HART BEAT: BACKYARD BIRDING, FLORIDA STYLE, PART 1

Having just spent a week in the hospital for some pulmonary problems I now find myself confined to the condo on oxygen for a few weeks and limited to birding from our back patio. This happenstance provides an excellent opportunity to document some of the backyard birds that we encounter here in Florida, which as you can imagine, are vastly different from the backyard birds we have on the farm in Pennsylvania. In fact, there are so many here in Florida that both this column and next month’s will feature some of them.

To begin, first featured is a photo of our Florida backyard (top). It is a panorama that was shot a number of years ago featuring a nice rainbow over our clubhouse and swimming pool area. I must confess that right smack in the middle of the photo, if completely accurate, would be an unsightly concrete electric pole and an equally ugly electric junction box and cable connector post which I have removed from the photo. I hope you, Dear Readers, will forgive me this indulgence. In addition, two creatures found in our Florida backyard that would never occur in Pennsylvania are the alligator (photo 2, a cell phone photo that Jewel took) right up about 25 feet off our patio, and a large gray iguana (photo 3, also Jewel’s cell phone photo) in the grass nearby.

A flock of about 40 White Ibis hang around our pond daily and sometimes seem to be herded about by some Sandhill Cranes (photo 4) The Sandhill Cranes act as though they own the entire condo complex as they commandeer the streets and make drivers maneuver around them. They also occasionally venture right up onto our patio and sometimes peck at the screens in our sunroom windows doing significant damage to them. We have had to replace several of our screens a couple of times. We suspect they see their reflection behind the screens and are actually pecking at their own reflection.

There are also a good number of Palm Warblers frequenting the shrubbery around our condo units. They spend a fair amount of time right on our patio (photo 5) and apparently find some kind of food there. I haven’t yet figured out what it is but they definitely seem to be eating something there. Ducks often come to our pond, such as this Lesser Scaup (photo 6) which spent the better part of a day here, but never gave me an opportunity to get a photo with which I was particularly happy.

There have also been Ring-necked ducks, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and of course, the Mottled Ducks which hang around much of the time. I have so many other photos of these ducks from other locations, that I haven’t bothered previously to take them on our pond and they haven’t accommodated me during my recuperation.

There are three Purple Martin houses across the pond by the club house and the Purple Martins, which arrive here about the end of January (April on our farm in Pennsylvania), are well into nest building at this time. They gather material at a corner in the pond which is a difficult location for me to get their picture (photo 7).   This female Anhinga, (photo 8) featuring breeding plumage as shown by the bright turquoise circle around its eye, was drying its wings on the far side of the pond. Finally, a Cattle Egret (photo 9) caught its dinner in the grass about 20 feet off our patio. The Cattle Egrets just love to search the lawn behind our unit and next door for food.

My recovery is going well and I am looking forward to being able to get out and about once again as the migration is underway and there are so many wonderful birding locations here in Florida. In the meantime, I have a brand new appreciation for being able to go birding without restriction. My birding companions here in Florida are visiting such excellent birding sites and I would normally be with them taking many photos and having a wonderful time. Right now I am birding vicariously with them seeing what fantastic photos they are posting and believe me, it really sucks not being able to be there with them.

The lesson to be learned is to enjoy the here and now to the fullest, for one never knows when it might come to an end, or at least a period of time when one is not able to do so. For the time being I am enjoying birding from our back patio or occasionally even from inside our sunroom off the patio.

That is my here and now and I am looking forward to expanding my horizons, hopefully sooner rather than later. It’s a little like being in high school and enjoying that first infatuation or relationship and looking forward to what the future might hopefully bring. Except that now, at 90 years of age, I have a pretty good idea of what those infatuations and relationships have been. And indeed, they have been really great. Actually, REALLY GREAT!

HART BEAT: FLYING AT THE STICK MARSH

Vermillion Flycatcher

It was another one of those spur of the moment decisions: Jewel said, “Let’s go to the Stick Marsh today and see if we can see that Vermilion Flycatcher that’s been reported up there.” Since the Stick Marsh, more officially known as the T.M. Goodwin Wildlife Management Area, about 10 miles north and west of Fellsmere, Florida, is only open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Thursdays, it’s a good thing she made her suggestion early on the first Thursday in January of 2023.

When we arrived at the fence just before the parking area where the Vermilion Flycatcher was reported to be hanging out with a number of Savannah Sparrows we knew at a glance that we were not going to find the bird that morning. There were already a number of clueless idiots out of their cars, walking up and down the fence line, close to the fence on both sides, busy spooking any self-respecting bird that might have any inclination to use the fence as a hunting area. We had arrived early to look for the bird about an hour before the gates into Goodwin opened, so we pretty much cooled our heels for that hour.

Fortunately, after we had completed a very successful and satisfying tour of Goodwin, we decided to leave around 2 p.m., well before all the other birders would be finishing up their day. This time, when we reached the fence area, there was not another soul anywhere to be found. The Vermilion Flycatcher (top) was there putting on an excellent show along with a number of Savannah Sparrows and a Palm Warbler. We watched the Vermilion Flycatcher swoop down several times and appear to play with the caterpillar it caught before flying off (photo 2) to finish its meal in peace. Using the car as a photo blind, I was able to take over a hundred photos of the bird including these two that I have inflicted upon you, Dear Readers.

We have previously seen Fulvous Whistling Ducks (photo 3) at the Goodwin area, but they never before put on a show like the one we were treated to on this day. Several times individual ducks (photo 4) would rise out of the water and flap their wings almost pretending to fly. There were also countless groups of Fulvous Whistling Ducks, but I particularly liked this one pair (photo 5) because they raised a question for me. The books and mobile phone birding apps all say that male and female Fulvous are identical. But I wondered whether this was a pair, with the male on the left showing a browner face, and the female to the right, slightly smaller and with less brown in the face. It’s definitely a question for more research someday.

The Black-necked Stilts (photo 6) sat out in the marsh pretty well obscured by the foliage until they got up and flew with their pink legs shimmering in the sun. It is a wonder that they don’t bump into each other when they all rise up together to fly like that. There were also a large number of Black Skimmers (photo 7) well off in the distance. They simply would not fly anywhere that did not include a lot of distracting powerlines in the photos. Also, you can earn extra credit if you are able to identify the gulls in the photo. Hint: one of the birds is a tern. American White Pelicans (photo 8) also put on an excellent show including these three that flew in tandem and in unison. Finally, an Anhinga (photo 9) almost appears to be flying motionlessly as it spreads its wings to dry after having been fishing underwater.

All in all, it was an excellent day at the Stick Marsh. Very good friends of ours go there virtually every Thursday and it is easy to see why they do. In fact, we ran into them there that day. All in all, I took over a thousand photos on that trip and it took hours just to cull through them and discard the vast majority. I finally kept photos of only 19 species of all that we saw. Many of those photos will also end up on the discard pile when I finally get to the job.

The only downside to a day at the Stick Marsh is the long Fellsmere Grade Road, all dirt and dusty, from the paved highway back to the starting area for the days birding. The road is heavily traveled, for there is a new fishing area with a boat launching ramp about three-quarters of the way back, and another smaller boat launching ramp at the parking area just before entering the Goodwin WMA. With all the hurrying fishermen and their boat trailers passing us on the way back for our day’s birding, as well as on the out at the end of the day, our car always requires a bath. First stop on the way home is always a drive-through car wash. Still, that is a small price to pay for an excellent day of birding and outstanding photographic opportunities at a birding location that still does not have an entrance fee.

I hope that by saying that out loud in this column I am not planting any ideas in someone’s head that might come back to bite us birders in the rear. I often think my rear end is already sore enough from all the other stupid things I have done or said at one time or another in my life. Anyone else share that life-long experience with me?

For an earlier column on the Stick Marsh, see Hart Beat column No. 72 “What’s Sticking Around Stick Marsh” at page 280 of the Hart Beat “Hard Cover Book” book, accessible at the top of the Hart Beat page. Simply “Download Part 2” of the “Book & 2015-17” link and scroll to page 280. The column was first published on July 1, 2015. Fourteen different photos and only one bird species duplicate: a Fulvous Whistling Duck photo, taken on December 29th, 2011, which you might want to compare with the current photos.

HART BEAT: CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS

House Wren

As I write this column we are right in the middle of the annual three-week Christmas Bird Count period, the 2022 edition. The St Lucie Audubon-sponsored count has already been held and presumably all the reports are in.

It seems that I have been participating in Christmas Bird Counts for most of my life, at least my adult life. The first Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Christmas Bird Count was held in 1968 but I was not aware of it until after reading reports about it in the newspapers. Consequently, my first Christmas Bird Count was in 1969. Within a year or two I was participating in all three Bucks County counts, Upper, Central and Lower Bucks, in which I continued participating right up until the time we began spending winters in Fort Pierce. For more than 30 years it was my pleasure to serve as the compiler for the Upper Bucks County count where our farm was, and still is, just south of the center of the count area.

My first St Lucie Audubon count was in 2010, the first year Jewel and I began spending the Christmas season in Florida instead of heading north to spend the Thanksgiving through New Year period with family. Jewel and I were paired with Billy Wagner and Tim Towles, two of the most accomplished birders on the entire Treasure Coast, as we were then apparently unknown quantities as to our birding skills even though we had birded extensively with Dottie Hull, a Port St Lucie birder well known and regarded statewide in Florida, and we had led many field trips for St Lucie Audubon by that time.

When we began our Christmas Bird counts many years ago it was not unusual to be up at 2 a.m. and be out searching for owls. It was not uncommon to find many Screech, Great Horned and Long-eared Owls before the sun even rose. Then at the end of the day, after dark, we would go out again into areas we had not covered in the morning to search for even more owls. Here in St Lucie County in the early days of our CBC participation we would do the same thing, although never as early in the morning or ever after dark in the evening, much preferring to attend the annual CBC pizza party sponsored by St. Lucie Audubon. Now as we have aged, nine hours of daylight birding is about our limit.

Similarly, Christmas Bird Count birding itself has changed. For example, in those early days all of the preparation for the count had to be by corded telephone or snail mail. Now preparations are done by email, text, and only the occasional cell phone call. Recording is transcribed while birding on paper lists prepared on a computer and scanned to a computer for email to the compiler.

Even in the field if a birder has a Merlin app on his or her phone it is possible to listen for birds the app is hearing that might not be heard or recognized by the birder. While birds recorded on the app may not be counted, the app certainly alerts the birder of the presence of a bird for which to search most diligently. This was well illustrated for Jewel and me on this count as Merlin alerted us to look particularly hard for the House Wren (top) that we eventually found and were able to photograph.

While doing the Christmas Bird Count one of the most fun and gratifying aspects of the annual search is the hope to find an unusual species that, while not necessarily rare, might be uncommon or unusual here in our particular area of the count. For example, in 2012 Jewel found a Merlin (photo 2) in her area; and in 2018 she found a Gray-headed Swamphen (photo 3) and contacted me while still completing my area and urged me to come get a photo of it for documentation. Gray-headed Swamphens have become common at places like the Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area north of Felsmere, STA 5 south of Clewiston, Lakeside Ranch and now even at Green Cay, but they are still pretty rare in St Lucie County.

Another unusual but not rare bird is this Yellow-throated Warbler (photo 4) we found in 2020 in PGA Village. This year, in addition to the House Wren we found an unusual Spotted Sandpiper (photo 5) along with three Least Sandpipers in a drawn-down pond with extensive exposed sandy shoreline, and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (photo 6) feeding in a beautiful Orchid Tree which tree species we have subsequently learned is not native to Florida.

Of course, it is always fun to see and photograph more common species such as this juvenile Little Blue Heron (photo 7), this pair of Mottled Ducks (photo 8) showing particularly well the different bill coloring of the male (yellowish on the left) and the female (bright orange on the right) and this collection of three species together, an adult Little Blue Heron, Roseate Spoonbill and Woodstork (photo 9).

The annual Christmas Bird Count began all the way back in 1900 at a time when Christmas day was a day that hunters went out to see how many birds they could kill whether they used the dead carcasses or not. Ornithologist Frank Chapman started the Christmas Bird Count to change the dynamic from killing to counting and from there the annual ritual has expanded tremendously. The count now serves to document how most species are doing from year to year. And yes, the count does document how the numbers of birds have declined over the years as the number of people in the population has increased.

We don’t have to travel far, particularly here in Florida, to see how much habitat has been lost to new housing as developments seem to be springing up before our very eyes. Also the birds now have to worry about invasive predators such as pythons, iguanas and others who just love to feast on birds’ eggs and young birds. Birds are literally our canaries in the coal mine telling us that our mine is going to collapse if we don’t do something about it. It is hard to understand why we are so resistant to such a clear warning. Maybe if we are lucky Congress will find a solution. Anyone want to bet on that one?