Monk Parakeet

We photographed a Monk Parakeet perched atop a field light pole at the Pelican Blvd. Baseball Fields in Ft Myers, Florida, on 19 January 2018. Monk Parakeets are naturally found in southern South America, north to southern Brazil and Bolivia. They are popular pets—97% of pet parrots from South America are this species— and often escape. Furthermore, being the only parrot that does not nest in cavities (using large, stick nests instead and maintaining the nests all year), they tolerate cold weather. Free-flying Monk Parakeets were first found in the United States in the 1960s. They are now found in many cities in the US and in Europe and Israel.

This parrot prefers urban areas and are difficult to control. Although the nests can cause power failures or fires as the birds nest on powerlines or transformers, people often resist efforts to reduce flock numbers. Early fears of Monk Parakeets’ causing crop damage have not materialized. Statistics and other information for this blog are from Burgio et al. (2016).

Florida Burrowing Owl

A highlight of our Florida trip was finding Burrowing Owls on 19 January 2018. Burrowing Owls were not new for us; we’ve seen plenty in South Dakota and elsewhere. But the Florida owls are far from other populations. I have wanted to see them in case DNA research establishes them as a separate species. Certianly little or no genetic flow exists between Florida and Western populations.

So I looked up Florida Burrowing Owl sightings in the BirdsEye bird finding app. The app announced that Burrowing Owls had been recently seen at the Pelican Blvd. Baseball Fields, right in the middle of Fort Myers. OK. The locadtion was not far out of our way. We arrived, and all we found were baseball fields. No surprise there, I suppose. We surveysed te area with our binoculars. On the outskirts of the fields were white crosses. Below each cross lay a Burrowing Owl nest. The owls paid little attention to us. We flushed none while taking these photos.

Florida Burrowing Owls are also unique in their eye color. Apparently due to low populations, recessive eye color genes are often expressed in Florida birds. Instead of being yellow, ksome Florida birds have marbled, black and yellow irises. We did not find any strikingly colored irises in our birds, but a few were somewhat mottled.

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge

When we are in the vicinity, we always visit St Marks National Wildlife Refuge in the Florida panhandle. Our 18 January 2018 stop was dampened by cold weather—no chance for dragonflies. We did photograph two male ducks, a Canvasback (left) and a Redhead (right). Note the “ski-slope” bill of the Canvasback. I also got a chance to try to photograph a Belted Kingfisher. It flew as I took pictures, and the flying image came out the best.

Seventeen Degrees in Mississippi

On the morning of 17 January 2018, the temperature was a frosty 17 degrees F in Meridian, Mississippi. We checked visited the Bonita Lake city park, where we have seen interesting birds in the past. The park was gated on this visit. We were able to drive a few hundred feet into the park before we had to turn around. Many birds fed on the ground, like this Northern Mockingbird (above) and Brown Thrasher (below). Both sepcies are ground feeders, but the nearby bushes clear held no attraction.

Next we saw a Tufted Titmouse, a bird more often seen in vegetation.

Finally, we happened upon a large flock of Pine Siskins. The siskins fed in a Sweet Gum tree. Pine Siskins are northern species used to the bone-chilling temperatures we enjoyed that morning.

Flag-tailed Spinyleg

You can see the leg spines from which this dragonfly derives its name. Flag-tailed Spinylegs are often common and can be seen perched along lake shores and vegetation, exactly the habitat I found this one along Grapevine Lake near Flower Mound, Texas, on 20 July 2017. This individual flew out over the lake before briefly returning to its original perch. The species ranges from northeastern Mexico north to Michigan and West Virginia.

Swift Setwing

Although the afternoon was unmercifully hot, on 19 July 2017, I strolled in a small, Flower Mound, Texas, city park. Running through the park were several small, overgrown streams and ponds. I photographed a couple of dozen Swift Setwings along the water edges.

This habitat is perfect for Swift Setwings. They often perch with their wings pointed downward and their abdomens held above their bodies. They perch on tall grasses, sticks, and weeds. They are the most widespread North American setwing, found from Mexico across the piedmont of the United States to Tennessee and Virginia. Their range appears to be expanding (Odonata Central).

Aztec Dancer

During our brief visit to Flower Mound, Texas, on 19 July 2017, between our hotel and the kids’ home, Erika and I took a short hike in Knob Hills Bike Trail. The trail runs a short distance from Denton Creek, which drains into Grapevine Lake. Surprisingly, we did not see any dragonflies. As we were leaving, traversing a rocky hillside above the creek, I noticed a pretty, blue Aztec Dancer.

Aztec Dancers are found from eastern Texas north to Kansas and west through the American Southwest to California. They also range south into Mexico. Paulson (2009) writes that these dancers are often found around streams, but also in open, bushy riparian borders—more or less the habitat in which we found them.

Mississippi Kite

During a brief visit to Flower Mound, Denton County, Texas on 19 July 2017, I was delighted to find Mississippi Kites. I have not been in Mississippi Kite territory since seriously taking up bird photography and found it difficult to capture in focus images of these raptors as they swoop back and forth. 

This kite dove into a residential yard and came up with what appears to be a small snake, which the bird consumed in air. Numbers of Mississippi Kites are on the upswing, and in the southern Great Plains, they can be abundant. In many parts of their range, populations have moved from forests into urban areas. They often breed in large colonies. Mississippi Kites eat insects, often on the wing. They also take small vertebrates, like frogs, snakes, lizards, birds, and mammals.

These kites breed in woodlands and city parks. In parts of the western United States, kits attack people who approach nesting sites, resulting “many public relations, management, and educational challenges” (Parker 1999). I found the last kite in this post in a small Flower Mound city park. The day was painfully hot and humid, with temperatures above 100 degrees F. Great weather for Odonata, but a bit tough for birds and other dragonfly hunters.

2018 Florida/Texas Roadtrip

We left Northfield on 15 January 2018 for a winter vacation to Key West and Sanibel Island, Florida, and then over to Mission, Texas. On our first three days, we encountered some of the worst winter driving of our lives. The roads all the way from Minnesota to Mobile, Alabama, were ice-skating rinks. 

On the morning of the 17th, we visited Bonita Lakes City Park in Meridian, Mississippi. The temperature was 14 degrees F, and the night saw a light dusting of snow. Many songbirds, like these Yellow-rumped Warblers, fed on the ground. They appeared to be eating fallen cedar berries. There is nothing that surprising about a Yellow-rumped Warbler on the ground—only none of them fed in the trees.

Two-toed Slouth

As we loaded the bus on 16 July to return to the San Jose, our driver, Ramon Vargas Monge, asked, “Would you like to see a sloth?” “Sure,” we replied.  Ramon took us a short distance down the road. A Two-toed Sloth lounged in a tree by the road—complete with a young sloth it its arms. Sloths are mostly vegetarians and mainly eat leaves, which are not a high energy source. Consequently, sloths spend much of their days hanging upside down in the trees.

We are often asked how we made the decision to take our Costa Rican dragonfly tour. Actually we did no research. I knew Dennis Paulson by fame, both as a premier dragonfly expert and as a birder. Dennis posted an announcement of the tour on FaceBook (of all places). I turned to Erika and said, “Amorcita, this trip will be the tour of a lifetime!” Somewhat to my surprise (neither of us is fond of flying), she immediately agreed. We knew nothing about Sunrise Birding. Steve and Tom Bird proved to be superb birders, guides, and marvelous traveling companions.

So ends my Costa Rican blog report. (I am sure there are more photos to share—we took over 7000 images during the trip—but I will spare you.) We returned to San Jose and, early on the morning of 17 July, flew to Dallas. We spent two days there visiting family, and then drove back to Minnesota. We did see a few interesting creatures in Texas, and I will share them with you in the next few posts.