September 13-19

Monday, September 15: Flint Pen Strand

Water was higher than last week, which was nice. Wet spots in the marsh attracted a nice variety of birds. One such spot was at the north end of the ridge in the middle of the marsh. The Tricolored Heron at the left is dashing after a small fish it spotted (it caught it) and was joined in the shallow water by a Great Blue Heron, a Great Egret, two Mottled Ducks, a Black-bellied Whistling Duck, a Snowy Egret, and several Killdeer.

The Belted Kingfisher in the photo was one of two that was over a different spot a little to the east of the first group.

The most often seen birds were 68 White Ibis. Two huge flocks flew in from the south a little before sunrise, but only three of them wound up staying and the rest continued north. After the ibis, 17 Boat-tailed Grackles, 15 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and 11 Northern Mockingbirds were the most common.

I finally got a photo of one of the common frogs that I hear all of the time but one which I hardly ever see. The Southern Cricket Frog in the photo was at the edge of the water on the east side of the marsh and quickly jumped into the water. It's one of the few "bumpy" frogs; most frogs are rather smooth skinned. It's tiny, about the size of an Oak Toad.

Other herps were just a couple of gators in the west lake, Pig Frogs, and Brown Anoles.

It was also a nice day for insects. Thirteen species of butterflies and moths and 14 species of dragonflies and damselflies were identified. None were out of the ordinary and only Gulf Fritillaries, Little Blue Dragonlets, Eastern Amberwings, and Band-winged Dragonlets were plentiful.

But the best insects were two new ones for the FWC/CREW wildlife management area. One was the Four-speckled Hover Fly (Dioprosopa clavata) in the photo at the right and the other a Sharp-headed Sharpshooter (Draeculacephala robinsoni) in the left photo. I'd seen lots of the sharpshooters before gliding on the water's surface, but they are very fast, very tiny, and disappear into the grasses very quickly. They are a little larger than a grain of rice. This one actually posed in the open, making a photograph and an identification possible. They're actually in the same family as cicadas.

I was curious how they came by that strange name of sharpshooter and found three possible explanations. One dates back to 1893 and described the small round feeding holes left by the insects when feeding on plants. The holes reminded people of bullet holes from sharpshooting riflemen. Another explanation is based on their hiding behavior when disturbed - rapidly moving to the opposite side of a stem much like a sharpshooting human would do. The third and my favorite explanation is a bit stranger. They feed by sucking juices from plant stems and have a rapid fire ejection of droplets of excess fluid from their backsides as they feed -- a drop about every 10-15 seconds. Thus the name sharpshooter.


Thursday, September 18: Dinner Ranch Island

One of these days, there has to be blue skies over Dinner Island Ranch. But today wasn't that day... again. Nevertheless, it was an excellent birding day with 47 species of birds identified.

I miscalculated my drive time a little and got there about 35 minutes before sunrise instead of 10-15 minutes. But even that had some positives. A Barred Owl was perched on a fence post as I drove in before flying off over the first marsh. While stopped to track the owl, an unidentified bat flew in front of the car, capturing insects that were on the flowers of Spanish Needles growing beside the road. It made several passes at the flowers before finally heading off. Its eyeshine was bright red which was cool too.

I pulled into the campground to wait until it was a little closer to sunrise and there would be more light. While walking through the vacant camp sites, a second Barred Owl began calling from somewhere high in the huge oaks. Then an Ovenbird strutted out in front of me. It's not the greatest photo, but it was still rather dark.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers, a Red-shouldered Hawk, and a Northern Bobwhite began calling as it got lighter. By then the sun was up enough that the bird survey could begin.

Some of the birds seen last week weren't available this week, but there were ten species present that weren't seen last week, so it all worked out.

New this week, in addition to the owls, bobwhite and Ovenbird, were a Gray Catbird, Common Yellowthroats, a Solitary Sandpiper, a dozen Purple Martins, two Black-crowned Night Herons, and less than exciting sightings of Boat-tailed Grackles and Eurasian Collared Doves.

Birds with much larger numbers this week than last week were Limpkins (11), Great Egrets (24), Common Ground Doves (19), Red-winged Blackbirds (60), American Crows (22), and of course, Cattle Egrets.

An estimated 318 Cattle Egrets were counted. One group of 124 sat preening on a mud bank by a newly created wetland. Those were easy to count by taking a photograph and then figuring out how many were there later at home by enlarging the photo on the computer and counting then.

That wetland was also where three Black-necked Stilts, a Greater Yellowlegs, the Solitary Sandpiper, a half dozen White Ibis, and a pair of Killdeer were foraging.

Only five Little Blue Herons were seen. The one in the photo was in the same marsh as eight of the Limpkins. It looks quite dapper with the remaining juvenile white feathers forming an artsy V shape on its breast.

Just two Everglades Snail Kites were seen today, a male and a female. They were in adjacent snags by an open pond, so they may be a couple even though their nesting season has concluded. The male was perched in the same snag as he was last week.

FWC has already completed its mammal and herp surveys, so there wasn't a need to look for or count any of those. In addition to the bat, the only mammal seen was a River Otter that scampered across one of the side roads. There were lots of cool insects, but those weren't counted either.

I'm not scheduled to go back until next month, so hopefully by then some more snowbirds will have arrived and the morning sky will be blue. A nice, slow-moving tropical storm would be nice in the meantime to raise the water levels a little. But no hurricane!

My yard

Mother Bear and her daughter still come by, but the male cub hasn't been here here in three weeks, so it may have gone off to establish its own territory. The female juvenile on the left was at the side of the house early Friday last night and there was still enough light to get a photo through the bedroom window although it was already dark enough that it had to be black-and-white. Mother bear on the right was on the trail cam in the front yard Sunday night around 10 PM. The juvenile is starting to add some bulk to her frame, but she's still not nearly as hefty as her mother.

Here's Mother Bear leaving on Sunday night. The light in the background is the trail camera beside the house. She was back again Tuesday night for about a half hour. After making her rounds of the neighborhood, she passed through again Wednesday morning around 3 AM. Her daughter was here twice, first on Wednesday night and then again Thursday morning.

When the bears aren't around, the smaller critters come out. One of my favorites is a baby Opossum. Usually it takes a peanut and runs off into denser vegetation where it is safe to eat. But it does vary its diet. In the video, it chases down and eats what appears to be a cockroach. You go, little 'possum!

The Carolina Wren in the photo is a somewhat regular visitor to the sheltered area by my bedroom window. It usually flies up and lands on the stucco and plucks larva from the mud dauber nests there. I have seen it perch in a corner under the roof for long periods at night, so I installed a long perch up next to the ceiling of the overhang for it -- a bird hurricane shelter. I have yet to see the wren there, but the perch is available now.