Beach Birding

Ouch! Ooouch! EEECH! Now I understand why this area is so well known for its shelling. I've never seen so many shells in one place before! The beach is pretty narrow, but I did of lot of yelping and jumping to get from the chair to the sand. Instead of walking for hours, we decided to just sit still and let the birds come to us, and they did. I sat in the shade of the umbrella to actually read the Stokes book on shorebirds, and I think it will make a difference in my struggle with "shorebird anxiety."

Lillian Stokes asks the key quesion, what is a shorebird? She covers four different families (which I won't try to spell in Latin here), noting that "These birds are grouped together because of structural similarities in the characteristics of their skull, backbones, and syrinx. Of course, none of these characteristics are apparent to the casual observer." (Yeah, right.) She then lists these characteristics, concluding that "You'll know one when you see one." Sometimes these birds are seen at the sea shore, and something they aren't. Yet they do not include birds such as gulls and terns that are always found at the shore. Willets are pretty easy to recognize, especially when they take flight. I didn't realize what speedy birds they are either, but the wing pattern is unforgettable.

The little Sanderlings are always some of my favorites, as they run down to the sea and back. They remind me of an album I liked in college called "The Sea." I can't recall who made it, just the lyrics about going down to the sea and back.

The Ruddy Turnstones turned over lots of shells since there weren't any stones on the beach today. If I ever come back to Florida during the breeding season, I'll have to learn many of these birds again, since I've only seen them in the winter.

A juvenile Royal Tern followed the others around, begging for food. The adults just ignored him.

I love to watch Pelicans flying in formation. Have you ever noticed that they flap up and down in unison? Well, for the most part they do. That guy at the end of the line is a little off beat.

At least you have a chance to spot and follow the Pelicans as they fly along the length of the beach. Gulls, such as these Laughing Gulls come in and drop quickly to the ground.

When they gather on the beach, it's time for a good preening, checking each feather, and stretching wings and legs. Then tuck your beak under your wing for a quick nap.

Well, you can try to nap until the beach bully comes up, squawking at all the other gulls.

As we waited for the tram back to the parking lot at Lovers Key State Park, an Osprey called from a snag before she started to eat her freshly caught fish. See the necklace of brown feathers? That makes this a female. An Eagle tried to steal her fish, and I watched them fly off, but they separated before I could get off the tram and take a photo.

At the end of the afternoon, we left to meet Dick's former boss for dinner, but we agreed that this was a pleasant and relaxing day.

Corkscrew Swamp

A 2.25-mile raised boardwalk takes visitors through several distinct habitats found within the 11,000-acre Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, including the largest remaining virgin bald cypress forest in North America. They are called "bald" because they lose their needles even though they are conifers. We heard the constant gentle drop of the needles as we walked the boardwalk. The small brown crunchy things on the boardwalk were not, in fact, part of the dropping needles, but "frass", or catepillar poop, one of the volunteers told us.

The Audubon Society was formed by Boston society matrons to save the egrets which were being exterminated to provide feathers for the ladies' hats fashionable at the time. We visited the camp where wardens kept watch for the poachers after killing the birds was banned. Two of the wardens were killed during this time.

We are looking for just a few new birds to add to our life list this week, including the Swallow-tailed Kite and Painted Bunting. We asked at the entrance desk where we might be likely to find the Bunting, and he pointed to a feeder just outside the window. "I saw one there just a little while ago." Well, isn't that the story of birding! The second suggestion was another feeder down the boardwalk. We headed down the path and spent about 10 very quiet minutes at the second feeder. Patience paid, and one Painted Bunting flew into the cage around the feeder staying long enough for a few photos. The feeder was hooked to a series of pulleys, with metal tubes at the ends. We assumed this was to protect the feeders from squirrels, but a sign said it was to keep bears away!

We proceeded down the 2.5 mile boardwalk, peering up in the branches and down into the brush for birds. This is an Audubon sanctuary, fer cryin' out loud! Where are all the birds?? We walked for over 1.5 miles before seeing any more birds after the Painted Bunting. It's a nice place, lots of different habitats, but we really thought ther would be more birds. Finally, we started hearing some cheeps, and small birds hopped around in the trees, backlit by the sun, and difficult to see. Ah, now I see one - very small, gray, and a white eye ring - a Blue-headed Vireo? Now that I'm checking the field guide, I'm not so sure. Some kind of warbler? AHA! I found it - a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Just a very quiet one.

A large Pileated Woodpecker flew through the trees calling loudly. A smaller woodpecker was tapping in another tree, and we finally tracked it down - a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.

Red Shouldered Hawks are much more populous in Florida than they are in Kentucky, and two of them called loudly to each other as they circled the sanctuary. Don't know how early they begin courtship down here.

Shhh! another visitor motioned. Look over the rail. A Little Blue Heron slowly stepped down a submerged log, looking for small invertebrates in the water. Even the school children seemed to appreciate this little bird, and watched quietly so as not to disturb it.

Large leaved Alligator Flags line the pools of water along the boardwalk. Signs advised us that the Green Anole is the native, and more rare, species, while the browns ones are exotics and more common. We heard the leaves rattling and thought a small bird might be hopping in the branches, but found this terrific Green Anole instead. He wasn't disturbed by our photography, and eventually hopped over to the next bunch of leaves.

There are probably more ferns in the swamp than there are trees. They grow on the sides of trees, on top of the cypress knees, and on the trunks of fallen trees which act as nursery trees, just like we saw in the rain forests of Washington state.

This isn't the season for new fronds to come out, but one fern didn't seem to care and sprouted new fiddleheads all over its length.

Another smooth fronded fern displayed a texture that reminded me of alligator hide, but I don't think that was its name at all. Can you guess what this is? I love taking closeups!

Fakahatchee Strand

Today we joined Al and Roz Katz for a trip to Fakahatchee Strand, sometimes known as the "Amazon of North America." Al likened it to Jurassic Park, full of swamp and ferns. It is also famous for Ghost Orchids, but we were on the watch for alligators, panthers and bears today. Since they are about to do some road maintenance on the single unpaved road, we had the place to ourselves as we drove into the cypress swamps in Al's yellow Mustang convertible with the top down. I was amazed at the water's clarity as it moved slowly towards the Everglades.

The ferns are everywhere and every size. Small spores cling to the bottom of some fronds, blowing into the breeze if you brush against them.

Roz finally found the small slender shoestring fern growing on the side of a tree. It looks like small green spaghetti hanging on the bark, and I would never have known it was a fern at all just by looking at it. Nope, this isn't it, but some other kind of fern that caught my eye. Plenty of birds perch along the edge of the shallow water, including Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Great Blue Herons, Ibis, Little Blue Herons and others. The larger birds would fly before us down the road, surely an easier task then dodging between branches in the heavy growth.

Numerous Red Shouldered Hawks called from sky and tree top. These Florida birds appear a bit paler in color than ours in Kentucky.

The last time Al came to Fakahatchee, he saw a panther (similar to a puma) walking down the road, and this time he hoped to find a black bear. We did not find either, but as we left, we stopped by the ranger's office, and park workers said they had, indeed, seen a black bear earlier this morning! We did, however, find plenty of ALLIGATORS!

The first gator lounged in the water...

...and another sunned itself on the sunny gravel road. If our eyes weren't sharp enough, we still heard the sudden SPLASH of a gator plopping into the water at our approach.

Gator eyes watched us constantly. "What is that yellow thing? Can I swallow it?" they seemed to think.

At one point, we walked down a trail for a bit balanced on boards above the water. Nowhere near the end of the path, Al suddenly hollered and said, "This is as far as we can go today!" when he saw a large gator resting across the path in front of us. We all agreed and headed back to the car, hoping that another would not be waiting behind us. Look at the size of those claws!

A nearby rustle caught my attention. A toad? A crawdad? No, this creature has too many legs, and I think I see antennae too. Oh, that's a lubber! Roz says they change colors all year, and this will be about the last of them. Looks like they have been painted and released by some pop artist!

The long-winged Zebra butterflies were much easier to identify.

We commented that there didn't seem to be a large amount of invasive plants. This is a native wild coffee that the Native Americans used to make a drink.

Most of the Royal Palms you see in Florida are actually not native to Florida at all. Fakahatchee has a stand of native ones though. Near the entrance was a prairie, and cypress stumps remaining from logging intersperced the living trees. Remnants of a large cypress forest, they still act as nursery trees, with ferns and small trees growing along the trunks.

When we stopped at Everglades City for a lunch of stone crabs, we watched this blue crab swimming by. It's legs really are blue, but it only used two of them for swimming.

Naturalists are always friendly people, and love to share their enthusiasm and knowledge even with strangers such as ourselves. Roz and Al are both active with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and travelled to Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve in October for their son's recent wedding. Thanks for spending the day with us. If you return to Kentucky, maybe we can do the same for you!

Ding Darling, Darling

Although we vacation in Florida every few years, we usually end up on the east coast since our timeshare is there. So this year, we wanted to try some of the terrific birding spots in southwest Florida, near Naples and Fort Meyers. Dick started looking for a condo over six months ago, and the only one he could find ended up in Lehigh. It's a nice place, but it takes about an hour to drive to the coast where all the birds are. Ah well. So let's start the week with Ding Darling NWR. Everyone raves about Ding Darling, and now I know why. It is a 7,000 acre estuary and mangrove swamp, taking up the entire bay-side of Sanibel Island. As we drove the loop road, the first thing we discovered is that you must look at the very near water as well as that on the other side. The smaller herons, egrets and ibis often stood right where the water rushed under the road from one area to another, and they seemed unafraid of people. We watched for several minutes as a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron struggled to swallow a crab, tossing it around its mouth trying to chomp off the legs.

Another place to watch is mud flats of any sort. Varietes of plovers, willets and gulls shared space with huge American Pelicans. At one point, we watched four Bald Eagles soaring in the air, three immatures and one adult. Somehow the polarizing filter on my camera managed to disrupt the focus, so it's a good thing I stopped to check them about half way through.

It's fun to talk to other birders you meet. We chatted with two other couples, and they asked where we were from. "Louisville, KY," we replied. They knew someone whose son just got married there at some nature preserve. "Was it Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, in Goshen?" Well, it was, and they are friends of the people we are meeting tomorrow whose son just got married. Louisville has always been the biggest little town in the world!

A sunset tour of Tarpon Bay sounded like a wonderful way to end the day, so we joined Tarpon Bay Explorers to learn more about the area. Some of the animals we wouldn't see from the surface were kept in touch tanks....

...but the best parts were the birds, of course. A couple moaned about paddling a kayak for two hours, so Dick and I decided to take the pontoon boat tour.

The rising tide covered available perching spots on the oyster bars in the shallow estuary, but large and small birds shared what was available, including some Oyster Catchers, appropriately enough.

More birds came for a good resting spot in the mangroves growing there too. The guides had noticed some Vultures recently, which don't normally come near the water to feed, and investigation showed an Anhinga swinging between the branches, where it had strangled on fishing line.

Dick said we might have a tough time going for new life birds this trip, but I'm happy to just identify some we've been a little shaky on. It was a bonus to see the silhouettes of three Magnificent Frigate Birds flying overhead.

Yes, this is the way to end your first day of birding in Florida!