January 26 - Lake Woodruff NWR

Again, I was up at 3:15 to make coffee, eat a quick breakfast of cold cereal, and head out to Titusville for a visit to Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge.  The bus with 18 birders left at 5 a.m., stopping at a convenience store for a “Potty Stop” because the restrooms at the Refuge are still locked due to Trump’s Government Shutdown.  Theoretically, the fight that resulted in the Shutdown has been, at least temporarily, resolved - but it will certainly take a while for the poor government employees to catch up from weeks of neglect.

We arrived at the parking lot at daybreak, and hooted for owls, but had no responses.  Lake Woodruff is a 21,574-acre National Wildlife Refuge, managed through the Merritt Island refuge complex.

Apparently, we need to watch out for the wildlife

We walked out onto the dike, and immediately began hearing and seeing birds.

Trip leader David Hartgrove gets them on the Sedge Wren

The marsh was alive with the calls of Soras, and the photographers in our group had a field day - none of my shots were in focus... something about leaving the camera on the wrong setting.

We heard a Least Bittern’s distinct call from about 20 meters away, but never got to see it.  The call notes of Common Yellowthroats and Sedge Wrens also resounded.  The Sedge Wrens were a species, I hadn’t seen for years, and I finally saw them popping up and down from the grasses and rushes for “identifiable” although not great views.  The Swamp Sparrows are much more obliging, and would tee-up for photos.

A sparrow in the swamp - must be a Swamp Sparrow!

We took the Hammock trail loop through the pines and palms,

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more . . .

then back out on the dike where they have done some clearing to open up the habitat

White Ibis making good use of the cleared marsh

past the observation tower

Sometimes, you can see just fine from the ground

and back to the parking lot along Spring Garden Lake.  We had good views of Turkey Vultures sunning themselves out of the wind,

fly-bys of Sandhill Crane pairs,

and of course there were more Soras, Anhingas,

herons, ibis and egrets – as well as a very cooperative Pied-billed Grebe.
Among the many species of plants that I didn’t recognize was this splash of bright red.  The red maple is one of the first signs of the Southern Spring, with red fuzz of the tiny red flowers creating a hazy effect.

Later (now) the tree appears to turn even more vibrant red, but that color is from the seeds - the bright red winged samaras.  The leaves apparently emerge subsequently.

Red maple - Acer rubrum

We drove back to the College, and through the bus windows I saw several of the feral Muscovy Ducks that are now an ‘established exotic’ species here in Florida.  No photos . . .

At the festival venue, I went through the Exhibitors’ booths again to see their wares, and check up on the Festival’s bird sightings.

Didn't we see that today?

They were drawing the winning raffle ticket for a Swarovski BTX 95 package at 3 p.m., so I decided to go over to the home of a couple of birders just north of town.

Doug and Susie Stuckey had graciously opened their home to Festival birders, and as I got out of the car and began scanning the yard with my binoculars, I was immediately greeted by a Baltimore Oriole at the driveway feeder.

Male Baltimore Oriole

Doug invited me inside and I met a wonderful and kind couple!  Doug has turned his average Florida yard into a wildlife haven with plantings and well-placed feeders and bird baths.  The big draw here was for the flock of Painted Buntings (sorry, no photo.  Hey, I’m a birder, not a photographer…), and we were lucky enough to see a Prairie Warbler sneaking through the cover.

I left these fine people and went back to the Festival, only to find that I was - unfortunately - not the winner of the Swarovski scope.  I checked the schedule with the Festival folks, because the weather was blowing up tomorrow, with heavy rain and pretty good winds projected.  I was signed up for a Pelagic trip on Monday, but sadly found that it had been cancelled.  Sigh . . .  I guess I’ll have to get out on one of Brian Patteson’s pelagic trips to  see the offshore Atlantic birds.

Lake Woodruff NWR eBird Checklist is Here
The eBird Checklist from the Stuckey's yard is Here

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.