Category Archives: North America

Ubiquitous Tyrant

All of the photos in this post are from a 4 May 2012 Gemini Springs outing.

Great Crested Flycatcher

I saw my first Great Crested Flycatcher of the year on March 27th, in our neighbor’s yard. About a month later, Arthur and I had some excitement when we spotted a pair of them checking a large nestbox we had put up in our back yard. When we purchased the Screech Owl box, I learned which other birds might use it – the list included a few woodpecker species and the Great Crested. So when I saw a pair flitting about in our yard, I stopped to watch them, and silently willed them to head towards the right tree. I was so excited to watch them explore the box!

Great Crested Flycatcher

The birds were eventually chased out by squirrels (who’s the tyrant?!), but we still see and hear these large flycatchers in our yard and neighborhood frequently.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Cresteds were among the 83 species I saw during my recent trip to northern Illinois. A pair of birds was exploring a few natural, woodpecker-carved cavities in trees along the Des Plaines River at Ryerson Conservation Area. Some in our group were skeptical that they nested in cavities… but I knew. 🙂 Ryerson is where I first recorded this species on my life list, back in 2009.

Great Crested Flycatcher

My most recent sighting occurred this afternoon during my volunteer shift at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. I followed a pair as they flew among the trees behind a row of hawk mews. Wouldn’t it be great if they were nesting there?

Great Crested getaway

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Posted in Florida, Gemini Springs, Illinois, Life List, Volusia Birding | 1 Comment

Lazy birding at mom & dad’s

During my visit with my parents last week, I spent some time checking out the birds that visit their suburban Chicago back yard feeders.

Baltimore Oriole
Baltimore Oriole nomming grape jelly

Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird nomming on nectar

Indigo Bunting
Indigo Bunting considering next nom

Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Rose-breasted Grosbeak perching above noms

Orchard Oriole
Orchard Oriole nomming on grape jelly

Mallard
Mallards about to nom on cracked corn

These stunners were joined by many others; it was nice to add some ticks to my year list while lounging on the patio doing some lazy birding. New for 2012 were Hairy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, White-crowned Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Orchard Oriole – before I even unpacked my bags. 🙂

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Posted in Illinois, Yard Birds | 1 Comment

Turtle sucker

See something odd happening on the back end of this turtle? What’s that coming out of the rear left leg?

Red-eared Slider w/ leech

This morning at Lake Lotus Park in Altamonte Springs, Arthur and I stopped along the boardwalk to watch a small Red-eared Slider struggling to climb onto a floating log. Once it clawed its way onto the the log, it started walking as if it had something on its plastron which prevented its back legs from reaching the surface at the correct angle or position. The turtle slid back into the water but when it climbed back onto the log moments later, it still had the same problem. As we continued to watch we finally noticed that it had a rather large leech stuck to its body.

It appeared to be scooting around the log to try and remove the leech. This video shows the turtle’s first ascent onto the log and a couple of moments of subsequent leech-scooting.

It is very common for turtles to carry leeches. I had no idea of this before today. In Googling for information about turtles and leeches, I came across an older post from one of my favorite Florida bloggers, who wrote: “It’s extremely common to find leeches on turtles in Florida. In fact, it’s so common, that if I had to go collect a bunch of leeches, I would start flipping turtles.” Well, how about that?

Red-eared Slider w/ leech

Leeches survive by attaching themselves to a host animal and sucking blood. When turtles bask in the sun, sometimes their leeches dry up and fall off. Good luck little slider, and thanks for today’s new thing learned.

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Posted in Florida, Herps | Leave a comment

The Owl Clan

A large statue of an owl was recovered from the St. Johns River near DeLand, Florida in 1955. An artifact of the Timucua Native American tribes that historically lived in the area, the original pine wood statue dates from 1400-1500 A.D. The original piece is on display at the Florida State Museum in Gainesville. A replica of the statue stands on Hontoon Island, a state park cut out of the St. Johns River near DeLand.

The Owl Clan

The owl totem identified the local “clan” of Timucua; similar statues representing a pelican and an otter were found elsewhere along the St. Johns in 1978. These three totems are the only such Native American statues found in North America outside of the Pacific Northwest. The owl totem is remarkable for its large size.

The Owl Clan

The stylized totem statue probably represents a Great Horned Owl and stands over six feet tall from horns to talons. Interestingly, the totem owl has five talons, instead of the four naturally found on Great Horned Owls. Was there perhaps a bit of anthropomorphizing among the Owl Clan? I’m not judging. In fact, as a lover of owls, I say — sign me up for the modern version of the Owl Clan.

The Owl Clan

Sources: The Florida anthropologist via the University of Florida and replica signage

The Owl Clan

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Posted in Florida, Volusia Birding | 1 Comment

It takes a lot of work to look this good

Wood Duck

How does a Wood Duck know when it’s time to take a bath?

Wood Duck

I happened to be watching this one when it was time. He looked quite clean to me, but what do I know?

Wood Duck

After a whole lotta splashin’ was going on, he joined his companion on a nearby snag for some serious preening.

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

All done.

Wood Duck

Lookin’ good, hot stuff.

Wood Duck

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Posted in Behavior, Florida | Leave a comment

Purple Sandpiper at Lighthouse Point Park

At the end of March, Arthur and I took a day off to do some birding at a few spots in Volusia County. Lately I’ve been really interested in increasing my home county list, so I trolled eBird for birds missing from my year list. I determined our route based on a rather long wishlist of needed birds.

Our first stop was a hotspot I’d never been to before: Longleaf Pine Preserve outside of DeLand. Here I had a target list of way too many birds. We had a very nice 6 mile hike where we recorded a total of 15 (!) species, only one of which was on my target list. We first heard and then had very nice looks at a male Bachman’s Sparrow singing in typical habitat for this species. This one target was also the only potential lifer we expected here, so, you know, mission accomplished!

Next we stopped at Port Orange Causeway Park, located under Dunlawton Avenue where it crosses the Intracoastal Waterway. Part of the park looks over the Port Orange Sanctuary, though birds can be viewed from all over this eBird hotspot. My two targets here were American Oystercatcher and Reddish Egret; we found both. After this short visit we headed to our final destination for the day, to search for the subject of this blog post.

Lighthouse Point Park is located in Ponce Inlet, close to the lighthouse, natch. The lighthouse isn’t in the park, though, as signs at the park entrance take great pains to inform all visitors. Anyway, the beautiful beach and clear water attracts families and sunbathers, and, during our visit, lots of surfers. I had just one target species here: Purple Sandpiper.

Purple Sandpiper

We found an active bird as we walked along the jetty. This was not a life bird, but it was new to my U.S. list.

Purple Sandpiper

Previously we had seen Purple Sandpipers along a different jetty on the other side of the Atlantic, at IJmuiden.

Purple Sandpiper

I’ve submitted this post to the current Bird Photography Weekly. BPW is a regular collection of user-submitted bird photos from all over the world. The new edition comes out every Sunday. Go have a look at this week’s submissions!

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Posted in Bird Photography Weekly, Florida, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

Birthday Birds

For my birthday back in February, Arthur and I had a nice little two-day trip to the west coast of Florida. I based our loose itinerary on recent rare birds reported to Florida birding listservs. We started out on Sunday the 26th with a Green-tailed Towhee in the morning, pelicans, shorebirds, and ailing seabirds in the afternoon, and a Lark Sparrow late in the day. On Monday, my birthday, we first headed to the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Old Tampa Bay to look for another target bird.

We drove up and down the access roads on either side of the causeway, looking for our target in the water, and checking out the birds that were loafing along the roadway and in the bay.

birding
Scanning Old Tampa Bay

Horned Grebes
Horned Grebes

Black Skimmers
Black Skimmers

Black Skimmer head on
Thin skimmer bill!

American Oystercatcher
We had better views of American Oystercatchers after the previous day’s flyover lifers

After several hours of searching, we had a nice list of birds for both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, but we still didn’t have our target. One last round, we said. One last look around, we decided. And on the last round, close to the county border, we found our bird, swimming alone out on the bay.

Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck!

Long-tailed Duck butt
He was extremely active; most of my photos look like this

Long-tailed Ducks don’t typically range this far south, though stray birds show up across the south and elsewhere out of range fairly regularly.

We, and the bird, were in Hillsborough County. The duck was swimming towards Pinellas County… so we waited for that extra county tick. 🙂 It wasn’t a lifer but it was certainly nice to get a new state bird, in two counties even!

Our next stop, somewhere between Tampa Bay and home, was another Florida birding hotspot: Circle B Bar Reserve near Lakeland in Polk County. I didn’t have any specific target birds here. We were lucky to see a pair of Purple Gallinules who were not kind enough to pose for photos. First though, there was an American Bittern who was so accommodating that we actually left the bird while it was still in plain view – this after many minutes of intimate observation.

American Bittern
Preening American Bittern

American Bittern
Rousing American Bittern

American Bittern
Serious American Bittern

Later we were delighted to find a male Painted Bunting land in the path directly in front of us. And there were waders and gators everywhere.

Painted Bunting
Painted Bunting

Green Heron
Green Heron

American Alligator
American Alligator keeping cool

Snowy Egret
Snowy Egret

Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk

American Alligator
American Alligator warming up

Circle B lived up to its reputation and we are looking forward to future visits! And in the meantime I have some very nice memories of a birthday birding blitz.

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Posted in Florida | 1 Comment

Big White Birds

Efforts to save the highly endangered Whooping Crane included the attempted establishment of a non-migratory population in central Florida. Since this effort was deemed unsustainable due to high mortality and low reproduction, the flock today is down to just 20 birds from 53 individuals in 2006.

The birds are still being monitored, however, and last year camera traps were set up to study nest sites. One nest site is also being monitored by a data logger, which measures temperature change and other data.

Birds from the Florida non-migratory population are spotted by birders fairly regularly, so when a pair was reportedly seen on a farm field in nearby Lake County, Florida, Arthur and I drove out to see if we could find them. They were hanging out close to a flock of Sandhill Cranes and very easy to find. We kept a respectful distance and observed them, using our car as a hide.

Whooping Crane with Sandhill Cranes

Whooping Cranes

Whooping Crane
Distortion from heat shimmer was intense – this photo has not been filtered

Whooping Cranes

Whooping Cranes sightings should be reported. Birds seen in the eastern United States can be reported to USFWS using this form. Based on the band colors these birds are wearing, we knew they were part of the non-migratory population. Migrant Whooping Cranes are also found in Florida during the winter, and those sightings should certainly always be reported to USFWS. Although we are grateful to be able to see these birds after their location was mentioned on a public mailing list, we believe that all sightings of Whooping Cranes in the wild should be shared with extreme discretion.

Whooping Crane

Whooping Cranes

Flying Whooping Crane

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Posted in Endangered, Florida | Leave a comment

A Mockingbird, a Lark

If you want to be a better birder, observe the birds, right? Even the common ones. Especially the common ones. Learn them backwards and forwards so you’ll recognize something special (they’re all special!) when it comes along.

Arthur and I visited Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida last month. It was a short visit, just four hours or so to explore one of the most productive and popular birding spots in the state. We hit a few parts of the park and then ran into a birder whose name I knew (and she knew mine, blush) from the state birding listservs. She showed us around a part of the park known as a warbler hotspot and helped us look for a couple of overwintering grosbeaks (neither of which were located that day). Despite the dips, it was great to meet someone who knows Fort De Soto so well and to put a face to an email name.

In addition to the Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks recently seen at the park, I knew that a Lark Sparrow (which is not normally found in Florida) had been hanging out there, but I didn’t know where exactly (I was unprepared; the trip to Fort De Soto was rather impromptu). As we walked back to the car at the end of the day, I stopped to observe and photograph a Northern Mockingbird.

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird at Fort De Soto

It had just popped out of a bush and was perching in the open, posing nicely while it looked around the immediate area.

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird calling

I noticed something moving inside the bush, and suddenly the mockingbird flushed. This is what took its place.

Lark Sparrow
Lark Sparrow!

Observe the birds. Even the common ones. You never know what you’ll learn — or who you’ll see.

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Posted in Florida, Rare / Vagrant | Leave a comment

Willet Threat Assessment

The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is located right on the beach in Indian Shores, Florida. During our visit, we found this sleepy Willet on the white sand. Though the bird stood on one foot, it rotated its body slightly to watch us pass (we gave it wide berth).

Alert Willet
Alert Willet checks out the birders walking by

Curious Willet
Curious Willet assesses threat level of passing birders

Sleepy Willet
Sleepy Willet resumes nap

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Posted in Behavior, Florida | Leave a comment