January 25 - Central Florida Specialties

I was up with the 3:15 a.m. alarm, ate a quick breakfast of almond butter toast, and was out the door to drive up to the EFSC campus to catch the 5 a.m. bus for the Space Coast Bird Festival’s Central Florida Specialties field trip.  This full-day excursion was led by Jim Eager (Obsessive Compulsive Birding) & David Goodwin from Florida Nature Tours.

We started at dawn from the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area’s Hunter Campground, where the target birds were species from the managed longleaf pine forest.The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is an ESA Endangered Species, and many birds in this well-studied species are banded.

The female does not have the red "cockade"

To maintain the forest and understory structure necessary for the Red-cockadeds to thrive, the woods are treated with prescribed fire on a periodic basis.

Brown-headed Nuthatches, Pine Warblers and Eastern Bluebirds also benefit from the management of the pine forest.

Brown-headed Nuthatch

There were surely some Bachman’s Sparrows in the area, but at this early season are not singing, and are secretive at the best of times.

Besides the target birds, as a Left Coast birder, I enjoy seeing Eastern species such as the Red-bellied Woodpecker 

and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Chips a-flyin'

Gives me a headache just watching . . .

The Florida State Wildflower is the tickseed, or Coreopsis.  The Florida tickseed (Coreopsis floridana) is a perennial member of this well-known genus and endemic to Florida.  It occurs throughout most of the state, except the extreme northern Panhandle counties, in wet open habitats such as the upper edges of marshes, savannas and prairies.  The next stops were at the Lake Jackson boat ramp, then the Lake Marian Marina where we had a good view of an immature Purple Gallinule,

of Common Gallinules,

and watched a Sandhill Crane keeping watch over his out-of-view mate on her nest.

There are lots of Tree Swallows in this area, we estimated about 450 flying by here. Then, out stepped a Limpkin, which is a common species down here, but was a Life Bird for me.

Lifer!

Our next destination was Joe Overstreet Road to view an obliging, but distant, Red-headed Woodpecker.

The dot on the middle right side of the snag is a bird . . . really!

Across the road, an Eastern Meadowlark was skulking through the pasture.

Skulking in the grass

Here, too, we saw (no photo, sorry) Sherman’s Fox Squirrels, which are a handsomely-pelaged subspecies endemic to the longleaf pine forest country of Florida and Georgia.

At the Joe Overstreet Landing on Lake Kissimmee we found several Snail Kites, which were another “Lifer” for me.

This species has benefitted from the introduction of an exotic invasive!  Until recently, the Florida population of snail kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus) fed almost entirely on Florida apple snails (Pomacea paludosa), which can only live under specific wetland conditions.  But, four other invasive apple snail species from South America can survive in a much wider range of habitats, including human-made wetlands such as retention ponds and impounded cattle pastures.  And where the new snails spread, the kites’ population has expanded.

The white rump patch reminds me of the Northern Harrier, only better!

In the marsh were more Limpkins,

Purple Gallinules

Purple Gallinule being shy

and the Commons,

Drabber than the Purple, but still pretty handsome . . .

in addition to the usual wading birds,

They used to call these the "Louisiana Heron"

as well as the 'inland' gulls,

Herring Gull

Ring-billed Gulls on the Dock

and Forster’s terns.

I hate unsafe terns

Even the Turkey Vultures are marsh birds, here.The locals are apparently not too concerned about keeping their cattle out of the lake, which must do wonders for water quality . . . note that this grazing practice is NOT allowed in Washington State . . . so it was curious for me to see.

We stopped at Chapman’s Double C Bar Ranch, where a lone Whooping Crane fed from the cattle trough, and Sandhill cranes fed in the pasture.  She stayed behind the cattle so I couldn't get a shot, but is apparently one of 14 remaining 'resident' Whoopers in the State.

Florida Whooping Crane Habitat

Our last stop was at the Cruickshank Sanctuary in Rockledge for Florida’s only endemic bird, the Florida Scrub-Jay.  These birds are pretty well attenuated to people, and are obviously used to begging from people.  A hand held in the air draws them in, expecting a peanut or something.  Jim did not feed these birds, but they came over to check us out anyway.

Sometimes it's hard to get your head around a Scrub Jay . . .

The bus returned to the college at 4 p.m., ending a great day of birding with a good group of birders.  I was pleased to have seen 20 new species for the year, including two Life Birds.