The Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral

People love Burrowing Owls.  This small owl was very common in the Western United States, often nesting in empty prairie dog burrows.  As the prairie dog often would carry on it's activities on all four legs while the burrowing owl would remain regally erect some Indian tribes called it the "priest of the prairie dogs".  In eastern United States, Florida has a population throughout the southern part of the state and Cape Coral is the easiest place to view them. The city protects the birds and many of the citizens try to attract them to their yards.  Many of the vacant lots have nesting owls which are easy to locate by the perches, signs, and sometimes tape to protect them. 
I scouted the area around the city library and found at least two dozen active burrows.  At this time of year many of the pairs had young which were waiting outside the burrow for the adults to feed them.

Ma and Pa Burrowing Owls

The Youngstsers

Begging for Food

About mid-morning a threatening  thunderstorm finally delivered with a 30 minute shower.  At the risk of being very anthropomophic I propose the following titles:

"Hey, it is raining"

"Thunder scares me."

"I hate thunder storms":

"Mom told me to air dry".



The Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow in the Everglades

Sparrows never elicit the response that a scarlet tanager or baltimore oriole get.  These L.B.J.s (little brown jobs), nevertheless have interesting lives and the more scrutiny they get the more they are appreciated.  Seaside Sparrows, as their name suggests, inhabit saltwater and brackish marshes.  There are a number of variations of this species all varying somewhat in coloration and locations.  One variation called the Dusky Seaside Sparrow is extinct.  The last one (a captured bird) died June 16, 1987.  The Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow is teetering on the edge.  It breeds in a small area in southern Florida. 

As I drove into Everglades National Park I was not optimistic that I would be able to find this endangered species let alone photograph it.  Twenty miles from the park entrance I pulled off the road and begin walking and listening.  I had almost a half an hour before the sun rose and the only traffic was a few fisherman trailering their boats down to Flamingo.  Within 15 minutes I had located a singing bird but it was far off the road and barely visible with binoculars.  I had hoped to shoot from the roadside but I had no choice but to shoulder my equipment and hike in.   A list of poisonous snakes living in the Everglades ran through my mind as I worked my way to the bird.

Suddenly the bird flew towards me.  I was not expecting this since grassland sparrows generally disappear rather quickly as you approach them.  This one had some personality and even seemed curious at first.  It soon forgot about me and got down to bird business, which at the moment was having a song duel with another sparrow in the far distance.  It allowed me to reposition my tripod and get closer many times while it tried to shout down the distant bird.  My only problem was that it was so intent on his competitor that he kept his back to me for about 90 % of the time.

Our record on saving endangered species is not very good.  Having experienced this brief little episode in the life of this personable little bird I will be very sad to read some time that the last one has died and it's song and personality extinguished forever. 

Final Day in the Keys

The four target birds I hoped to photograph in the keys were Gray Kingbird, White-crowned Pigeon, Black-whiskered Vireo, and Mangrove Cuckoo.  I had photographed the first two and knew the Mangrove Cuckoo would be the most difficult.  It is secretive by nature and very difficult to observe so that many aspects of it's biology is unknown to science.  I had not found any sign of this cuckoo and decided to concentrate on the vireo which had eluded my camera so far.  Since I had heard the most vireos on No Name Key, I concentrated my efforts there.

Driving through Big Pine Key and No Name Key before sunrise definitely keeps you on your toes.  Even at 25 mph the tiny Key Deer (about the size of a large dog) keep jumping out in front of you.  They are very stupid about vehicles vs tiny deer and considering how my truck has acted as a deer magnet in the past I was as jumpy as they were.  The number hit and killed this year is already pushing 50 and I did not want to add to this total.  When I parked my truck and hauled out my equipment they continued to walk up and down the road like tame pets. 

After about 20 minutes, I located a fairly cooperative Black-whiskered Vireo pair which played peek-a-boo with the camera for enough time to get the following images.

The Black-whiskered Vireo is very similar to the common Red-eyed Vireo but is a little browner and has the "whiskers" or lateral throat stripe.

Black-whiskered Vireo with an unfortunate katydid.

The Florida Keys

The Florida Keys have a reputation for having birds that are very difficult to see anywhere else in the United States.  I was hoping to pick up several that I personally had never photographed before.  I decided to make Long Key State Park my base of operations for several days since it was somewhat centrally located and was easier to get into than sites closer to Key West.  The 60 camp sites are in one long row.  There is not a bad one available since all are on the water.  The restrooms are quite nice and everybody is pretty laid back with the evenings being quiet.  The spring bird migration is probably not noticed by most of these relaxing campers but the few that are carrying binoculars were finding migrants trickling through all the time.

Site 45- Home base for four days

The first morning I hiked the Golden Orb Nature Trail located in the eastern end of Long Key State Park.  This was rather disappointing since I only heard Prairie Warblers and Northern Cardinals.  This was not the start I had hoped for.  I decided to drive west to Edna Lake on Grassy Key.  Edna Lake is one of the few freshwater ponds in the Keys. Calling it a lake is a huge exageration but it did produce Least Terns, Black-necked Stilts, Reddish Egrets, Laughing Gulls, and a Great Egret.  A site guide said that many Least Terns roost there in late summer, but the eight birds there were paired up and I wondered if a few stayed around to actually nest. 

Least Terns

Least Tern wing flap

Towards noon I drove to Curry Hammock State Park, paid my $4.50 admission and parked for lunch.  On the way in the attendant told me White-crowned Pigeons were on the property down a road I was not allowed to enter but that I could stand on the side of the road because sometimes they fly over.  Since it was 88 degrees that was not very appealing to me so I pulled into the beach parking lot to eat lunch and to see just how accurate her information was.  I never saw any in the hour and a half I was there, but I did hear some Gray Kingbirds, one of the target species I was after.  I did get my first photo of this species and counted the day as a success. 

One of my target birds.  The Gray Kingbird is distinguished from the familiar Easter Kingbird by having a gray head (rather than black) and a much larger bill.

 As I ate my lunch I noticed a lot of movement in the bushes in front of me.  As I continued to watch I saw a half dozen exotic green iguanas crawl out of the shrubbery.  One was close to six feet long.  Their populations have exploded recently to the point they are becoming quite a pest and competing with local wildlife.  Called "bamboo chickens" and eaten in some countries the taste is said to be similar to chicken but with a reptile flavor.  I am not quite sure what "reptile flavor" is but I would like to see a "Man vs Food" segment at an Iguana cookoff. 

After lunch I checked out Big Pine Key along Long Beach Road and found some more Gray Kingbirds.  I stopped at the National Key Deer Refuge Visitor Center located in the Big Pine shopping Plaza.  There was nobody there that was into birds so I drove up to the Blue Hole, a small fresh water pond, but being the warmest part of the day there weren't any visitors or birds to be seen.  I returned to Long Key and found that a nice wave of warblers were feeding in the trees there.  Northern Parula, Cape May Warbler, Prarie Warbler, and Blackpolls were all present, with the majority being Cape Mays.

Male Cape May Warbler

Female Cape May Warbler

The following morning I arrived at No Name Key in the National Key Deer Refuge.  I immediately found White-crowned Pigeons- one of my target birds.  These birds are fruit eaters, often quite spooky and usually nest on small islands returning to feed during the day on the mainline keys.  I worked this area most of the day finding more Gray Kingbirds and locating Black-whiskered Vireos which would not cooperate for the camera.

White-crowned Pigeon

Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

Twelve miles west of Boynton Beach, Florida is a 145,635 acre site (www.fws.gov/loxahatchee/)  that anybody who is interested in Everglades habitat will want to visit.  It offers stands of sawgrass, wet prairies, sloughs, and scattered tree islands.  This makes for a wide variety of wildlife and I was eagerly anticipating visiting it since I felt that I had always neglected it in favor of nearby Wakodahatchee and Green Cay.  One of the problems is the area is  so vast and  varied that one does not know where to start.  For the adventurous a kayak can be rented for  a 5.5 mile self guided or tour guided trip.  For the not so adventurous a hike out the back door of the state of the art visitor center will lead one to a boardwalk trail through a cypress swamp.  I opted to hike the vast area of trails through the wetland environment.  I had carried my equipment 30 minutes into the refuge when I noticed some large weather cells heading straight for me.  Out came the plastic garbage bags over the equipment as I did an about face and headed for the truck.  The rain came hard and fast.  I thought I would wait it out in the truck and sure enough the rain stopped and everything looked fresh and inviting.  I headed out again only to do a similar encore performance.  My equipment was dry but I was pretty wet and bedraggled by this time and the sun was already getting high.  Loxahatchee can be great at times but also frustrating.  I will have to set up a return engagement to Loxahatchee but I am booked into the Keys for the evening and decided to dry out down there.

Huguenot Memorial Park, Jacksonville, Florida

Huguenot Memorial Park is a 449 acre sand spit bordered on the south by the St. Johns River and on the north by Fort George Inlet.  Besides being a convenient stopping point for me it is a nesting area for gulls and terns.  The beaches are popular with the sun worshippers and vehicular travel is allowed.  The authorities have divided the spit into three major areas.  The inner dunes where most of the nesting occurs is completely off limits.  Vehicles are allowed to travel in a circle around the dunes between two sets of rope.  A third area is some of the beach at the far end of the spit where the birds often rest and feed.  Here vehicles are prohibited but pedestrians have full access.  This seemed to be a good arangement which gave the birds most of the protection they need while at the same time not severely curtailing human activities. 

Occassionally the colony would be disturbed by something and thousands of gulls and terns would rise in the air in a deafening chorus

The Prius as a beach car:  Great milege until you get stuck-then not so much.

The campground is rather severe although there are good sites on the water.  There are no hookups and flyovers by military helicopter from the Mayport Naval Air Station is almost nonstop-even late into the darkness.  After arriving I carried my 100-400 lens and walked around the dune area checking out the gull and tern colony  There were literally thousands of Laughing Gulls with a few hundred Royal Terns and a couple dozen Black Skimmers.  Gull-billed and Least Terns are known to frequent the area but I never picked any out among the thousands of Laughing Gulls.

When I arrived back at camp just before sunset I discovered I had new neighbors.  A woman with a truck, a new tent, a twelve-year old son, and a new boyfriend was setting up camp.  As the woman struggled to figure out the tent her heavily tatooed boyfriend watched and laughed.  The boyfriend had a limited but very colorful language which was getting on her nerves.  Apparently this weekend camping trip was sort of a trial to see if the boyfriend could bond with her son.  As I downloaded and previewed the evening's images the couple became louder and louder (it was now dark and the tent was not finished).  At some point she discovered that he had smoked the last of her cigarettes and she slugged him in the face and disappeared into the dark.  The boyfriend threatened to leave but he had no transportation.  The young boy who now thought he might be spending the night alone displayed the same colorful language that he no doubt had picked up from the boyfriend.   A little after midnight peace returned to this new American family, the helicopter flights switched far south and I was able to get a little sleep.

In the morning I joined two other photographers before sunset to shoot the colony.

A pair of courting Laughing Gulls

A Royal Tern carrying a fish which is often presented to it's mate as part of the courting ritual

There were a few Sandwich Tern in the colony also.  The yellow-tipped bill is a good field mark.

Cold Start but Warm Finish in West Virginia



My plans for an early morning start on a southern roadtrip were delayed by the Monday morning snowstorm.  I waited for the morning rush to subside, checked my wiper fluid level and headed out.  Roads were sloppy but much better than I expected and by the time I hit the Michigan/Ohio border there was no snow on the ground and at the end of the day the temperature had hit 80 and I was way overdressed.

My destination was West Virginia, specifically the New River Gorge Area near Fayetteville.  Since I had gotten a late start I stayed in a campground just outside of town for the night. The campground was deserted except for a young man from Oregon who was tenting and had come down to do some white water rafting in the gorge.

Early Tuesday morning I left for Babcock State Park where I hoped to photograph my single target bird for the area-the Swainson's Warbler.  I have only seen this rather unglamorous bird once during the spring migration on Dauphin Island.  That look was very unsatisfying since it lasted only a few seconds and was obscured by vegetation as the bird scurried along the ground like a little mouse through the thick underbrush.  Traditionally Swainson's Warblers were considered a bird of southern canebrakes until a population occurring in rhododendron thickets in the Appalachian mountains was found.  The area around Babcock State Park is well known for such habitat.  So well known, in fact, that a highlight of the New River Birding and Nature Festival in early May are tours to the area in search of the bird.  Last year a single bird was found on the last day of the festival in pouring rain.  You have to admire the tenacity of some birders.

Rhododendron thickets are habitat for Swainson's Warblers

My tenacity consisted of searching in good weather for two days along the rugged canyon created by Glade Creek.  Old Sewell Road traverses the south side of the creek for six miles.  This road (open only to hikers and mountain bikers) is a tremendous aid since the steep walls of the rocky canyon are almost impossible to navigate safely.  During my two days there I only had to share the road with several groups of muddied mountain bikers who were training for an event later in the month. 

Unfortunately I never saw or heard a single Swainson's Warbler.  Perhaps I was too early or in the wrong spot.  Some day I will have to attend the festival and hope the locals can scare up one for me.  A return trip would be very tempting as this area is very beautiful.  Babcock State Park has one of the most picturesque grist mills I have ever seen.  Often seen on calendars it is at its best when rhododentrons are in bloom, or with a fall foliage backdrop, or covered in snow.  A stay in one of the park's original cabins would be very relaxing.

The pre-leaf season I observed is also awesome.  The spring wildflowers were just reaching peak (a wildflower hike was scheduled for the weekend).

Fern fiddlehead

Neotropical migrants and local breeders are just arriving with Black-throated Green Warblers, Black and White Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and Louisiana Waterthrushes in full voice.  Also seen were Blue-headed Vireos, and Hooded Warblers.

Black-and-White Warbler

I usually go to upper Michigan for Black-throated Blue Warblers but here they are very common, although notice the black "smudges" on the back which the northern populations usually do not have while these Appalacian birds do.

Black-throated Green Warbler

While in the area a visit to the New River Gorge Visitor Center is a must.  The bridge crossing the gorge was built in 1977 and is the world's largest single arch steel span bridge.  It is the second highest in America and locals proudly tell you that you could stack two Statue of Liberties on top of the Washington Monument and all three would  easily fit under the span.