Northern Parula (Parula americana) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Yesterday I looked at the flycatchers that can be seen and photographed on a regular basis at Anhinga Trail, so today we’ll look at the Wood Warblers.  These small, typically colorful birds can be extremely difficult to photograph.  Most prefer the canopy of tall trees and rarely come down to eye level.  Well, at Anhinga Trail there are no tall trees so you can get lucky and get a canopy loving species like a Northern Parula at eye level.

The obvious warbler that is commonly seen at Anhinga Trail is the marsh loving Common Yellowthroat.  These birds are ubiquitous here, though they are often difficult to photograph.  They are fast moving, like dense vegetation, and never stay in one position for long.  Photographing any of these warblers will be an exercise in quick and accurate focusing and require a ton of patience!

In winter, Palm Warblers are also very common.  They can be a little bit easier to photograph as they will forage in open ground and perch some of the small trees in the open.  They are easy to spot and identify due to the constant tail flicking.  I’ve had decent luck with these birds feeding in the reeds, on the ground, in willows, and even in a small pond apple.  Be patient and position yourself so as the bird feeds, it works towards you.

Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

I have also seen and photographed Northern Waterthrush, though I didn’t get any new photos of one this year.  You might also spot a Black and White Warbler in the trees and of course a trip into the Gumbo Limbo Trail can be even more rewarding, though it can be difficult photographic conditions since it’s so dense and dark.  Also in migration, warbler numbers can increase rapidly but heron and egret numbers at Anhinga Trail have decreased and the mosquito population has become hungry so if you visit, do so at your own risk.

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Anhinga Trail is known as one of the premiere locations to photograph Anhingas, herons, egrets, Wood Storks, and more.  The place is so well known that on Saturday evening I witnessed well above $100,000 worth of lenses and camera equipment pointed at a single Great Blue Heron.  It’s a popular place and I have been there so many times, I am much pickier where I point my lens these days.  On Friday morning, I decided to focus on the often ignored songbirds of Anhinga Trail.

The marsh and reeds that line the edges of the canals can be extremely productive for a number of songbirds.  On most visits, I see at least several species of warblers, a couple flycatchers, a couple blackbirds, and typically a handful of other species.  Most photographers simply ignore these birds as they look for the charismatic herons and egrets.

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Today I’ll share with you a few of the flycatchers that can be seen hunting and calling around the boardwalk.  The first, and most common one, is the Eastern Phoebe.  There are always at least a couple individuals that winter along the trail and seem to have their own preferred hunting areas.  I spent a few minutes observing this particular bird’s favored perches and then set up in a good position where I could photograph several of the perches.  After that it was just a matter of waiting and making the image when he landed on the perch.

Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

While I was waiting for the phoebe to land in the right spot, a Great-crested Flycatcher flew into range.  These much larger birds are a little more difficult to photograph though you can hear them calling on a regular basis.  I find they only like to sit low enough to be photographed for a brief period of time before moving back to the taller trees.  Because of this you have to work fast and make do with what he offers.  In this case, he used a couple perches in this area but this was the only clean shot I had.  I would have preferred to have him perched on one of the tall reeds but again, I’ll take what I got.

Tomorrow I’ll look at the different warbler species I have seen and photographed at Anhinga Trail.  Next time you are there, pay attention to the smaller birds hopping in the reeds above the heron you are photographing.

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

It’s always fun when you find an unusual or out of place bird when birding.  I had the pleasure to do just that twice over last weekend.  Now when I am talking about unusual birds, I’m not talking about the birds themselves being weird or strange, I’m saying that their mere presence is unusual.  So this past weekend I had two pretty cool and unusual species show up in Everglades National Park.

The first species I found on my own at Eco Pond in Flamingo on Thursday afternoon.  This location used to be one of my favorite haunts when I lived nearby in 2005, but today Hurricane Wilma has radically changed it.  More on that in an upcoming post.  On Thursday, I was mostly wandering around seeing if I could find any songbirds when a small brown sparrow dashed across the trail.  After about 10 minutes, I managed some great views of the bird only to quickly realize it wasn’t one of the species I see regularly and can identify by sight.  I made a mental list of all the field marks and back to the car I went, only a couple hundred yards.  With a field guide in hand, I quickly and easily identified the bird as a Clay-colored Sparrow.  This is a very irregular visitor to South Florida, judging by the range map, and listed as rare on the park checklist.

Since I hadn’t seen the bird before (ends up it is on my lifelist but with no date/location notation), I decided to head back with the camera and get some photos that could support my identification.  I spent a while chasing down this active sparrow and managed a few photos that clearly show all of the field marks and confirm the identity of this little beauty, but nothing that would be classified as marketable or saleable.  What you see on this blog are very significant crops of the original frames.

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

The second bird came Saturday evening at Anhinga Trail.  This bird could be called unusual in itself as it has a giant beak and is a little odd.  The Smooth-billed Ani apparently has been seen for about the last month, but it only showed up on the state wide bird lists in the last couple days.  This bird I did not find on my own, in fact I saw the bird with at least 50 other birders as one person spotted it and we then followed the “ani parade” to his location.  Like before, I was able to get confirmation and documentation type photos, not my usual high quality images.  Regardless, it is always fun to see an ani.

Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Smooth-billed Anis are resident here in South Florida but their numbers have crashed over the years and I’m not sure why.  I don’t think they were ever all that common, but they are seen on a regular basis.  Today, I only hear about specific birds a couple times a year.  There used to be a family group on the backside of the Ft. Lauderdale Airport that was very reliable, but I have no idea of that group is still there.  My first ani was as a very young kid at Eco Pond and it was a big deal then, though there weren’t 50 or more birders staking it out.

Finding rare and unusual birds is a lot of fun and if you choose to give it a shot there are a couple ways to approach it.  First, you can chase a bird someone else has found and posted to your state or regional Rare Bird Alert or email group.  This is easiest as there are often very specific directions and you know what you are looking for.  Or you can simply go find one on your own.  It takes a lot of patience and attention to detail, as you may need to double-check every common bird to ensure it isn’t something rare.  While chasing someone else’s rare bird is fun, finding one on your own can be even more rewarding!

Dingy-flowered Star Orchid (Epidendrum amphistomum) - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

This weekend I will be searching through Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in an attempt to find blooming orchids of any variety.  I have no idea what I will find or if I will find any at all.  This isn’t the ideal time of year for some of the most spectacular species but there should be some in bloom and I’m here now so I’m going to give it a try.

Earlier this week in Big Cypress, I went for a walk out into Gator Hook Strand along a trail that I had never hiked.  The trail requires some wading and since I had been wading earlier in the day, I figured I would go ahead and dive in again.

Dingy-flowered Star Orchid (Epidendrum amphistomum) - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

Along the trail I found at least 3 species of orchid, likely 4 or 5.  Many were just a few single leaves with no blooms so they are difficult to identify, especially considering I don’t have my flower and orchid field guides with me.  However, I did manage to find one in bloom and it was a new species for me, the Dingy-flowered Star Orchid (Epidendrum amphistomum).

As it’s name suggests, it is a fairly simply colored flower with a cluster of tiny blooms hanging at the end of a long stalk.  The individual blooms are sort of a yellowish-brownish-greenish and only maybe a half inch maximum on the longest measurement.  I headed out here only slightly prepared.  I did have my macro lens but not my flashes so I didn’t have the setup I would ideally want but I still managed a few interesting images.

This weekend in Fakahatchee I will be carrying only my landscape gear and macro gear so I will be ready if I do find any of these beautiful orchids.  Hopefully the strong winds of last week will stay down which will make my life so much easier!

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) feeding in swamp - Kirby Storter, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

White-tailed Deer live in the Everglades and Big Cypress but they are seen only occasionally.  I probably can describe each and every encounter I had with them during my time down here in 2005.  They are very secretive and aren’t out in the open much.  I think that the tall grasses also help to hide them from visitors.

Prior to this trip, I had only photographed them in the Everglades once and the image is far from special.  The image I have been using in my book and whenver I talk about deer on my website is from farther north in Florida, though still in what would have been the historical Everglades.  Now I have new images!

The boardwalk at Kirby Storter, as I mentioned yesterday, is one of my favorite places.  I have spent a lot of time in there over the past month and on 3 of my 4 evening visits, I’ve had two White-tailed Deer feeding up to their bellies in the water.  After seeing them there twice, I returned the following day with a long lens in hand ready to try and photograph the deer.  Sure enough, there they were but boy were the conditions tough.

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) feeding in swamp - Kirby Storter, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

These images were made possible by the amazing capabilities of modern cameras like my Nikon D3.  This image was taken with a 200-400mm Vibration Reduction lens at 400mm from a monopod.  The camera was set to 1/30^th of a second and the aperture was f4.  The thing that made this possible was an ISO of 3200!  Yes, the image has some noise but it is not distracting and I am really pleased with the quality of the image.  Amazing how new technology, while it won’t make the image for you, opens up new possibilities in image making.

Fog, Palms, and Prairie - Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida

As I am always attempting to make interesting images out of difficult situations, I had to try this the other night when a heavy fog rolled over the prairie just after sunset.  Before I explain what my goal for the image was, take a minute to study it.

Now, click to read on and see if my idea actually worked.

My goal was to isolate a single hammock, particularly a palm hammock for its graphic shape, among the fog. My hope was to draw the viewer in, force them to study the image, and discover the hammock themselves.  I imagine the viewer first saying “why the white image?” and then the discovery of the hammock becomes a surprise.  Did it work?

I’d love to hear about your experience, as a viewer, when you first saw the image.  Thanks for providing the feedback!

Female Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

Last Saturday, I spent the day visiting Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Orlando Wetlands Park with a close friend of mine.  Sean and I have known each other practically our entire lives and Sean is my only other friend who was interested in birds as a kid and will still go birding with me today.  My dad joked that he should drive us on Saturday so that we could stand on the center console of his car with our heads sticking out the sunroof looking for birds.  There was a time when we were kids that we both could do that at the same time.  I don’t think we’d fit today.

In any case, we headed off to visit some of our old haunts and track down a couple specific birds.  Our goals included a White-faced Ibis at Orlando Wetlands, a Painted Bunting at the same location, and then just a swing through Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to see what else we could find.  We got all that and more…

It had been a long time since I had been to either location since I haven’t lived in Orlando in several years.  Major changes could be seen at both, particularly in the number of people.  It was great to see so many people out and enjoying a spectacularly beautiful day.  At Orlando Wetlands, I used to only see a half dozen or so other people, but on Saturday morning I would guess there were a minimum of 60 people visiting, probably a lot more in the afternoon as well.

Orlando Wetlands offered the usual suspects including all the herons and egrets normally found in a freshwater marsh in Florida including an American Bittern.  We had a dozen or so Purple Gallinules, as well as a great look at a Sora feeding out in the open while a King Rail called in the marsh.  The White-faced Ibis was feeding right where it was supposed to be and while we had distant views, we were able to clearly see the red eye and facial skin compared to the darker, bluer eye and skin of the much more common Glossy Ibis.  We stopped at the feeders on our way out and got Sean a life bird, the Painted Bunting.  We only had a couple females and while they don’t have the gaudy colors of a male, they still are quite beautiful.

About mid morning, we headed off to Merritt Island NWR where we stopped at the refuge office to pick up a bird checklist.  The visitor center was packed and understandably so as several pairs of Painted Buntings were coming in to feed at a feeder.  Sean was able to finally get some point blank views of these amazing birds, which was quite satisfying for both of us.

The main attraction at the refuge is Black Point Wildlife Drive, a 5 mile auto tour through a series of marshes and impoundments.  A typical winter visit will turn up huge flocks of ducks and coots, a handful of shorebirds species, and a couple raptors as well.  Historically, there is always a huge flock of ducks just after the second numbered stop on the drive.  As Sean and I pulled up getting ready to scope the ducks, we were shocked to find that there was not a single duck in the entire impoundment.  After searching for a few minutes, wondering where the thousands of ducks had gone, we found only a single yellowlegs.

Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja) - Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Further down the drive, we finally started to find some of the ducks.  I still think numbers were down from past years, and we may have been a little late in the year, but I am curious where they all are.  Have they moved due to water levels?  Are they simply not here this year?  Have they already headed back north?  Species diversity was there as we found Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, and a single Gadwall, but I think that the overall numbers were down, but I could be wrong.

The drive itself turned up a huge number of Roseate Spoonbills, always a crowd favorite, as well as a number of Reddish Egrets.  Again, visitor numbers seemed to be high which  was great to see.  Merritt Island always has had good visitor numbers, but it was nice to see so many people enjoying the area.

After the drive, Sean and I headed out to the beaches at Canaveral National Seashore to see if we could pick up a couple more species of sandpipers, a few terns, and a Northern Gannet.  Our first stop turned up large numbers of gannets off the coast and subsequent stops yielded Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns, and Sanderlings.  However, the huge surprise was about 500 meters off the coast at one stop.  A North Atlantic Right Whale.

These large whales, averaging about 50 feet in length, are highly endangered with only about 300 individuals remaining.  Part of the population comes to this portion of the Atlantic each winter to calve, and individuals are occasionally seen from the local beaches.  I didn’t know all this at the time; I was just shocked and excited to see a whale from the beach.  A whale made the local news a few days later as it was seen breaching of the beach just to the north of where we were.

It was a great day with a lot of amazing birds, not to mention the whale.  We concluded the day with 113 species, which is a pretty great total for a relaxing day of birding.  The whale was a once in a lifetime sighting which just topped the day off.  As Sean said at one point, “you know its been a good day when seeing an otter feeding at close range was like the eighth best experience of the day.”

Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus) - Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Florida

The Florida Dry Prairie is a rather nondescript habitat.  It’s a big prairie of bluestem grasses and wiregrasses and palmettos.  In fact, it’s not even really all that dry.  At times it can be very wet, but its called a dry prairie simply because it is much drier than the wet prairies elsewhere in Florida.  So what is special about these prairies?  Well, they are home to sparrows, lots and lots of sparrows, but one of them is particularly unique.

These prairies are the wintering grounds for numerous species of sparrows but more importantly, they are the only breeding grounds for the endemic Florida Grasshopper Sparrow.  This tiny bird, a subspecies of the Grasshopper Sparrow, doesn’t migrate and spends its entire life in the dry prairies of south central Florida.  The population is small, with less than 1,000 birds estimated in a census in 1997 and a 2008 report showed that the birds are continuing to decline, quite rapidly at times.

Part of the problem is fire, a common theme here at Wanderer’s Apprentice recently.  When we talked about fire with respect to the scrub habitat, we were talking about burning cycles in the realm of 5-25 years.  For the Dry Prairie to be prime habitat for Florida Grasshopper Sparrows, it needs to burn on a 1-3 year cycle.  Even more important is when during the year the prairie burns. Take a look at the two panoramas below.

The above panorama shows a dominance of palmettos with short grass near the ground, while tall grasses dominate the panorama below. In fact, these two prairies are very similar and in fact only burned about 5 months apart.  They both have similar species compositions, but in the bottom panorama the prairie burned in May, during the growing season.  This fire stimulated the growth of the grasses and you see the result.  The top prairie was burned in December during a more dormant phase of the grasses so no growth was stimulated.

It is the bottom prairie that forms the ideal habitat for these sparrows.  The tall grass not only provides cover but provides an excellent food source for both breeding Florida Grasshopper Sparrows and the other wintering sparrows.  Also, as you can see, there are few trees and Florida Grasshopper Sparrows require essentially a total absence of trees, even a density of a single tree per acre can mean it is not habitat suited for these sparrows.  Frequent burning helps to burn back any tree that happens to germinate and start to grow.

So what else do Dry Prairies offer besides Florida Grasshopper Sparrows?  They are great places to see other species of birds including Burrowing Owls, Crested Caracaras, and White-tailed Kites.  Butterflies are quite common and the wildflower displays can be quite beautiful.  This particular prairie, located at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, is the largest protected parcel of Florida Dry Prairie left in the state and I highly recommend a visit, especially in spring.

As you can see here, Florida Scrub Jays like low scrub habitat with a mosaic of oaks and palmettos growing under five or six feet.  As the head ornithologist at Archbold said, “If you can’t see the horizon you aren’t in good habitat.”  Typically this short vegetation has patches of open white sand in spots where you will often find Scrub Jays foraging for fallen acorns and insects.

At first glance, wanting to live in a big wide open environment may not seem ideal.  As a bird, you are easily exposed to predators from above.  However, this is where Scrub Jays thrive, so let’s explore why.

If you watch the behavior of Florida Scrub Jays, you quickly realize they have evolved to thrive in open habitats with short stature vegetation. First off, they aren’t the most agile of fliers.  Sure, they get from point A to point B just fine, but up against an avian predator, they simply aren’t going to out maneuver a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk, especially not in close quarters.  Scrub Jay defense depends on one thing, an early warning system.

When Florida Scrub Jays are foraging, there is always a single family member that sits at the highest point in the area, typically a dead snag, and keeps watch.  When a predator is sighted, he gives a call and then the entire family reacts.  The reaction, and the call for that matter, depends on whether it’s an avian or terrestrial predator.  In the case of an avian predator, all the birds will dive for cover and hide.  This only works for open habitat where the sentinel can see the bird coming from far enough away so he can hide too.

If a family of scrub jays lives in more marginal habitat where vegetation is higher and the sentinel can’t see as far, then the danger increases.  The sentinel can’t see potential predators until they are much closer, and his life becomes quite dangerous because he has to sound then alarm and then get to cover.  A closer predator means less time to hide and more chance of being the predator’s next meal.

For a habitat that burns on a rotation of somewhere between every few years and every quarter century, ideal habitat exists typically about 3-6 years after a burn.  So what about all that other habitat that hasn’t burned recently enough?  Is it devoid of scrub jays?  No, they are there and living just fine.  However, it’s likely that their mortality is a bit higher, their territories might be a bit bigger, and overall quality of life is likely lower than those birds able to hold and defend territories covering prime habitat.