July 6-12

Tuesday, July 9: Nancy Payton Preserve

One of my summer projects for Conservation Collier is to create a database of non-bird wildlife in several of the preserves to help with the county's land management program. This morning, I was at the Nancy Payton Preserve.

It's primarily a pine and palmetto habitat, so wildlife there is quite different from Flint Pen Strand and Pepper Ranch where I've spent most of my time so far this year. Some mitigation work was in progress, eliminating most of the Cabbage Palms to make the site more favorable for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers.

July isn't the best time of the year to begin surveying wildlife there, but summer is generally slow almost everywhere.

The neatest insect that I found was one of the Robber Fly species. It's a Proctacanthus fulviventris. The best thing about the insect is its common name -- a White-sand Marauder. That's one of the neatest names for an insect, or any species for that matter, that I've ever found. Five of them were spotted during the morning.

The different type of habitat had a different variety of wildlife. One of the cutest was the Northern Bobwhite. Three of the were identified. The male at the left was with another in the northwest part of the preserve. A third was hiding in the Saw Palmettos in a southern section.

The northern section of the preserve changes from a mesic pine flatwood to a mature pine woods. A Great Horned Owl is a regular there, but it wasn't seen this morning.

Lots of woodpeckers were in the pines and the snags. The Northern Flicker at the right was one of two seen. The yellow shafts on its wings really stand out and are why it was once called the Yellow-shafted Flicker. Red-bellied Woodpeckers were the most often seen of any species, and there were also Red-headed Woodpeckers and Pileated Woodpeckers.

In the past, Bald Eagles and Common Nighthawks were fairly easy to find, but today none were available.

The preserve is also home to a number of Gopher Tortoises. I found one burrow in the palmettos that was very well maintained and free of debris, so it is an active burrow. The tortoise, however, was not visible this morning.

One surprise was the number of Cottontail Rabbits sighted, seven total and all adults. The high number of individuals suggests that there aren't very many predators like Coyotes or Bobcats in the preserve at this time.

White-tailed Deer are a fairly common sighting, but today only two White-tailed Deer were seen. They were in the edges of the pine woods.

No bees or wasps were spotted, but the only blooms were Morning Glories and a few American Beautyberry bushes. The Saw Palmettos had finished blooming and were starting to develop fruit; when in bloom, they are great pollinator attractors.

The only herp was a lone Black Racer sunning in one of the trails.

Thursday, July 11: Caracara Prairie Preserve

It had been a while since the last hike in Caracara Prairie Preserve. Much of the barbed wire fences have been removed and there were almost no cattle. As a result, what were once pastures with low grass due to cattle grazing are now wet prairies with flourishing Pickerelweed, reeds, and tall grasses, All that benefits wildlife.

Conservation Collier mowed all of the trails that were dry; however, where there was water, the mowers couldn't reach and the grasses and vegetation were really high. That was an adventure, butthere was only one spot where water was over knee deep.

There wasn't a lot of wildlife, mostly due to the weather. It was totally overcast and rains began earlier than normal. The temperature and humidity were both in the mid 80s and there was little breeze.

One interesting insect was the dragonfly at the left. The thorax and abdomen look like it should be a female Band-winged Dragonlet, but I've never seen patterns on the wings like that. A second photo from the side still showed the wing patterns, so they are probably not due to funny lighting.

Lots of baby Cuban and Green Treefrogs were clinging to the grasses in flooded areas. Most were a half inch or less in length. One baby treefrog remains to be identified. It might be a Little Grass Frog that hasn't fully developed yet, or it could be a weird looking Cuban Treefrog baby.

In spite of all of the water in the prairies, ponds, and fields, the only wading bird spotted was a lone Great Egret in one of the marshes. Seven Black-bellied Whistling Ducks flew over, but none came down. Mourning Doves were the most often seen bird species. The only unexpected numbers were five Pileated Woodpeckers. Nice sightings were two Swallow-tailed Kites that were foraging over one of the wet prairies.

My yard

Nothing exciting (bears, bobcats, panthers) showed up on the trail cameras during the nights. It was just foxes, opossums, and raccoons. The young foxes are getting big enough now that it's hard to identify them unless they are with a parent.

The Gray Fox at the left came early for peanuts on Wednesday evening. Other daytime mammals have been Cottontail Rabbits, Gray Squirrels, Hispid Cotton Rats, and a family of three White-tailed Deer -- a stag, a doe, and a lightly spotted fawn.

Birds have also been the regulars. A group of Brown Thrashers, Northern Cardinals, Mourning Doves, Common Ground Doves, Blue Jays, and Common Grackles show up every morning around sunrise to snarf up what the mammals have left from the night before.