Monthly Archives: December 2011

One kingfisher, three looks

Last week Arthur and I spent a few hours checking out the action at Merritt Island NWR’s Black Point Wildlife Drive. Bird-wise, there were a lot of new arrivals, including over a dozen Belted Kingfishers. Florida has kingfishers all year, and we invariably see them on Black Point, but during the winter the residents are joined by migratory birds from the north. I’ll never forget the many, many Belted Kingfishers we saw a few years back during a drive on U.S. 1 from Key Largo to Key West. It seemed every stretch of telephone wire had a kingfisher or two on it, every one of them looking down into the water. We saw the handsome fellow pictured here on December 10th.

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

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If you could just stop looking at birds for one minute…

Besides the preening ibis, I saw other birds at Epcot the other day.

Right after I got out of the car, a monorail sped by the parking lot. It honked at a Great Egret that was loafing on the track. The bird squawked and flew over to the other track.

Great Egret on the monorail

In Future World, Arthur and I stopped to watch a gospel choir singing holiday music. They were just barely loud enough to drown out the boisterious Common Grackles that were perched in the trees behind the choir stage. I know Common Grackles are in Florida all year, but I hadn’t seen much of them until a few weeks ago, and these were the first ones I’d seen at Epcot. (We just had a few visit our back yard feeders this week for the first time, too.)

A lot of the birds at this theme park hang out around the World Showcase Lagoon, a small body of water around which the country pavilions are located. That’s where I saw the ibis, and where I found this lone Anhinga chillaxing on a “pier.”

Anhinga

Anhinga

The White Ibis from the previous blog post was just one of a larger, loosely-formed flock. Most of the other birds were foraging or dozing.

White Ibis

By the Mexico pavilion I stopped to watch a large flock of American Crows flying between trees, perhaps preparing to roost for the night. I also exchanged looks with a Ring-billed Gull. You can see the crows as blurry dots in the background of this picture.

Ring-billed Gull

A flock of somethings flew overhead. Without my binoculars, I wasn’t positive of their identification; my camera helped me see they were Sandhill Cranes.

Sandhill Cranes

Once, during a fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, we saw a Great Horned Owl leave its roost tree for the night. That was very exciting. It unfortunately remains my only owl sighting at a Disney park so far. Well, besides these.

Owl decor

I always enjoy spending a day at one of the Disney parks (I better – we have season tickets!). Birds make everything better, though, and that’s good, because I’ll never stop watching them. 🙂

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Preening White Ibis

White Ibises are extremely common here in central Florida. We see them in parking lots and in our neighborhood, foraging in suburban front yards, almost as often as we see them in more natural areas.

While I see these white birds quite often, I hadn’t really noticed one preening before I stopped to watch a particular bird in a small flock along the World Showcase Lagoon at Epcot last week. I must have seen them preening before, I just never stopped to pay attention until that moment.

Preening White Ibis

According to the Birds of North America Online, White Ibises “spend much of the day preening, […] usually at day roosts. […] Back preened directly by turning head, lower belly by placing head between legs.” BNA goes on to explain in detail how they preen other body parts (what a resource!), but I only was able to witness this bird getting busy with its backside. 🙂

Preening White Ibis

Watching birds do what they do is always interesting, and I was especially interested watching this individual taking care of feather maintenance with its unusual bill. The back didn’t seem too tough a spot to preen. I would love to see that belly move though – it sounds like quite a move!

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Domain surveying (with preen break)

There are Red-shouldered Hawks everywhere you turn here in our central Florida neighborhood. They’re perching in our front tree, they’re frightening feeder birds in our back yard, and they’re calling from treetops on every sleepy street each time we go out. I snapped some photos of this youngster who happened to be perched on the wire across from our house the other day. So far, I can’t get enough of them. I hope you like them, too! 🙂

RSHA00

RSHA01

RSHA02

RSHA05

RSHA06

RSHA08

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A Gopher Tortoise “rescue”

Back in October, I visited Big Tree Park in Longwood, along with Arthur’s family. It was a short visit; we went to see The Senator, a cypress tree estimated to be around 3,500 years old, and its younger compatriot, Lady Liberty.

In between viewing the trees and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, I spied a Gopher Tortoise walking beside the boardwalk among the rich, wet vegetation. It seemed a strange place to find a tortoise. I then noticed a man and his daughter talking to the animal, wishing it well. I asked them about the tortoise and the man told me that they had just rescued it from a busy highway. They always brought rescue ‘turtles’ to Big Tree Park, and set them free by the little pool of water where I first saw the tortoise.


The Gopher Tortoise, before it scooted out of sight (photo by Ineke de Wolf)

I don’t know enough about Gopher Tortoises, but I know a little. The main thing I know is that they live in dry habitats, not swampy forests, not in the kind of wet place where cypress trees thrive. About turtles I know this bit of conventional wisdom regarding rescue – if you help one that’s crossing a road, bring it to the side it was heading towards. By all means, if possible, leave it be, or leave it close to where you found it.

I don’t know exactly where this family found their tortoise, only that it was by a very busy road or highway. Big Tree Park has some standing water and marshy habitat. In my ignorance it does seem like a fair place to release land turtles that are not tortoises (so Eastern Box Turtles) that have been found in unsafe places.

I watched the tortoise truck away from the boardwalk and disappear, and I wished it well. I hope it found a suitable place to be what it is. Then I went and had a talk with the father and his daughter and their turtle rescue habits. I explained that all turtles are not the same, except that they should all be left alone as much as possible. I told them that they had brought a tortoise to unsuitable habitat… for future reference. I don’t know if I made a difference, but I had to try.

Senator
The Senator

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Gemini Springs, November 2011

In November I added 12 new species to my modest Gemini Springs list over six different complete checklists, including Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot, and American Robin. I also added 8 species to my 2011 BIGBY list, reaching my goal of 75 species with Killdeer on November 28. I missed visiting the park for over a week mid-month (I was out of town) and I could notice there were quite a few new arrivals that flew in during my absence. It’s fun to follow the changes in the park (and to fill in those blanks on the Gemini Springs eBird list). 🙂

tiny mushrooms
tiny mushrooms; November 1 2011

Harvest Festival pumpkins
Harvest Festival decor; November 5 2011

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker and Spanish Moss; November 5 2011

Eastern Gray Squirrel
Eastern Gray Squirrel; November 5 2011

Cormorants in the fog
Cormorants in the fog; November 7 2011

White Ibis
White Ibis; November 7 2011

flowers
Florida Mound (?) flowers; November 7 2011

turtle
Eastern Box Turtle; November 7 2011

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird; November 7 2011

American Coots
American Coots; November 23 2011

American Coots
American Coots; November 23 2011

beautyberry
Beautyberry sp; November 23 2011

Red-tailed Hawk juvenile
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk; November 23 2011

Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler; November 23 2011

Gemini Springs
Perching place; November 23 2011

Pied-billed Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe; November 23 2011

Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler watches the blogger; November 23 2011

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My visitors came from *where* in November 2011?!?!?

Here are my favorite search terms that brought visitors to this site during November 2011. This is part of an ongoing monthly series on blog search terms.

Last month there were a bunch of search terms that just made me laugh out loud.

* owls with mohawks – really!?
* shirts about having a lisp – I don’t have any, but maybe I should design some?
* gift ideas for women who like to sleep – another niche I have yet to explore.
* thermal spaghetti tank – contradictory much?
* pigeon in prison – for public defecation? stealing bread? loitering?
* who was poor sam peabody – hopefully the searcher got his/her answer!
* owl drawings for kids that are colored – is that the best way to phrase your search?

One day I found the term florida small birds in my stats; the next day a different person searched for big birds of florida. Another day, another user: bird size comparison chart. Conclusion: focus more on bird size in future posts.

I love that someone searched for what are the official colors of bird banding and what are the official symbol of bird banding. Oh, I wish there was an answer for that! Think of all the shirts I could design! 😉

To the person searching for funny birding outfits – wrong site, buddy!

I wonder if an egyptian griffin hummingbird would be cute?

Most intriguing search term of the month: wesley the owl movie

Funniest search result: whoever searched for ivory-billed woodpecker graph of extinction somehow ended up here!

Finally, to the person searching is annual bald eagle watch at starved rock fun?: YES, it is. When you go, be sure to look for juvenile eagles wearing bling!

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