Corkscrew Swamp 1

The Audubon Society’s Corkscrew Swam Sanctuary is another site we try not to miss when we visit Florida. The $14.00 entrance fee may seem expensive. We always carry our Audubon membership cards for a $4.00 discount. In any event, the money is for a good cause and their 2.5 mile cypress swamp boardwalk is invariably interesting. Further, none of our several visits to the sanctuary have been exactly the same. The location is southwest of Fort Myers. We visited on 20 January 2018. (My intention in these Florida Road-trip posts is to often combine species on which I have previously written about in this blog.)

Painted Buntings often visit feeders at the sanctuary headquarters and at a feeder along the boardwalk. These beautiful birds are threatened across much of their range. Aside from loss of habitat to development, there is an illegal trade in caged Painted Buntings, from the southeastern United States to Cuba and Mexico. Birds cost from $50 to $100, with bright males going for $200. Trappers can take up to 200 males in single weekends (BirdWatching 2016). eBird no longer plots the exact location of Painting Bunting sightings.

Also at the feeders are Indigo Buntings. These buntings winter in southern Florida and from Mexico to northern Panama and also Cuba and the Greater Antilles. They breed across most of eastern North America, including southeastern Canada.

Erika took this rocking photograph of a White-eyed Vireo. These birds breed in eastern North America, but not as far north as Indigo Buntings. The vireos winter along the American Southeast, Cuba, the Greater Antilles, and eastern Mexico. Because of their love of shrubbery and undergrowth, they are more often heard than seen. Their call is a loud “chick’-a-per-weeoo-chick’” that is often heard before the singing bird is seen (Peterson). This link is to an older version of A Field Guide to the Birds, which is a good place to see written interpretations of bird song.

Seeing Red-shouldered Hawks is easy at Corkscrew Sanctuary. As I have previously posted, Florida Red-shouldered Hawks are smaller and paler than northern birds. This raptor is another inhabitant of eastern North America, wintering further south and into northeastern Mexico. Curiously, this hawk is resident along the California coast, south into Baja California.

Finally we encountered a dragonfly—a Halloween Pennant. These dragonflies have a large range, and may be particularly common in Florida. We often see them in Minnesota. Their coloration may mimic poisonous butterflies. See my previous posts on the species, for example 7 August 2015.