Christmas Bird Count - Florida Style

Last weekend, I did the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count at Pennypack Park, just like I've done for the past 7 years. And, just like other years, the weather was crappy and the birds were common. Don't get me wrong, I like contributing to the Audubon's 120 years of bird data but it's not the most exciting day of birding ever. This year, I had an idea - what if I volunteered for another CBC count? What if that count was in Florida? Genius!

Lucky for me, the Harns Marsh CBC was scheduled for today AND . . . Connie and I were scheduled to visit BJ and Dave starting yesterday. Harns Marsh is only 45 minute drive from BJ's. I contacted the person in charge and got myself in on the count. I met Charly and Meg at 6:45 AM in the parking lot at the marsh. We counted 68 birds and, for me at least, they were way sexier than my hometown birds at Pennypack.

Take this Snail Kite for instance. This is an uncommon bird that can only survive by eating certain kinds of snails. The Kite's bill is adapted to eating only the snails. Harn's Marsh is lousy with the snails and therefore, we saw this Snail Kite along the edge of the marsh. Jackpot.

Snail Kite

Another bird that eats the snails is the Limpkin. Limpkins can also eat other food like worms and other critters that live along the edge of the water. Harn's Marsh has plenty of these birds. They are pretty shy and move slowly. This one flew past us.

Limpkin

Harn's Marsh is also a place to find Gray-headed Swamphens, an introduced species from Asia. Birders like to come here to add them to their life lists. I did that exact thing last year. This year, we saw plenty of them.

Gray-headed Swamphen

Sandhill Cranes are common in this part of Florida. We see them in the marshes, in the Walmart parking lot and on the golf courses. At Harn's Marsh, the Cranes usually stay in the marsh but today, 11 of them were up on the path. We saw the group interacting from afar.

Sandhill Cranes

As we approached, the Cranes were not afraid. We ended up surrounded by them. Here is a cell phone selfie video showing how close they were to us. 

My 400 mm camera lens could only capture the head of this bird squawking. 

Sandhill Crane

We saw a few Bald Eagles flying around but then I saw one perch in a tree. When I went over to take a photo, I was surprised to find another bird in the tree. Here is the happy couple. She is on the right - a larger bird than her hubby on the left. 

The Happy Couple

Roseate Spoonbills are iconic birds of the mangroves in Florida. I was surprised that we found one in the marsh. This bird was hanging out with a mixed bag of waders. You can see why they are called "rose" and "spoonbills" in this photo. 

Roseate Spoonbill

The biggest surprise of the day was spotting this River Otter right at the water's edge. He just looked at us for a few minutes before returning to his search for fish. 

River Otter

We don't get this stuff at Pennypack for sure. All in all, a good day of citizen science. 

No Regrets?

My impromptu Florida trip started with that gorgeous Flamingo and got better when I headed across the state to Key Biscayne in hopes of seeing two rare birds that were reported at Crandon State Park. One of the birds is pretty rare in the US - Thick-billed Vireo. I arrived at the park at 7:30 AM and found the bird immediately. It was sitting in the bushes along the path to the Nature Center. Honestly, this is one of those birds that could easily be overlooked as just another White-eyed Vireo until you hear the song and look closely at the bird. Here is a photo of the Thick-billed Vireo.

Thick-billed Vireo

Now compare with a photo of White-eyed Vireo taken on the same day at the same park.

White-eyed Vireo

Tough right? You can notice a split eye ring and thicker bill on the Thick-billed Vireo but that is about it. The second rare bird is easier to identify but proved more difficult to find at the park. I looked and looked. Other birders showed up and searched too. Finally, I found the bird moving along in the trees with some other birds. Yay! Female Western Spindalis.

Western Spindalis

By 10 AM, I had found the 2 rare birds and headed back across the state feeling pretty satisfied with the trip. Of course some of the fun of birding is "bragging" about it to my friends. I sent the photos above to some friends. Later that evening, Steve emailed back asking if I had also seen the Bananaquit. What Bananaquit? I quickly looked online and read that a Bananaquit had been seen at the same park at 2:30 in the afternoon. THE SAME PARK where I was on THE SAME DAY.  AAARRRGGGGHHHH! I could have let that ruin a perfectly good day but I didn't. Bananaquits, like the Spindalis, show up in Florida almost every winter. I'll have another chance to see one. Right? Please say yes. . . . #noregrets.

Pretty in Pink

You might think that Flamingos are easy to see in Florida. Many residents have plastic pink flamingos in their yards which makes me think that the flamingo is the Florida state bird. They are not - the state bird or easy to see. American Flamingos are not common and where they are regular, they are difficult to see. Most of the Flamingos in Florida are seen at the bottom end of the Everglades by people who are kayaking in the back country. No roads can take you there. And most boats cannot access the area either. I've tried to see Flamingos in the Everglades in the past. I drove all the way to the end of the road and asked the people at the campground. They just giggled and told me that I needed a boat. I slinked away. That was years ago.

Fast forward 15 years and now there is a single Flamingo that has been hanging around in a wildlife refuge up on the Florida panhandle near Tallahassee. The bird has been there since December but I haven't been able to get there to see it. That all changed on Sunday when Connie agreed to make a quick road trip this week to see the bird. Truth be told, she really wanted to visit her sister who lives in Florida. A compromise seemed like the best solution. We left Pennsylvania at 6:30 PM on Tuesday and drove straight through arriving at St. Mark's NWR at 9:30 AM on Wednesday. 15 hours of straight driving.

I probably didn't do enough research because we arrived at the spot and found a vast area of impoundments to search. As we stood there wondering where to start, a Vermillion Flycatcher flew out to the road. WOW! Totally unexpected rare bird.  We have seen this bird in Mexico, Costa Rica and Belize. I saw one in another spot in Florida a few years ago but this guy put on a show searching for bugs along the road and perching on low sticks at the water's edge.

Here he is looking for a bug to pluck from the water.

Luckily, we found a birder who had seen the bird a few times. He was taking his friend/wife/? out to the impoundment to look for the bird. We walked ahead of the couple trying to cover a lot of ground quickly. Peanut LOVED the walk. We went about a mile out on the dike road. I heard someone yelling and looked back to see the couple frantically waving their arms. They found the Flamingo. We headed back to meet them with our spotting scope. Donna aimed the scope out into the marsh and viola, we had the bird!

In the scope

Happy dances ensued.

Flamingo! The bird is back there somewhere

Seeing the bird through the scope was great but I needed a better view so I headed out for another mile to get a closer look. It was quite a hike but totally worth it. The Flamingo was right there!  He/she didn't care a bit about me or Peanut.

Me and the Flamingo

I spent another 20 minutes watching and photographing the bird as he/she was feeding in the impoundment. Flamingos are much taller than I imagined.

Flamingo

He/she would stomp around in circles searching for food.

Flamingo

You can see how the bird uses his foot to search and stir up the water for food.

What a great experience.

Babcock-Webb Day 2

Babcock-Webb WMA is so close to Connie's sister's house that I can't resist spending the morning there. There have been Snail Kites reported at the lake for the past few months so I thought I would try to see them. Spoiler alert: I dipped 2 days in a row. But I did manage to have a great time anyway. Day 2 started with heavy fog. This Red-shouldered Hawk was none-too-happy with it.

Foggy Morning

The park's habitat is a mix of open pine forests and shallow swamps which you can see in the above photo. The shallow marshes support tons of herons and egrets. Maybe I'm becoming a photo snob but I rarely take photos of Great-blue Herons because they are usually in boring poses and and pretty easy to photograph. That said, I took a few on Day 2. This one just because the bird was posing with such an elongated neck.

Great Blue Heron

And this one because the bird bit off more than he could chew. Literally, he spent 10 minutes figuring out how to swallow that huge fish. I didn't stay around to see if he succeeded.

Heron with a mouthful

I also usually don't photograph Great Egrets either. Not because they are boring but because they are very difficult to photograph. The white bird is usually over-exposed. To compensate, you end up making the rest of the photo dark. Today's fog was a perfect opportunity to get a good one. Fog flattens out the light so that the exposure can be good for the bird and the background too.

Great Egret

The Great Egret was crafty too. He was following a juvenile White Ibis along the edge of the water. Presumably waiting for the Ibis to stir up the fish for the Egret to have an easy meal. Juvenile White Ibis are not white. They are mottled so that they blend into the environment more. Here is the one that the Egret was following.

Juvenile White Ibis

The pine forests are great habitat for some species of warblers including well, Pine Warblers. I would come across flocks of a few dozen at a time. A few posed nicely. This guy was low in the grass.

Pine Warbler

This guy was low in a bush. 

Pine Warbler

This juvenile Pine Warbler followed Dad bush by bush, tree by tree. I guess he's not ready to go it alone.

Juvenile Pine Warbler

This Pine Warbler was acting like a Palm Warbler in the palm tree.

Pine Warbler in a palm

It wasn't all about birds at the park. I also saw a few alligators. This was the biggest - probably 7 or 8 feet long. Funny that he hustled into the water when he saw Peanut on the bank. Sissy.

Big Daddy Gator

 I found this water snake sunning himself after the fog cleared.

Water snake

I have one more story to share another day.

Florida for Christmas

We made the trip to Florida again for Christmas this year to see my Mom and Connie's sister. I make the most of the trip by going birding (what's new right?) Not much going on in The Villages bird-wise but we did get to see these Sandhill Cranes wandering around the Sheriff's Office parking area.

I also spotted these Cranes at Harne's Marsh this week. Look at how messy the juvenile's feathers are. They were honking at the park ranger's truck going by.

I also found a few other notable birds at the marsh including a life bird - Gray-headed Swamphen. I have seen a few before but never entered the sighting into eBird. Now, I can "officially" count it as bird # 1224.

There were lots of Tri-colored Herons at the marsh. This one was close to the path and didn't mind me and Peanut.

I also went to my favorite location near Punta Gorda - Babcock-Webb NWA. This is a huge wildlife management area that is a big hunting destination. This week, the park was so crowded that the campground was overflowing. I still had fun and saw some good birds. Anhingas were everywhere.

This Osprey was sitting quietly until he spotted another one flying past. Then, he started that squeeky crying.

Least Bitterns are very hard to see. They are secretive, camouflaged and stealthy. I caught this one jumping from one clump of reeds to another then spent time waiting for it to get into position to be photographed. This is the best shot I could get. I think you can get the idea of how small they are.

This was the best bird of the day for sure.

Spending Time with Owls in Florida

Connie's sister now lives in Cape Coral. This is an interesting area with many vacant lots. Vacant lots that are occasionally mowed and perfect for Burrowing Owls. The owls have babies in March and April. We spent time with these adolescents. They would all sit together and scream for Mom.

A bird flew overhead and they all looked up. 

I don't think that all the babies at this burrow were siblings. I think they may be neighbors that hang out together until Mom or Dad shows up. Here is one Mom preening her kid. He or she seems to like it.

The kids occasionally try out their wings.

One of them flew across the street and went into a burrow. One of the remaining kids went into their burrow too. How would you like getting sand kicked up in your face?

This kid hopped up on the wooden post and gave my car the evil eye.

Fun times with owls for sure.

More Bird Watching - Really Watching

Florida has produced quite the number of blog posts this week huh? Like I said before, nothing is better than time to allow you to really watch and photograph birds. Connie and I went to Sanibel Island on Saturday and spent some time at the infamous Ding Darling NWR. There weren't many birds at the refuge but we did get to spend quality time with a few favorites. The first was an Osprey nest that was right next to the road. These 2 siblings were squawking for food while the parents were out fishing. Big brother had a fish while little brother (or sister) waited and cried. Once the younger bird started, the older bird would join in the crying.

Crying Babies

Then, they would both stop and look around.

Osprey Siblings

The older bird (the one on the right) would chomp away at the fish in the nest. Finally, he or she gave up and the younger sibling slid in for a few morsels.

Osprey Siblings

Its a tough life for these siblings. Only the strong survive if there isn't enough food to go around.

Osprey Siblings

I suspect that these youngsters will both turn out fine. Meanwhile, Connie and I drove a little further up the road and spotted the only Roseate Spoonbill in the whole refuge. The only one. They are called "Roseate" because they are pink.

Roseate Spoonbill

The pink color makes them easy to spot. They sweep their bill back and forth in the water and then snap it shut if they find something.

Roseate Spoonbill

They are called "Spoonbills" because that bill really is shaped like a spoon if you see it from this angle.

Spoonbill

Here is a video showing the feeding motion.

While we were studying the Spoonbill, the Ibis were intent on fighting over something. They kept leaping in the air and poking at each other. I captured this shot in mid-air.

Fighting Ibis

 You can see some detail in the cropped shot here. The bird on the left is an adult male. You can tell by the deep red facial skin and dark bill. I guess he had a beef with the young guy.

Fighting Ibis

We found other critters too. Have you ever seen a crab with no claws? Its called a Mangrove Tree Crab.

Mangrove Tree Crab

And this Anole showing off his neck thingy to impress the ladies.

Anole

Like I said, if you have plenty of time and just a few birds to look at, you can watch some interesting behavior and maybe take time to look at the other critters around you.