Tuesday, July 7: Flint Pen Strand

It felt as though I had my own private preserve this morning. The heat and humidity must have deterred others from venturing out -- no other people or cars were seen the entire time.

Water levels continue to rise with parts of the marsh where I walked now under a foot of water. Wildlife has spread out accordingly including one gator in the tall marsh grasses that I came too close to almost stepping on. But it splashed away before anything happened. A new route is definitely in order for the next time.

The Great Blue Heron nest in the lakes cypress dome has two fairly large chicks. They're not ready to fledge yet, but they're getting close. Both were trying to look small while begging the adult in the nest for food. But when the adult left to forage, the chicks stood up and were much larger.

The adult flew to the north bank of the west lake where it caught a large fish. It swallowed the fish whole. I didn't see it fly back to the nest, but even if it had, the fish was probably too large for either of the chicks to swallow.

Green Herons had nested in the reeds between the two lakes and today both of their fledglings were out and all over the place. They stayed together the whole time, first between the lakes and then in the water flowing over the trail north of the marsh by Poorman's Pass. Finally, the two flew over the east lake and disappeared.

Other wildlife was just getting a start on the next generation. The pair of Wandering Gliders at the left flew back and forth over the eastern edge of the east lake. Small Oak Toads were in the trails north of the marsh and by the marsh edges to the east.

With much more water around, all of the regular herons and egrets were present, many in the newly flooded parts of the marsh. The most often seen were seven Green Herons and six Great Blue Herons (including the two chicks). One Cattle Egret was even in the marsh.

A trio of Mottled Ducks foraged in the marsh near the larger of the two small cypress domes, and a Black-bellied Whistling Duck flew over.

It was also a nice day for insects with 11 species of butterflies and moths identified and 10 species of dragonflies. Best of all, three new species of insects were found that had never been reported in the CREW Wildlife Management Area before. Two were grasshoppers, a Glassy-winged Toothpick Grasshopper (Stenacris vitreipennis) and a Cuban Bird Grasshopper (Schistocerca serialis cubense), and the other was a Watermilfoil Leafcutter Moth (Parapoynx allionealis). I also found a fly and a very small spider that I have yet to identify. The spider is probably an instar of one of the wolf spiders, but I don't know which one.

Herps were just gators, Pig Frogs, Southern Cricket Frogs, and the Oak Toads. Now that they are spreading out with higher water levels, the gators are getting harder to spot.

Friday, July 10: Pepper Ranch Preserve

Flint Pen Strand earlier in the week and Peppe Ranch today were contrasts in water levels. While Flint Pen Strand had noticeably more water than last week, Pepper Ranch had noticeably less.

Last week, Marsh B had lots of water with Black-crowned Night Herons, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Great Egrets, a Great Blue Heron, a Snowy Egret, Common Gallinules, and a Tricolored Heron in or at the water level. Today there was one Tricolored Heron, two Common Gallinules, and eight Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.The ducks were standing in mud instead of swimming in water. Lots of rain around Immokalee this weekend would really help.

Another unexpected thing today was the absence of Sandhill Cranes.

But there were other great things happening. With a dry Field M, also known as bug world, there were high grasses and low blooming plants full of insects, a few birds, and the fawn at the right.

I had two companions in the field. One was a female Blue Dasher dragonfly which followed me the entire time I was there, much like a Cattle Egret following a cow, to snarf up insects that I disturbed as I walked through. The other was the fawn.

It was a combination of curiosity and wariness. When my back was turned, it would quietly walk up behind me until it was 12-15 feet away and then stop and stare. My movement didn't seem to bother it until I would turn around and then it would sprint away. But as soon as I turned my back again to look at insects, it would creep back.

Twelve of the thirteen species of butterflies and moths that were observed were in Field M. The most numerous were almost four dozen Coffee-loving Pyrausta Moths. There were easily hundreds more in the field for they only moved when my walking through the grasses caused them to fly up and then just as quickly fly down. The next most common were 32 Ceraunus Blue butterflies.

Two common look-alikes were Queen and Soldier butterflies. Most of what was seen was the Queen, but a few Soldiers were there too. The photos below show the slight differences. The rear wings of the Soldier have a pale row of whitish spots through the wing while the Queen's rear wings lack the spots.

There were other insects and arachnids too. Several species of flies were getting nectar at the blooms and grasshoppers flew up and down. Lots of the Funnel Web Wolf Spder webs were in the grass but those spiders stayed hidden at the bottom of their funnel webs. One neat little spider was the Strpied Lynx Spider in the above photo.

While there were lots of butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies were scarce. Aside from my Blue Dasher friend, the only species were Eastern Amberwing, Needham's Skimmer, and one Citrine Forktail. The amberwing and forktail were both in Field M.

Mammals in addition to the fawn were a Gray Squirrel and a Raccoon. There were lots of other White-tailed Deer in different areas including some nice stags with mature antlers.

The most often encountered birds were Boat-tailed Grackles. Most of the just over two dozen counted were around the Lake Trafford observation platform. After the grackles, next were a dozen Red-winged Blackbirds and eight each of Wild Turkeys, Northern Cardinals, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and Cattle Egrets. All of the turkeys were in one group along Sunflower Trace. Seven of the now mid-sized poults in the photo at the top of the page were with one hen who was a short distance away.

One Crested Caracara was spotted, but it wasn't possible to tell if it were the female or this year's fledgling. It was a little east of the nest site.

The Queen butterfly is at the left and the Soldier at the right.

My yard

Swallow-tailed Kite numbers at Brewer's Landing continue to increase. On Saturday, July 4, 122 kites were counted, and on Monday, July 6, 111 were observed. The photo at the right is from Saturday morning.

Of the Monday kites, 100 were roosting up in the trees. The Von Arx wildlife hospital at The Conservancy had been rehabbing a kite fledgling that had gotten tangled in some lines in Golden Gate Estates. It was now ready to be released, so two hospital staffers came out with the kite.

After setting it on top of its transport bin, it stood there for almost 40 minutes looking around, occasionally stretching and flapping its wings, but it didn't show any desire to leave and join the other kites in the trees. Eventually, it flew across the canal to a cypress tree where it continued to look around and acclimate itself to its surroundings. Finally, it flew back across the canal and joined the kite roost.

Meanwhile back in my yard, nighttime activity picked up. On Saturday morning, the young male bear appeared. It wasn't in any hurry, stopping for a drink of water and then a good scratch. It's one of the two male cubs that mother bear raised in the yard last year.

Sunday night and early Monday morning was a good time for critters. Around 11 o'clock on Sunday night, his sister showed up. She's gaining a lot of weight and looking good. About three and a half hours later, the Bobcat came through the yard. It wasn't quite as laid back and spent its time looking up into the branches above at the flying squirrels that were looking down at it.

Big Mama Bear showed up a little before midnight Tuesday night and the Bobcat was back again early Wednesday morning and again on Friday morning..

Here are videos of the the week's night critters:

Once the big animals were gone, Virginia Opossums, Raccoons, Cottontail Rabbits, Hispid Cotton Rats, and Southern Flying Squirrels all came out. Daytime mammals were Gray Squirrels, rabbits and more Hispid Cotton Rats.