Teal. The only shorebirds that were present included, Killdeer, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper. I didn't manage to get a picture of anything today so here's a picture of a Baltimore Oriole, who have yet to arrive in our yard this fall. No sign of any Chipping Sparrows either. WTF!

male Baltimore Oriole - digiscoped in front yard 2008

Chipping Sparrow - digiscoped front yard 2007

Follow this link to see some of the Bay-breasts photographed in South Florida by Trey Mitchell.

Wet & Windy on St George Island

I used my personal holiday today and headed to the Youth Camp at St. George Island State Park to see if the latest cold front had encouraged some migrants to drop in. I arrived on the island at 8am and grabbed a coffee from the gas station. "We had 8 inches of rain last night", declared the clerk! Blimey! He wasn't wrong. It looked like a hurricane had hit the island, minus the total devastation, rampant looting and Jim Cantore! The front was still passing over the island. 30mph winds, a light rain and temps in the 40s were very welcome as this dampened the skeeters enthusiasm for sucking blood! The youth camp was about 50% flooded, which made life interesting. It was still blowing a gale by 9am and I had only seen 2 Ospreys and a single Northern Mockingbird. I didn't get up at 515am for this! Thankfully the rain stopped and blue sky began to appear. The sun was a very welcome sight and with it came the birds, although viewing them was tricky due to the 20-30mph winds! Thankfully the birds and I figured out that the southern side of the camp provided a perfect place to get out of the wind. The only problem was my view of the sky above was severely limited, which accounts for my low numbers of hawks and hirundines. They were far more numerous than my counts suggest.  For the first hour or so I watched falcons and Northern Harriers mostly, but once the sun came out I began to hear chips, seeps and ticks in the bushes. Passerines! The variety was nice, the numbers were not at all spectacular but I had an awesome 4 hours, birding the bushes all by my lonesome. Even after 8 years it's still weird to be birding a great spot like St George Island and not be in the company of a bunch of other birders. I'm not complaining, don't move here, stay where you are! Here's the pictorial highlights.

Yellow Warbler

Prairie Warbler

American Redstart

Northern Parula

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

White-winged Dove

juvenile Peregrine Falcon

juvenile Broad-winged Hawk

Great Horned Owl

House Wren

Numbers at or over the youth camp as follows

1 Bay-breasted Warbler

3 Tennessee Warbler

4 Yellow Warbler

1 American Redstart

1 Northern Parula

4 Pine Warbler

4 Prairie Warbler

3 Palm Warbler (there will be thousands of these tomorrow behind the front)

3 Common Yellowthroat

4 House Wren

12 Gray Catbird

1 Chimney Swift

11 Barn Swallow

11 Tree Swallow

2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

1 White-winged Dove

2 Swamp Sparrow

4 Peregrine Falcon

2 Merlin

10 American Kestrel

8 Northern Harrier

2 Cooper's Hawk

1 Broad-winged Hawk

2 Bald Eagle

4 Osprey

2 Great Horned Owl

9 Blue-winged Teal

33 Ring-necked Duck

Later in the day I swung by Bald Point but had very little. A single Cliff Swallow and a few Northern Harriers were the highlight. Tomorrow will produce more birds and visible migration will be excellent, especially for the first couple of hours. Palm Warbler will be the dominate species and I wouldn't mind betting a few Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Western Kingbirds will be passing through. Like I said, wish I had the whole damn month off!

Cardinal Factory

I'm banding again! That's ringing in case you're reading in European. I've set up a small banding station here at the homestead and I'll soon be starting a wintering sparrow project not far from here. Hopefully next spring and fall I'll be able to band some migrant shorebirds at the refuge. For the time being I'm opening a couple of nets in the front yard. Hopefully I'll catch a few Baltimore Orioles, when they finally arrive, as well as some other cool wintering stuff like Orange-crowned Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco and Brow Creeper that winter in our neighborhood every year. For now there aren't many birds visiting the half acre. There is plenty of natural food available and inexplicably few migrants have come down from the canopy to take a bath/drink at the bird mister. The beauty berry crop was poor as well, probably due to the drought we've had. Been a terrible fall for migrants in our neighborhood. One species that seems to be in plentiful supply is the Northern Cardinal. You certainly know when you're extracting one of these guys from a mist net! That powerful beak delivers quite a nip. Anyway, in the last 8 days I've banded 12 Northern Cardinals in the yard and I just looked out the window and saw 6 at our feeders. Not one of them was banded! I think my record count was in the high 20s some years ago, all were visible from one living room window! The most exciting bird I've caught thus far was a female Downy Woodpecker. Other species banded include Tufted Titmouse and Eastern Towhee.

net lane

processing a female cardinal

Even though they're very common, they are a beautiful bird aren't they?

Barred Owl

Managed to get pretty close to this fella to take a few pictures. It was pretty early in the morning and the sun hadn't hit the trees, so had to use my flash. Must get a better flash! Barred Owls are funny birds. No they don't do stand up comedy acts or anything like that. Their calls are funny. Almost every night now for the last couple of weeks the neighborhood Barred Owl posse have been having a hoot. If you've never heard them carrying on then you've missed out. They sound like a pack of mischievous monkeys at times. Some individuals sound like they just discovered the milk in their fridge has gone past its sell by date! Sometimes they hunt in our front yard, taking advantage of the moth attracting street light. They have quite a varied diet, which includes fish! Huh? Yeah, fish! I've heard tales from more than one fellow Tallahassean that Barred Owls raid their fish pond.

"Who cooks for you, who cooks for y'all"

 

Chesnut-sided Warbler

Got a few pictures of this 1st year CSWA at work a few days ago. Thought I'd share 'em with y'all.

 

Chesnut-sided Warbler

Gregs in the mist

Did my shorebird/duck count at the refuge on Tuesday morning. Not much to report really, kind of quiet! Best bird was a White-rumped Sandpiper. A few winter species were evident including House Wren, Sedge Wren, Savannah Sparrow & Eastern Phoebe. Still some Yellow Warblers present, mostly along the heavily vegetated dikes that surround Stoney Bayou II. Very few Blue-winged Teal compared to my last count and very few total shorebirds. We need a lot more rain or duck diversity/numbers are going to be poor at the refuge this winter. Here's a few pictures.

juvenile White-rumped Sandpiper

the weather was awful - very English like - Great Egrets in the mist

My favorite tree at the refuge, SE of Picnic Pond

Great Blue Heron

Belted Kingfisher

male Common Yellowthroat

Bucket List # 11 - Wrybill

Not another shorebird! Yes sir, number 11 is the amazing Wrybill, resident of New Zealand, and an evolutionary marvel. Not the best looking bird on my bucket list but surely one of the most bizarre looking. 

The Wrybill is a species of plover that is endemic to New Zealand. It is the only bird in the world that has a beak bent sideways. One would think that this unique adaptation allows the plover to reach tasty morsels more easily, especially under pebbles and stones on fast flowing rivers. On the mudflats Wrybills sweep their bill from side to side much like an avocet or spoonbill does. Some ornithologists in NZ believe that for much of its time the Wrybill doesn't really need to have this uniquely shaped bill in order for it to feed. So it begs the question, why does it have such a peculiarly shaped bill? The feeding adaptation is the only conclusion I can come up with. Maybe its preferred habitat was much more prevalent in years past and the adaptation was more necessary. Maybe its main food source on the breeding grounds requires this adaptation more than is required on more traditional shorebird feeding habitat, such as mud flats. Fascinating bird and a lot more to learn from them, I'm sure. 

They nest on the south island, mostly around Canterbury, and then fly to the north island to spend the winter. They require large shingle beds, up to a quarter mile in size, which are created and occur alongside fast flowing rivers. This might be one of the main reasons why it's breeding range on south island might be so small, as that habitat is scarce. Wrybills nest on the open shingle and typically lay 2 eggs, which look just like the pebbles upon which they lay. Even as an embryo baby Wrybills have a pronounced bend in their bill! 

After the breeding season Wrybills form flocks and head north, frequenting harbors and mudflats on the north island. I've always wondered whether their bills give them problems during flight? Out of all the birds on my bucket list, I find the Wrybill the most fascinating from an evolutionary standpoint. Aren't they cool?

All images taken from google images

Yellow Fellow

I had the privilege of leading an Apalachee Audubon Society field trip to Jackson County today and fun was had...we even saw some birds. The undoubted highlight, at least for me, was the juvenile Ruddy Turnstone found by Carol, Judy and Gene on the rocks along the causeway leading to Woodruff Dam. We managed to see it in both Georgia and Florida! A rare species inland and there probably haven't been many, if any at all, records of Ruddy Turnstone on Lake Seminole. 

juvenile Ruddy Turnstone, Gadsden County, Florida

Further west in Jackson County, at Sneads Park, we had 4 Yellow Warblers feeding in a Sugar Hackberry. I took quite a few pictures, which show 2 of them going about their business.

Adult and 1st year Yellow Warblers - Sneads Park, Jackson County, Florida

We had to work hard for our migrants, which were few and far between so the eye candy Yellows were very welcome, especially as they showed so well. Other migrants included, Scarlet Tanager, American Redstart, very brief and unsatisfying look at Blackburnian Warbler, Palm Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Cliff Swallow, Solitary Sandpiper, Eastern Wood-peewee and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Other species of note included Bald Eagle, American Kestrel, Tree Swallow, Red-headed Woodpecker and 2 Fox Squirrels at Three Rivers State Park.