more CBC fun

After my fun with Screech-Owls in "the Webb" it was time to get busy once again and go cover my officially assigned area. I was a team in of myself at this point and had a fair amount of ground to cover. Of course I still took time to stop and smell the ros... err, um... flowers, like the one below. I'm not much of a botanist, I know enough to be dangerous but not much more. At any rate, the flower I stumbled across below looked really out of place among the wire grass in a sea of pines. I assumed it was an exotic rather than a native species, but hopefully some of you can enlighten me. Please feel free to leave a comment if you can.

mystery flower photographed at Babcock Webb WMA, 12/14/08

As I drove back toward the lake I enjoyed a couple massive mixed species feeding flocks that held hundreds of individual birds. My typical M.O. for winter birding at the Webb, is locate the flocks and you find the birds. You'd think these flocks would be painfully obvious in the relative openness provided by the habitat here, but at a distance even large flocks can be mostly hidden in the grasses and pineey canopy. Eastern Bluebirds are typically the indicator species for me. Their calls are easier for me to detect at greater distance than the other species in the group, and the fact that they prefer to sit on open exposed perches helps as well. Also it seems they are almost never alone, they always attract friends!

Each time I detected Bluebirds, I'd head toward them and invariably I found other species with them. The bulk of these flocks were made up of Pine Warblers, with lesser numbers of Yellow-rumped & Palm Warblers numbering into the triple digits. In the biggest flock there were >100 warblers, 8 individual Bluebirds, 4 Brown-headed Nuthatches, 3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers, & 2 Downy Woodpeckers. I got lucky in one flock and had a Blue-headed Vireo and a Pileated Woodpecker mixed in. Eastern Towhees, Northern Flickers, and Eastern Meadowlarks could invariably be heard nearby but they don't seem to join these mixed species flocks.

Loggerhead Shrike with Gulf Fritillary butterfly, digiscoped @ Webb 12/14/08

Loggerhead Shrikes are commonly seen foraging throughout the open flatwoods habitat. This small predatory songbird does not (obviously) join the feeding flocks and is another one of the loners out here. It might try to join in, but likely only to attempt to capture one of its smaller feathered brethren. With their sharply hooked beaks the Loggerhead will rarely capture and eat a small bird, but for the most part they nab insects like the Gulf Fritillary shown above. Grasshoppers and crickets are a favorite. Slightly larger Northern Shrikes found (as you'd guess) across many northern states in winter do take a higher percentage of birds and rodents though.

Shrikes are a curios predator. They lack the talons of a true raptor (bird of prey) so are reliant on their hooked beak for capturing and killing their prey. They also have the unique habit of wedging their prey in a forked branch or impaling it on a long thorn or barbed wire fence. This habit has earned them the nickname "Butcherbird". The bird below put on quite a show and I felt obligated to shoot some images and video through the spotting scope since it was being so accommodating.

Loggerhead Shrike digiscoped with Leica APO Televid scope & Leica C-Lux 2 camera

My assigned area included the large "Babcock Lake" that runs three miles south from the park entrance. Along it's length is a mix of young open flatwoods and marhes perfect for all kinds of critters like the toothy resident below.

American Alligator digiscoped Babcock Webb WMA 12/14/08

As I stood at the lake's edge another large feeding flock swept through the area and disappeared to the south slowly rolling through the vegetation like a slow motion tumble weed. It dawned on me how this type of birding was kind of like fishing. You're in the right habitat there's miles of it and the birds are in tight packs here and there. To my eye at least there was very little difference in the habitat from one spot to another either. These birds just roam through these habitat areas and you need a bit of luck to find them. My Bluebird trick has seemed to help me stack the odds in my favor a bit and it seems this home court advantage likely helps me detect more than the uninitiated birder visiting for the first time. Unlike fishing though birding is non-consumptive so once I see the bird it will still be there for the next birder or my next visit. Also, since my seeing it does not make it more wary and harder to see on future visits (unlike catch and release fishing perhaps), I happily share my secrets to success with other birders. Something the local fisherman might take to his or her grave to insure their secret spot and techniques continue to work for them on every visit. This spirit of open sharing is one of the great things about the birding community actually that is not as common in other outdoor recreational pursuits.

Double-crested Cormorant "T65" digiscoped @ Webb Lake 12/14/08

One of the other great things about birding is seeing old friends. As I reached the southern part of the Lake I saw Double-crested Cormorants perched on some familiar exposed rocks and thought, "I wonder...". A quick scan with my trusty Televid spotting scope and my suspicions were confirmed; one of the three birds wore a bright yellow leg band reading "T65". Good ol' "T65" and I go way back. I actually encountered this bird in this very spot back on March 12, 2004. I got images and submitted the record to the bird banding laboratory and discovered that "T65" was banded as a chick on the nest on July 15, 2002 near Willsboro, NY. So I like to think we are old friends now!

female Belted Kingfisher, digiscoped image, Babcock Webb WMA 12/14/08

Hard to know if this girl was an old friend since she wore no bands, but I was more than happy to meet an accommodating Belted Kingfisher. Bird photographers will tell you these birds have a well deserved reputation for being a bit wary and difficult to approach. So I was tickled to have one perch still and in good sunlight like this. Even though my job on this day was to count birds, I certainly wasn't going to pass up a photo op like this!

Of course, she still might not have been cooperative enough for the typical bird photographer with a 400 or 500 mm lens though. The biggest advantage of digiscoping is that of reach and magnification. In optical terms (generally speaking) every 50 mm in lens equates to near 1 power of magnification. As such a 400 mm & 500 mm lens offers the equivalent view you would receive from an 8x or 10x binocular respectively. Spotting scopes deliver up to 6x the magnification as binoculars though, so the DSLR photographer with a 500 mm lens would have to be up to 6 times closer for the subject to be the same size in their viewfinder! Hard to say if she was that tolerent. Ididn't stalk her in that way she seemed plenty aware of me even though I was nearly 60 feet (~20m) away.

female Belted Kingfisher - digiscoped Leica APO Televid scope

Belted Kingfishers are another one of the unique stories from the birding world, they are one of the VERY few examples (along with Phalaropes) of a bird species where the female is more colorful than the male! I have no idea why this is, but the males show only the upper blue neck band and none of the reddish coloration found below on the belly and flanks. Phalaropes are actually a polyandrous species where the more colorful female attracts a mate, breeds, lays eggs and then leaves the male to tend for the nest and raise the chicks. When she has had enough mating she simply returns to sea and joins a flock of other single bachelorette phalaropes! The male's more subdued, cryptic coloration is then understandable as he will be doing all of the incubation and brooding of small young. I don't know what the story is with the Belted Kingfisher though. Anyone care to jump in to offer more enlightenment here?...

adult Osprey digiscoped Babcock Webb WMA 12-14-08

The sad looking Osprey above played a part in one of my final memorable moments at the Webb. I heard him first (likely a male by plain unmarked breast - most females show a "necklace" of dark streaks) giving typical piercing single notes of protest. I looked up and was not surprised to see this guy carrying a fish with an adult Bald Eagle closing in on him fast. It all happened so quickly I never even bothered or thought about snapping a picture, I just enjoyed the show through my binoculars. The Osprey attempted to stave off the inevitable and allude the Eagle's piracy by going into a steep dive toward the surface of the lake. However, he was heavily laden by a large fish and was no match for the agility and power of an unburdened adult Bald Eagle. The eagle closed in fast leaving our sad Osprey with only one option; to release his quarry just above the lake's surface.

Very often when this happens the eagle will be able to snatch the falling fish out of the air, but there was not enough space in this instance and the heavy prey splashing into the lake looked like a depth charge being released from some WWII airplane in old film footage. The eagle broke off the chase and spiralled back around to look for its quarry but not before two other eagles who had detected this less than quiet exchange came barrelling in as well. Now all three eagles were spiralling low over the lake's surface chittering madly at one another: one adult, a three year old bird (by plumage), and a youngster hatched this year. After a while they all peeled off and perched. The adult selected a short 12' high pine close to the splash down site, while the two younger birds landed in the same large pine on the opposite shore. It seems no one ever got the fish (at least not while I was there) but it was a wonderfully fun event and one of the many memorable highlights of this day.... although the Osprey likely disagrees!

Florida CBC Fun in Charlotte County

For the past few years, I've been busy during the local Audubon Christmas Bird Count season. So I was tickled to discover I'd have ample time to join this year after a too long hiatus. I was even more excited when the local coordinator asked me if I'd be willing to help in my favorite birding area in the entire county, Babcock Webb Wildlife Management Area in Punta Gorda, FL.

Babcock Webb is primarily pine-flatwoods habitat broken up by marsh areas in low spots. It is known as the best spot to see federally endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches, & Bachman's Sparrows along the entire central to southern Gulf coast and certainly the southernmost location for the RCW! As such, it was not surprising that at first light my fellow bird counters and I headed directly for the closest Woodpecker roost site to insure we tallied this bird on the count. They are comparatively easy to see at first light when they leave the roost and socialize a bit before heading off to feed in the open woodlands. After this they could be wandering anywhere in a sea of pines.

It was overcast and as we waited for them to make an appearance, we began tallying other species like fly over American Goldfinches, American Robins, and Common Grackles, among others. I managed to locate a single Bachman's Sparrow which (as usual) was very uncooperative and skulky. I was able to see movement in the palmettos, hear it's high-pitched call notes, and even hear the rustle of the dead fronds, but never really saw it. This is not atypical at all for this species in winter though... they are so much kinder after February when they actually come out of hiding and will tee up to sing their melodic phrases! Then some Brown-headed Nuthatches squeaked in the trees overhead following a fast moving flock of Eastern Bluebirds, mixed with handfuls of Pine, Palm, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. So far the birds were not offering good views but again this isn't unexpected of birds first waking up.

A distant Downy Woodpecker let out a descending "De-de-de-de-de-de-dee!" and two Red-bellied Woodpeckers "churred!" to our right. The harsh "Kiyoo!" of a Northern Flicker helped to round out our woodpecker list that morning, but we were still waiting on the rarest one.

Pine flatwoods at Babcock Webb WMA, Punta Gorda, FL

Surely these other woodpeckers waking up was a good sign though, I thought. In the distance there was a noise, "Was that it?!?..." I cocked my head and strained my ears to the gentle breeze. Yes! a high shrill, "Kiir!" followed by an answer. Our Red-cockaded Woodpecker couple had left their roost holes and were saying "Good morning!" (or at least that's the way I took it). They were on the opposite side of the road from where I was still struggling to get the Bachman's Sparrow to cooperate. I quickly gave up on this mouse of a bird and dashed back to the road. I spied the woodpecker marked by its large white circular face patch as it hitched up a tree not far off the road, then quickly trained the scope on it and leapt out of the way so Larry in our group could add this stunning bird to his lifelist. It was a brief view but definitive as the bird flew much further back and joined another on a more distant tree. I swung the scope around again and ran the zoom up a bit and once again surrendered the scope so Larry could enjoy his first views of this bird once again.

Eastern Screech-Owl in natural snag @ Babcock Webb WMA 12/14/08

By now it was well past 7 AM and I was real surprised to hear the staccato trill of an eastern Screech-Owl, both because it was so light at this point and in my quarter century of birding I'd never encountered them in habitat like this. The pines here are separated by 20 feet at least on average and it is a VERY open habitat. I've always seen Screech-Owls in dense thickets in the past. Of course, this is what makes birding so fun and interesting as well; the surprises never end. One thing that was certain was that if this bird kept singing it would be cinch to find. There were very few dead snags large enough to accommodate this bird for one thing and second the woods are so open you can easily see hundreds of feet in any given direction.

Eastern Screech-Owl digiscoped through Leica APO Televid scope w/ C-Lux camera

With a little coaxing the birds continued calling first a lower-pitched female then a more distant, higher-pitched male. Each time they called, I'd get a bearing and move quickly toward them then stop and wait again.... they'd call again, I'd close in again.... After 3 or 4 of these avian chess moves I stood in front of a tall dead snag about 40 feet away. I raised my binoculars and glassed up the trunk..."There she is!" About 20 feet up looking right at me was the female screech doing her best to imitate the broken off branch right above her was staring out at me. I quickly got her in the scope inviting the others to join me for a quick view, before mounting my digital camera and adapter to document the sighting utilizing the powerful magnification of the scope!

At this point, I was already late to get on with my "true assigned" area so I bid the crew adieu and headed off by myself to see what else this day had in store...