Wood Stork

Wood Storks are conspicuous waders of the Southeast. Their populations have suffered from water mismanagement in the Everglades, but numbers have increased in northern Florida, South Carolina and Georgia (Coulter et al. 1995). The species also breeds from Mexico through northern South America.

In the Everglades National Park, where, in April, Erika and I took these photographs, Wood Storks soar in thermals, often to heights over 3000 feet. They then glide as far as 30 miles to feeding areas. Birds return in the same fashion to their nesting colonies, occasionally waiting for the next day’s thermals to develop. Birds descend from the thermals either with long, downward, circular glides (like the bird in these photos) or in steep, high-speed dives (Coulter et al. 1995).

Eastern Kingbird

I have posted before that, when we were in the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador,  Erika and I often saw large flocks of Eastern Kingbirds. Apparently the flocks are maintained until after the birds migrate into North America. Last May, John Holden and I found about a dozen Eastern Kingbirds along the Wells Lake causeway in southern Rice County. Curiously, in South America, these kingbirds eat fruit, whereas here they rely on flying insects (Murphy 1996).

One of these days I will succeed in photographing a male kingbird’s scarlet crown.  Looks like I came close with this bird. Meanwhile, compare this photo with that of the Gray Kingbird. Note the much larger size of the Gray Kingbird’s bill.

Gray Kingbird

After leaving Long Key, we proceeded to Duck Key, which looked like a gated community. On our own, we probably would not have entered—but the BirdsEye bird-finding app assured us that Gray Kingbirds had recently been reported on Duck Key. After driving though the residential streets, I opened the window and heard the raspy call of the kingbird.  “Sounds like it is coming from behind that house!” I called, as we turned a corner. And there was our kingbird. I took some distant photos. A few blocks distant, another Gray Kingbird obligingly forayed from its telephone-line perch.

Gray Kingbirds breed throughout the West Indies, northern South America, and the coastal southeastern United States, from Florida north to South Carolina and Mississippi. These flycatchers consume large flying insects, including beetles, dragonflies, bees, and, as you as see in the bottom photograph, wasps.  They also eat lizards and various fruits (Smith and Jackson 2002). Gray Kingbirds look superficially similar to Eastern Kingbirds, but are more gray overall, lack the broad white terminal tail bands, and have more robust bills. I suspect the size of the bills protects the kingbirds from venomous insect stings.

Black-throated Blue Warbler 2

On Thursday I posted an account of our seeing a male Black-throated Blue Warbler on Long Key last April. The same evening, I banded a female here in Northfield, Minnesota. You may recall that I wrote that ornithologists did not believe initially that the sexes belonged to the same species. This female is identified by her olive coloration and small, white, wing spots.

Black-throated Blue Warblers breed in the arrowhead of Minnesota and mainly migrate on the East Coast of the United States. Thus southeastern Minnesota is on the periphery of their migratory range. I also listed about two-dozen Black-throated Blues in eastern South Dakota. One might hypothesize that these birds are heading for the western-most wintering grounds in the Yucatan, Belize and Honduras. It would be great to get a recovery of one of these banded birds. Nevertheless, eBird maps show many records from the western United States.

Audubon’s Warbler in Minnesota

On Thursday, 24 September 2015, at my home (in Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota), a Yellow-rumped Warbler caught my eye in my banding net. The throat and belly were yellowish. The throat color did not wrap around the auricular feathers (ear patches). The wing bars were relatively wide. Finally, the eye-strip is very faint. I believe this bird is a young Audubon’s Warbler, the western race of the Yellow-rumped. Last spring, you may recall, I banded a bird I thought to be a hybrid between the two races. As I mentioned in that previous post, about a half dozen Audubon Warbler records exist from Minnesota.

Broad-winged Hawk

Erika and I observed two flocks of five Broad-winged Hawks on Wednesday, 23 September 2015. The first flock flew over Northfield in Rice County; the second flew over the nearby Carleton College arboretum in Dakota County. They could have been the same birds (although the second flock was about a mile north of the first). These hawks often migrate in flocks of up to thousands of individuals. Only rarely does one notice single migrants.

This photo of a juvenal bird is of one of the arboretum flock. Adults show a striking black and white banded tail.  In most studies, small mammals. birds and amphibians are their main prey. They are generalized predators, and take a wide variety of prey items. To me, it looked like the arboretum birds might be feeding on flying dragonflies. Although these hawks are known to take insects like grasshoppers, Gooddrich et al. (2014), in The Birds of North America, do not mention dragonflies.

Great Pondhawk

Having failed to find Gray Kingbirds at Sanibel, we searched for these flycatchers on 2 April in Long Key State Park in one of the northern Florida Keys. According to the BirdsEye bird-finding app, Gray Kingbirds had recently been seen at the park; and reports of a Key West Quail-Dove gave us added incentive to visit. Other birders searched with us, but we saw neither bird—the park was just too big.

But I did come face-to-face with a Great Pondhawk. I had Great Pondhawks on the brain since entering Florida, but, until now, all the pondhawks I encountered proved to be Easterns. I knew the dragonfly I desired had green stimata, the small spots often found near the tips of odonate wings. When I saw this individual, I immediately knew its identity. The species is found in southern Florida and throughout the West Indies and from Oklahoma south to Argentina.

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Erika and I left Sanibel Island on 1 April and drove across the peninsula and spent two days in Florida City. Our BirdsEye bird-finding app, indicated that Gray Kingbirds, which we missed in Sanibel, had been seen at Long Key State Park, along with a rarer bird, the Key West Quail-Dove.

We arrived at Long Key on 2 April and were greeted by this Black-throated Blue Warbler. Males and females look so different that early ornithologists thought that they were different species. Males, like this one, do not molt into a cryptic fall plumage, and, thus, are easily identified all year. I have posted a photo of a female elsewhere in this blog.

Minnesota is about as far west as Black-throated Blue Warblers breed. They winter in forests in the Greater Antilles, the Yucatan, and Belize. Most migrate along our Atlantic Coast. We assume the bird in the photo is an early migrant in south Florida. Populations of this warbler have declined due to deforestation, both in their breeding and wintering grounds. Only as fallow fields have recently reverted to forest have numbers rebounded (Holmes et al. 2005).

Bottle-nosed Dolphin

Despite the hoards of people and relatively high cost of accommodations, we enjoyed our week in Sanibel Island during the last week of March. The birds, shells, dragonflies and beach combing all conspired to make the week fly by.

I suspect this is a Bottle-nosed Dolphin, which entertained the beach-goers, young and old. “I wonder how you tell that from a shark?” asked a man next to me. “No blood in the water,” I replied. Maybe not so funny, considering the shark attacks to come the following summer along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Sharks, of course, do not breathe air through a blow-hole and their hind fins ride up and down rather than flat in the water.

Gopher Tortoise

The Sanibel Island Lighthouse and Beach Access are at the eastern edge of the island. The area is a wildlife refuge and is so popular that parking often is a problem. We visited twice towards the end of our stay at the end of March and saw interesting birds and a hoard of birders. Several interesting warblers were in the vicinity, but light was generally too poor for good photos. The crowd of noisy birders also blemished the experience.

We did see Gopher Tortoises, which are threatened in their southeastern range by predation, habitat destruction, and hunting. People have eaten tortoises through the ages. During the Great Depression they were known as “Hoover Chicken." Today tortoises are often hunted illegally. Until 1989, when Florida banned the practice, Gopher Tortoises were captured for turtle races. Tortoises are also kept as pets. Captive turtles are susceptible to a variety of pathogens.

On Sanibel Island, Gopher Tortoises are found in most upland areas, but mostly on conservation lands. Statewide, the species is classified as Threatened (MySanibel.com). They are herbvores that consume a wide variety of plants. Many other animals depend on tortoise burrows, and the turtles are thus considered to be a keystone species in their ecosystems.