Monthly Archives: June 2013

Gallinule War!

by Amy Posted on 21 June 2013

It’s been hot. High-in-the-mid-90s-F-every-day hot. The humidity has been hovering at about 100% at dawn, so it feels just a wee bit oppressive. Maybe the heat wave was behind the aggressive behavior I saw among a few Common Gallinules at Gemini Springs last week? An overcast sky really kept the air saturated. It was sticky and uncomfortable. And everybody was kung-fu fighting, basically.

One pair was already going at it when a second pair started to mix it up. You can see the bird in the center of the photo spewing forth a murderous war cry. A millisecond later – BATTLE!

Gallinule War!

Gallinule War!

Scuffles were sometimes initiated by aggressive wing-waving and sunken body position.

Gallinule War!

Gallinule War!

After the flapping, the big guns came out – those crazy gallinule feet.

Gallinule War!

Gallinule War!

Gallinule War!

You can see posturing, grabbing, flapping and finally what I would call sailboating in this video, which was taken after all of the above photos were snapped.

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Flash of red

by Amy Posted on 11 June 2013

I saw a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw a Northern Cardinal perched on the side mirror of a car parked at Gemini Springs.

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinals are abundant at the park; something else caught my eye and I looked the other way. Soon I was distracted by another flash of red — the cardinal again. I raised my camera and caught the male cardinal in the act: he was attacking his reflection in the car window.

Northern Cardinal attacking window

I had read about this behavior (cardinals are notorious for these crazy antics) but had never seen it myself.

Northern Cardinal

Our back yard is chock-full of Northern Cardinals these days. Since the beginning of June, adult birds have been followed by hungry babies all over our property. There are several families all living within flying distance, eating alongside each other at our feeders and foraging around our yard. Despite this harmony, in fact Northern Cardinals are highly territorial, especially when it comes to nesting sites. Northern Cardinals attack mirrors, windows and other reflective surfaces to defend their nesting territory from other (perceived) Northern Cardinals.

Northern Cardinal attacking window

I photographed one attack and then walked over to the car to break it up. Hopefully when he took off at my approach, he took off for good.

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Audubon Park accessible!

by Amy Posted on 5 June 2013

Back on March 2nd I wrote a bit on a small park in Deltona, Audubon Park. At the time I had the impression that the park was somewhat underused and relatively unknown. I noted that some new signs were installed in the park so it probably was not as unknown as I suspected. However, when I went to visit the park on the morning of March 19th I found the entrance gate locked. The park was not open at sunrise as signed. A half hour after sunrise no one came to open the gate so I left, grumbling.

Open at sunrise?

I learned that on April 19th the park had its official opening by the City of Deltona. I was unable to attend but had it in mind as I went biking on the East Regional Rail Trail with Arthur and his parents on April 27th. When we reached the back entrance to the park on the bike trail, I was absolutely thrilled to see that the pedestrian gate was open and there was a sign to indicate passage to Audubon Park. Yes!

Audubon Park

We headed into the park and had a short walk around the ponds and circle path. Bird life wasn’t too abundant that afternoon, though I was happy to have good looks at a couple of Black-necked Stilts and some Spotted Sandpipers (my Bird-a-Day) running along the shoreline.

Black-necked Stilt

There was also a great new sign showcasing some of the species recorded at the park. The poster has a couple of maddening spelling and editing errors that I tried to overlook – really, it’s always great to see birds getting a shout-out.

Audubon Park

Audubon Park is a small sanctuary that Deltona has developed into a nice little destination for birders. Access from the East Regional Rail Trail bike path is open so I hope to make this a regular place to visit in my quest to add to my BIGBY species list. Now if only they would add proper bike parking! 😉

bikes

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Birding Gemini Springs, May 2013

by Amy Posted on 4 June 2013

I was out of town for almost a week, but I still managed to bird Gemini Springs 7 times in May, coming up with a total of 45 species. That’s the same amount of species I saw there during May 2012, although only 32 are on both lists. The complete list of species for May 2013 is at the end of this post.

The last spring migrants pushed through the park during the month, though I feel like I missed most of them. In May Gemini Springs was full of growing babies. I finally found baby Barred Owls in two different parts of the park. The baby Red-shouldered Hawks continued to hang around their nest tree, and dark-billed baby Northern Cardinals were all over the place.

Painted Bunting
A lousy photo but only my 3rd Gemini Springs Painted Bunting [still looking for a male] | 03-MAY-13

Wet Barred Owl
Wet Barred Owl | 03-MAY-13

Limpkin
Limpkin | 04-MAY-13

Marsh Rabbit
Marsh Rabbit | 07-MAY-13

Northern Cardinal juv
Northern Cardinal, 2013 ed. | 07-MAY-13

Green Anole
Green Anole | 10-MAY-13

Passiflora incarnata
Passiflora incarnata, a host plant for Zebra Longwing butterflies | 10-MAY-13

Barred Owl juv
Barred Owl, 2013 ed. | 10-MAY-13

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail | 10-MAY-13

Tricolored Heron
The obligatory Tricolored Heron photo | 10-MAY-13

lantana
lantana sp | 10-MAY-13

Wild Turkey
A Wild Turkey high up in an oak tree | 10-MAY-13

Eastern Grey Squirrel
Eastern Grey Squirrel | 13-MAY-13

American Alligator
small/youngish American Alligator | 28-MAY-13

Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron… this is what happened next | 28-MAY-13

Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal on the singing snag | 28-MAY-13

Red-shouldered Hawk juv
Red-shouldered Hawk, 2013 ed. | 28-MAY-13

May 2013 bird list, Gemini Springs

Muscovy Duck – Cairina moschata
Northern Bobwhite – Colinus virginianus
Wild Turkey – Meleagris gallopavo
Anhinga – Anhinga anhinga
Great Blue Heron – Ardea herodias
Snowy Egret – Egretta thula
Little Blue Heron – Egretta caerulea
Tricolored Heron – Egretta tricolor
Cattle Egret – Bubulcus ibis
White Ibis – Eudocimus albus
Black Vulture – Coragyps atratus
Osprey – Pandion haliaetus
Bald Eagle – Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red-shouldered Hawk – Buteo lineatus
Red-tailed Hawk – Buteo jamaicensis
Common Gallinule – Gallinula galeata
American Coot – Fulica americana
Limpkin – Aramus guarauna
Spotted Sandpiper – Actitis macularius
Mourning Dove – Zenaida macroura
Common Ground-Dove – Columbina passerina
Barred Owl – Strix varia
Ruby-throated Hummingbird – Archilochus colubris
Red-bellied Woodpecker – Melanerpes carolinus
Pileated Woodpecker – Dryocopus pileatus
American Kestrel – Falco sparverius
Great Crested Flycatcher – Myiarchus crinitus
White-eyed Vireo – Vireo griseus
Blue Jay – Cyanocitta cristata
American Crow – Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow – Corvus ossifragus
Carolina Chickadee – Poecile carolinensis
Tufted Titmouse – Baeolophus bicolor
Carolina Wren – Thryothorus ludovicianus
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – Polioptila caerulea
Gray Catbird – Dumetella carolinensis
Northern Mockingbird – Mimus polyglottos
Brown Thrasher – Toxostoma rufum
Common Yellowthroat – Geothlypis trichas
American Redstart – Setophaga ruticilla
Northern Parula – Setophaga americana
Northern Cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis
Painted Bunting – Passerina ciris
Red-winged Blackbird – Agelaius phoeniceus
Boat-tailed Grackle – Quiscalus major

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My visitors came from *where* in May 2013?!?!

by Amy Posted on 3 June 2013

Here are the highs and lows revealed in last month’s Statcounter logs for my little birding blog…

Some righteous dude or dudette searched for bigby birding rules. Yes it does. Rock on.

Someone wondered, are there hummingbireds in cook county Illinios? I love the chance to plug me a little eBird. Yes, there are hummingbirds in Cook County, IL.

And then someone else wanted to know do northern saw-whet owls live in Chicago to which I say: eBird has the answer. Unless you were wondering about non-releaseable education birds. I only know of one, Boopie.

To the folks looking for a brownish duck with red beak and a duck with red beak, I’m hoping you found what you were looking for. My best guess would be Black-bellied Whistling Duck if your search was anywhere near Florida USA.

Someone wanted to know: do american goldfinches remember things? What a wonderful thing to wonder. 🙂

Someone searched for field museum free admission bring bird… does that mean raptor handlers get in for free? Sweet.

To the person searching for Gardening robins nest in our arborvites, should we remove it?: NO

To the person wondering American robin chicks affect of taking picture, Cornell’s NestWatch site is a wonderful resource for information on nest monitoring. Read the educational materials and take the online certification to become a nest monitor and share your data with ornithologists.

Two searches that made me giggle: what is a wood duck afraid of? and duck imprinting on high school student.

That last one seems oddly specific so it struck me as funny, but in reality a bird imprinting on a person is a serious matter. It is illegal to take a wild bird and keep it. It is nesting season now and I was extremely disturbed to find this search in my Statcounter: what to feed a baby bard owl. Two days later from the same IP address came the following search: how often do you feed a baby barred owl. An IP lookup tells me the search came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dear person who is caring for a baby Barred Owl in Cedar Rapids: Please get your bird to a licensed bird rehabilitation center as soon as possible. If your bird has become imprinted it cannot be released into the wild as it would never be able to fend for itself. Licensed rehabbers can properly care for injured or abandoned wild birds, and can facilitate nest replacement if feasible. No one can raise a bird better than its own parent. Please don’t keep the owl. Thank you.

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Posted in Funny, Rehabilitation, Search Terms | Leave a comment