A New Year Begins at Viera Wetlands

One of my California friends had to come to a class in Florida and decided to take a long weekend off on her airplane ticket and invited me to meet her.

Our first adventure, after surviving heavy traffic, was to spend a day at Viera Wetlands, a very special place for wading birds and ducks, ibis, anhinga, and other species.  This was one of the places still rattling around in my bucket list, leftover from my time working at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. So I was very excited.

I got some of the best bird pictures I've been able to get because we could get quite close to many of the animals. And many birds were establishing territory, building nests, and some were even taking care of kids.

Come along and meet some of them.

This was an aggressively singing red-winged blackbird

There were lots of white ibis about

I love the way they tip themselves into the air

I think the juvenile white ibis are more photogenic

An anhinga on the nest

The way the pair looked 

Both parents were in this nest

Some anhinga were still building nests.  Glad to see the men helping. 

I didn't see any double crested cormorant nesting but this guy looked exuberant.

I was a bit startled to see these two species together

I took pictures of limpkin all morning, thinking there juvenile glossy ibis. 

The best thing were the several great blue heron nests.  (And the worst thing was that a hurricane had taken down many of their nest trees.)

I spent a lot of time photographing female great blue herons building their nests. (You can tell females because they are the ones that build the nest. 

Then I got excited over one baby in a nest

But the best was this entire family 

Parent on right going after more food

The three siblings are each a few days apart with one almost ready to leave the nest,
while the smallest seems about a week behind 

We went back to the nest with three young to try to catch more family interactions. The babies were on there own for several minutes until a parent flew in and fed the largest babie. 

We saw plenty of alligators sunning in the warm air, or swimming. I almost fell across a six foot alligator that was walking across the road behind me as I was backing up while looking through my viewfinder.

One of the cute little alligators trying to cool off by opening his mouth

A soft shelled turtle - a rare find

 I was amazed to learn that the Caracara, AKA Mexican eagle, was a Florida resident.

Can you tell the species of his supper?

Those are the  coot feet I tell people make them look like they are wearing their father's galoshes 

 I tried to get this out for Sunday, but our motel had wi-fi too slow to load pictures. I'm spending the evening with another friend and rushing to finish this early the following day.  I've been up twenty-one hours, playing with Cindy, then driving back to pick up my car and tell her goodby, then driving to another friends's house for super and a sleepover with several hours of visiting.

Today Cindy and I were supposed to go swim with manatees, but thanks, to climate change, the water warmed up early and the few hundred manatees left to go feed. The tour company offered to refund our money so we took them up on it.  We had a magical experience the last time we went, with a baby manatee that came and nibbled on my hair several times.  But we did have a wonderful air-boat tour to look for snail kites yesterday and today enjoyed photographing birds at Ellie Schiller Homasassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

Stay tuned.

Constructions of Cranes

January 29, 2018

A group of cranes is sometimes called a construction.  I decided to go to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge,  in Alabama, which has lots of sandhill cranes, and sometimes whooping cranes.

Since it is some four  hours away, not counting stops, I decided I needed to leave at 3:15 A.M. to get there near sunup. I was a little late leaving but then gained an hour going to Alabama, which is in the Central Time Zone.  So I got there just after sunrise, before the road to the Visitor Center was open, but I was able to visit the boat launch park just across the road.

There I found cranes crowded onto sandbars with small groups periodically flying out. I spent at least thirty minutes there, engrossed in photographing them, both on the ground and in the air.

Sandhills waking up 

And flying in the golden light

A pair of cranes feeding

Then I went on to the Visitor Center. I has a very nice display, a little gift shop and friendly rangers. I got a map and great directions to places to see lots of ducks and geese. But first I went to the Observation Building, a two story edifice with glass walls on three sides. Soon after I got there, I found the ONE whooping crane that is currently on the refuge.

I was fun to shoot flying cranes through the windows of the Observation Building

Whooping crane drinking

You can see how much bigger the whooper is than the sandhill

I didn't get close enough to see many other birds, but this thrasher was in the bushes along the trail to the observation building. I caught him in the midst of his morning's grooming.

Almost got this pair flying in beautiful light

One of the few passerines I saw was this brown thrasher who was grooming

The ranger told me how to find a large flock of snow geese.

Snow geese resting at midday

Then something put them up

After taking a break for a late lunch, about three o'clock, I came back to the visitor center area so see if there was anything exciting happening. Clouds were forming in the sky and making a nice background for the still flying cranes.

Cranes in late afternoon

I came home feeling that I had definitely seen several constructions of cranes.

It's Building Time.... For the birds

If you love bluebirds and have a place for them, consider building some bluebird boxes. You may be able to start and maintain a whole bluebird trail on public lands or on a friend's farm.

Bluebirds like open fields.  If you place the box near trees, they will have to compete with other cavity builders like chickadees, wrens, and nuthatches. In the open, where tree swallows are present, they will compete with them.  All of these species can use housing, especially given the loss of habitat for them. If you put up paired boxes about five to twenty feet apart, or even mounted on the same post, bluebirds will share with another species and the four parents will be more successful at repelling enemies. A single box or the pair of boxes should be about 300 yards apart. Eastern bluebirds are put at least 100 to 150 yards apart. e

This bluebird box plan is based on the boxes for mountain bluebirds at Red Rock Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  We collect data from the boxes each week, documenting whether a nest has been started or finished, how many eggs are present, whether the mother is sitting on eggs,  and the number and age of the hatchlings.  Our boxes are top opening, so we are less likely to cause the young to fledge early, than if we opened a front opening box. We have to make sure we have a little space at the bottom of the box to fully clean out the debris after we remove the old nest. That is why the corners are cut off.  (We clean out the boxes  on the visit when we document that the birds have fledged to prevent parasite buildup.)

Our boxes are on the large side because larger boxes have been associated with bigger clutches and they also help prevent overheating. We make them of cedar.  The roofs tend to crack, so we make extra roofs to repair as needed.  Using another material for the roof, could be another option.  But I just move the wire from one roof to the next.

For more information and more plans, check out the Mountain Bluebird Society if you have them. Or the Eastern Bluebird Society or Western Bluebird Society, if you have those species.  All of  them offer plans for nest boxes. North American Bluebird society has information on all three species.

Our target species 

A bluebird box being contested by a male mountain bluebird and a tree swallow.

These eggs are either ready to incubate or the female is  already incubating them.

Caught this nest on hatch day.  We record the age of the nestlings as zero. 

Tree Swallow Pair

The nest of a tree swallow - the female covers the eggs with feathers when she leaves. 

Pieces cut out for twelve new boxes

Screwing them together. 

The finished pile is growing

The open corners in the floor lets us brush out the small pieces left after the nest is pulled out

This is the bluebird box I took apart to show the pieces.  The little 1" X 2" strip that is screwed to the back board is missing.  This strip is put just on top of where the roof is so the roof is slotted into it in the back, Then a heavy wire is loosely stapled to the top of the box, the ends are bent in and pushed into holes drilled into the box sides.  The hole should be 1 & 9/16".  You can also add three slanted holes, slanting from bottom to top on the tops of the sides, to add ventilation. Some plans don't show the cut corners, but they really facilitate thoroughly cleaning the boxes between nestings, thus keeping the mite numbers down. 

The dimensions of the pieces. 

A bluebird box in place showing the little strip  and the wires that hold the roof on. 

I'm being lazy and spending the first day of my three days off laying around watching it rain. Hopefully, I'll get to go birding tomorrow, but I think I may have to wait until next Monday.

A Visit to F.D. Roosevelt State Park

November 17, 2017
Georgia


It wasn't until I was looking for my blog on to show the pictures of F. D. Roosevelt State Park to a visiting friend, that I realized I hadn't written one.  Some weekends I get to go on no adventures, other weekends, I go on two or three.  And I am still catching up on blogs from this summer and early fall. So I'm even more confused than ever.

But one of my early adventures here was to visit this park, since it is only fourteen miles away.  It is on Pine Mountain and at 9,049 acres, is Georgia's largest park. It has forty-two miles of hiking trails.

I loved the climbing, winding road as I left Highway 27 to reach the park.  The first road  I came to led Dowdell's Knob.  I made the turn and shortly was at the Knob.  There I found a statue of President Roosevelt sitting on his car seat.  He loved to come to this location to look over the valley, contemplate live, and even have a picnic.  The grill he used has been cemented up but is still there.

Much of the time I drove the winding, hilly road through a tunnel of trees

The parking area of Dowdell's Knob

I joined President Roosevelt on Dowdell's Knob where he loved to look over  the valley below

I moved closer to the edge and zoomed in to see more of the valley

I took a short hike here on my way home - this area closes really early - and found a site where a plane had crashed. I hope to get in many longer hikes while I'm here. 

This plaque designated the spot and told the story 

Another view into the valley below Dowdell's Knob

Fall was in full flush

These trees edged the large parking lot by the closed swimming pool

The Civilian Conservation Corp built many of the structures in the park.  I'm not sure if they built this overpass.  It reminded of those in Arcadia National Park.

The underpass

Because I turned to look at the underpass, I missed the Visitor Center until after I had seen most of the park.  The road loops around back to the overpass.  But I finally got there and spent time enjoying both the inside and the grounds and sneaking a peak at one of the cottages that were also  built by the CCC.

The imposing Visitor Center was built by the CCC - it is mostly a gift shop

This is the back of one of the cabins for rent  just beyond the visitor center - it had a fantastic view

This clump of leaves caught my eye

This bolder was chipped, showing colors underneath

The view behind the visitor center

This statue was in memory of the CCC builders

One of the camping areas was along a little lake. A road led around to the other side of it where I found more cabins, a little store and canoe rental, and pretty views.

The canoes and a view to another cabin area

Looking back at the campground along the lake. 

This is an interesting little park, both for its history and for the hiking. It also has a swimming pool built by the CCC, but it will not be open while I'm here.

Happy New Year.  Hope you have your plans in place to make sure this year is the best ever.

I'll be celebrating with friends in South Carolina when this posts. So I'm rushing to get scores of purple martin houses clean and ready to their tenants, get packed and work in a visit to a chiropractor before leaving.