Birding Florida

Earlier this month I had to opportunity to head on down to Florida for a week. It was the first time I had been down there since I started to list birds so there were "lifers" everywhere. I stayed at my wife's grandmother's cabin in the Florida Highlands. There were good numbers of birds to be seen right out her back door as she lives in a fairly wild place.

Here's some of the birds I was able to photograph while down there.

This red-shouldered hawk hung around pretty much every day. It just caught something in the neighbor's yard when I snapped this photo.



I was able to add two new lifer doves in her yard. I'd never seen a Common Ground-dove or a White-winged Dove. It should be obvious which one is which.



This next one isn't a lifer...yet. Ah taxonomy. This is Palm Warbler. We have them here in Minnesota but the Palm Warblers I see at work are usually Western Palm Warblers. This is an Eastern Palm Warbler also called a Yellow Palm Warbler. The two are distinct sub-species though they may be split apart into separate species some day. Time will tell on that. They do look different.


Since the cabin was on a stream there were lots of water birds such as Limpkin, Wood Stork, and White Ibis. There was also a Great Blue Heron. I see them often at home but I liked how this photo turned out blurry and looks like an impressionistic painting.


Here's one of the White Ibis that was there most days.




In a non-descript city lake by the side of the highway and across from the McDonalds we stopped at to pirate WiFi, I spotted three new lifers. First up, I stopped to take photos of this Anhinga.

While getting those shots, a common moorhen swam by.

On the way back to the car I saw movement and realized there was a Tri-colored Heron walking along the shore.


By the last day I was at 18 lifers for the trip. I was pretty happy about that since my goal was 20 lifers and this was a family vacation not a birding trip. We decided to drive the two and a half hours to the closest beach and I'm glad we did. Not only was it a beautiful day I saw a handful of new birds.

First up were these Laughing Gulls. I took this photo from the boardwalk as I could see a parent about to unleash their kids onto the beach and the kids predictably ran straight for the birds and scared them away. They never did come back so I only got two photos.



The Sanderlings were another lifer and they are just about the cutest little birds ever.



I'd been hoping to see some brown pelicans. I saw them 10 years ago on my Honeymoon but I wasn't listing back then so I didn't count them. It was good to finally get them officially on my life list. Strike that, the brown pelican was already on my life list. I completely forgot I saw them in La Push, Washington back in 2006.



Another bird scared off by some of the kids on the beach were the Royal Terns. They were also a lifer. They seemed willing to come hang out once in a while.


My last lifer on the beach and my last for the trip were these Northern Gannets diving for fish far off the coast. I was gal I had by long lens or I never could have captured even this small of a photo. They were pretty far away.


I ended the trip with 21 new birds on my life list and 56 birds total for the trip. There's still plenty more to see down there so I guess I'll have to go back .

~Kirk

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How do I know that bird call?

When I was down in Florida for a little family vacation earlier this month I was awash in new birds. I hadn't been to Florida since I started listing birds so there were all kinds of new birds to see, hear, photograph and learn about. There aren't many places left in the country where I could rack up so many lifers.

Early on in the trip, I realized I could hear a loud bird call that sounded so very familiar. It called over and over again. What on earth was it? Every winter I forget all my bird calls and must relearn them in the spring. My cold addled brain couldn't place it so I moved on. My second day there I heard the call again and trained my bins on a bush expecting to see a familiar bird. What is saw puzzled me momentarily. It was a wren. I didn't recognize it but I figured immediately that it must be a Carolina Wren. This was a bird I was hoping to see down there but to be honest I hadn't bothered to learn the call. It only took a moment to realize why I knew the call. The Carolina Wren is the sound of my wife's alarm clock.

She has this Early bird Tweet sound birdsong alarm clock. It actually combines the call of a Carolina Wren with a woodpecker knocking. It was so funny to make the connection. I hear that thing every morning but because I don't live in an area with Carolina Wrens I never realized what the call was.

~Kirk

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What killed the Barred Owl?

On a hike a week ago we happened upon this grisly sight. The disembodied foot of an owl. We have Barred Owls out at the Lee & Rose Warner Nature center. We hear them regularly, we see them once in a while. We apparently won't be seeing or hearing this one again.

It is hard to say what happened. There were no other clues on the trail, just the foot. There wasn't any blood. There weren't any feathers. I strongly suspect that the owl was killed or died elsewhere and the foot was dropped in the location we found it. There are a couple of options.

1. The owl could have died from sickness or old age.

There's a chance the bird simply died all by itself and then scavengers picked it apart and dropped the foot along the trail.

2. It could have been killed by another Barred Owl.

Owls are setting up territory this time of year. It is possible the bird was a young male that challenged our existing male's territory and lost. It could also be the old male who lost to the newcomer. Still, I'm guessing even if this is the case, the foot was probably left here by scavengers cleaning up after the fight.

3. It could have been killed by a Great-horned Owl.

I've never seen a Great-horned Owl on the property but others have. Great-horned owls are creatures of the forest edge. They hang out at the edge of the lake or at the farm land we own across the street. They tend to avoid the deep forest. This trail wasn't all that far from the lake so it is possible a Great-horned decided the barred owl was too close to his or her territory.

We'll never know for sure but it is incredible what you can find when you keep your eyes open in the woods.

~Kirk

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Coyotes Uncover Deer in the Snow

We went on a hike this past week to the site where I had the trail cam up last month to check on things. We'd gotten a lot of snow and the coyotes stayed away for a while. Seem they remembered the deer was there though as when we went out to check on things earlier this week the coyotes had clearly been busy. They'd completely dug up what was left of the deer. Those are coyote tracks coming though the prairie to the deer.


You can see the fallen tree in the background which is where the camera's used to be attached.


At the site, there were clearly coyote tracks.


There was evidence of birds as well. My shadow is pointing at wing marks on the snow.

We've retired this site for a little while but we have a new road killed deer in a second location with both cameras on it. Hopefully I'll have some new photos soon. I'm hoping for some daytime video of the coyotes.

~Kirk

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Take the "Flights of Fancy" Challenge!

Cornell's Lab of Ornithology has a contest open right now called the Flights of Fancy Challenge.

All you have to do is submit an entry that showcases flying birds. It sounds like they are pretty open to ANY type of submission. They are calling for, "photos, artwork, video, and other types of entries showcasing flying birds." They also mention dance, sculpture, videos, and poems. So, I suppose in theory you could even submit music, pantomime, a magic show, hand tied Persian rug or crockpot recipe as long as it somehow showcased flying birds.

The effort is clearly an attempt to get people to examine and think about flight."Go outside and capture the wonder of flight," said Karen Purcell, Celebrate Urban Birds project leader. "Notice the way birds take off from a branch, fly in flocks, hover, dive, frolic, and land."

The entries will be featured on the Celebrate Urban Birds website and winners will receive prizes that include bird feeders, nest boxes, sound CDs guides, posters, and a copy of the new Bird Songs Bible, featuring a built-in audio player with recordings of more than 700 species.

There is less than a month to enter. The Deadline for entries is February 1, 2011

Email your entry to urbanbirds@cornell.edu

1. In the subject line write Flight-(Your First and Last Name)-(Your City and State)
2. In the email, you MUST include your name, mailing address, and location where photos were taken if submitting photos.
3. Tell why you submitted your entry to the contest.
4. Choose your best/favorite entry and send just that one, please!
5. Read the terms of agreement carefully. By sending in an entry you are granting Cornell a pereptual right to use your work in any way they choose. This probably won't be an issue for many people but if you are very protective of your intellectual property rights then this is not the contest for you.

Visit the Celebrate Urban Birds website for more information.

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