322 : Eastern Meadlowlark

Eastern Meadowlark - Sturnella magna

A nice dashing lark of open grasslands. I got very excited on the drive into the Disney Wildlife Preservation. My first views of a low flying bird with down curved fast beating wings  had me convinced that I was looking at some form of grouse, quail or partridge. The bird then sat up on a bush singing and I pounded out 30 or 40 shots to try and get a good one. Reminded me a bit of the Longspur from the Serengetti. Similar yellow colouring and so on and size and habitat. This reserve certainly had the feel of some type of savannah at its entrance.

Typically then there was a pair of them sat on the lawn at the education centre (shot above) that I could just walk up to and snap. It is always the way !

Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna
Disney Wilderness Preservation, Kissamee, Florida, USA
26 May 2015

321 : Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker - Melanerpes erythrocephalus

A poor picture of a great looking bird. This was perhaps 400 m away and taken on the hoof with a 400 mm lens - I got two poor frames off before it flew on into the stand of trees behind.

I spent the day afternoon yesterday at the Disney Wilderness Preserve South of Kissamee. 9,000 acres of offset land purchased by Disney as part of their park expansion. It is managed by the Nature Conservancy in the US.

I had  a good 2 mile stroll around the place on a big loop - decided not to tack on an additional 3 miles with another loop as the car thermometer was topping 95 degrees. The terrain was mostly cyprus and palmetto. The park is dotted with smaller lakes and wetland areas. Some beautiful ponds with water lilys in flower.

I made my way down to the edge of Lake Russell and stopped for water.

A strange shore of sunken trees - many draped with Spanish "Moss".

The wood was a welcome change from being exposed to the full sun. Hard to bird though under a dark canopy and get any decent shots - even if you could see a bird in the first place. The general technique is to listen and then look - the little critters usually have to move though to give you half a chance. I am getting my eye back in slowly.

Biting insects were a real problem. There is some sort of giant fly about an inch long that just lands on you and sinks in its teeth. Really painful and I have a big welt this morning on one ankle - the bloody thing actually bit me through my socks ! Overall though I have got away quite lightly remembering to use the jungle juice in nice lethal doses.

How about this fine fellow. When agitated he raised a flap under his throat to warn me off. My younger son Sam has already identified this for me as a Brown Anole Lizard from the wild Florida website. Its good have technical backup like on Spring Watch or indeed the moon landings. Its a great site and you can read about this Lizard here.

The woodpecker is sadly decreasing in its numbers in North America. It is a bird of the South and East. Habitat loss is the main threat. What is needed is for 9000 acres to be set aside not because another 9000 acres is being trashed but just for the hell of it.

Red-headed Woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus
Disney Wildlife Preservation, Kissamee, Florida US
26 May 2015

320 : Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead Shrike - Lanius ludovicianus

The picture above was taken at the Disney Wilderness Preserve and is the best picture I have got of these birds all week.

I had to catch up with some work on Monday so I just headed over to some wasteland at about 3 pm with little expectation of getting onto any decent birds. It turned out to be a great mini-safari with birds up for offer including this Loggerhead Shrike. I'd seen a couple of these from the car on wires while driving but without being able to stop. Having this just on the doorstep was a result.

The stand out stars of the show though were the dragonflies. I don't have a clue what they are but one, a gold creature was possible the most beautiful thing I have ever photographed.

I am going head out to the Disney Wildlife Preserve this morning.

Loggerhead Shrike, Lanius ludovicianus
Wasteland by Hilton Hotel, Destination Parkway, Orlando
25 May 2017

319 : Mottled Duck

Mottled Duck - Anas fulvigula

This is a long ranged shot but again its the range and a few identification markings from my Sibley that confirms the identification for me. Again there seems to be Mallards, Mexican Mallards (a sub-species), American Black Duck (a darker brown !) and these fellows all slightly overlapping in range and hybridising and so on. I know this is a mottled duck because when you look at the bill blown up on the photo below it is a brighter yellow - not drab like a female but a male bill but on this occasion without the Mallard male plumage of a shiny green head and so on. If you look at the bird above it has a black spot on the "gape" (the corner of the bill/edge of underside of neck. I love identification - it is a nice jigsaw puzzle that tells me that the Daily Bird clicked on a notch. You can click on the photo and then blow up ourself if on an iPad - black spot on the gape.

Mottled Duck, Anas fulvigula
Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida
24 May 2015

318 : Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus

When you are in the field after a couple hours you often wonder what more could turn up. Keep going as around that corner in my experience anything can and will happen. There is a direct correlation between looking and seeing or exploring and learning. Time invested is time well spent.

I think I just stopped round a corner and immediately saw this bird fluttering between  perches - always returning to this branch and on this occasion with what looks like a big Cicada. I knew it was a "tyrant flycatcher" type family bird. A purchase of a big new Sibley from Barnes and Noble sorted it out later. Each US type bird seems to have 3 or 4 geographic varieties of species. So from West to East this was either Dusky-capped, Ash-throated, Brown-Crested, Great-Crested or Nutting's flycatcher. The Great-Crested seems to tally up with identification marks and range. Its is a Summer visitor to this part of Florida but seems to over-Winter in the very South. It had quite a fluttery week flight.

I promised some other characters. The butterflies in this part of the world are stupendous. I will start with this Gulf Fritillary. Firstly the handsome orange overwing.

But just look at this for a stunning butterfly - perched and the underwing view. I am happy with this photo !

I now have a book which is helpful - I think that when in the US in the warmer months I am going to double up with butterflies. Perhaps I can use them with poorly shot brown birds to brighten up a post. There are hundreds of US species and most of the parks in Florida claim about 50.

Great Crested Flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus 
Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida
24 May 2015

317 : Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus

I took walk into a big stand of trees yesterday at the Orlando Wetlands Reserve to see what was going on away from the sunlight. A whole different jurassic humid world of palms, cyprus trees, hardwoods and dozens of different plants draped all over them and making up the under-story. I managed to get sidetracked by the plants and butterflies which were beautiful but remembered that I am birdwatcher and ticked off the most common South and Eastern US woodpecker - the Red-bellied. I watched a pair for a good while foraging across a number of trees. Woodpeckers are fun to photograph. They know (I swear it) that you have a camera and like to shimmy around to the other side of the trunk. Every so often they peep back round and after a while get used to you if you stand still. This bird just kept coming closer and closer until he was on a tree directly in front of me. I still managed to focus on the tree and not the bird in a bunch of pictures. There is a lot going on with the camera as you have to crank up the ISO and use your tripod otherwise in the gloom its a bust. Flash photography doesn't work with woodpeckers.

These birds are common in their South and East range nesting in any suitable wooded and preferably wet habitat each Spring. They are resident and each pair can take up a territory of about a hectare. Thats 100 m2 so a bigger than a football pitch on all sides. A little over 2 acres I beleive. They seemed to be feeding on anything with legs or wings of a lower order that moved as I watched these two birds. Below a big juicy spider is picked off.

At other times they drill into the bark to get at grubs.

I mentioned getting distracted by the other flora and fauna. Yesterday was a bumper day for side characters. Firstly "Epiphytes". These are classified as any organism (plant/lichen/moss) that lives on another plant but without actually feeding on it in a parasitic manner. Orchids can be Epiphytes and make their home in hollows and nooks in trees using leaf litter and the moisture from the air for sustenance. Another good example are Bromeliads. Once I had woken up to them I started to notice them everywhere. These clinging on to the bark of this hardwood (A nice background for my woodpecker and perhaps a home for lots of insects).

I think you generally encounter this type of plant in people's bathrooms ! I will get some pictures of Spanish moss later today when I venture out (working this morning to keep up with emails). Spanish moss is not moss but actually a very fine bromeliad plant. In all those films of the deep South its the fluffy stuff that hangs from the trees in great long clouds of streamers. The mossy drifts are actually a net of very fine stems. It gives a wood that ancient and tired look - they used it in the set for Fanghorn  (home of Treebeard) in Lord of the Rings. Lichens are also epiphytes and proper moss. I guess the distinction would be with fungus that feeds on the host itself. A big mushroom is not an epiphyte - a lichen growing across some bark is.

So thats a wood for Forest Gump to wander about in - Spanish Moss, Bromeliads, Picture Plants, Palms, Conifers, other hardwood trees and lots of bugs and birds. We are as far away from Mickey Mouse as you can get in there although  this afternoon I am going to try the Disney Wildlife Preserve - thats the closest I am getting mainstream to Orlando this week when I venture out from forwarded holiday weaken hotel. I will bring the kids back for the amusement parks but need a plan to avoid the giant people stacking high the bread goods and spooning the cream cheese by the bucket load. I had a forest "glade" all to myself with wild flowers and butterflies. I guess I have to pay for those moments somehow.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus
Orlando Wetland Park, Christmas, Florida
24 May 2015

316 : Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Black-bellied Whistling Duck - Dendrocygna autumnalis

The Daily Bird has been resting in a corner of my to-do list pretty much for a whole year. I think I am just a bit tired of the birds I am likely to see in the UAE and haven't been back to the UK as much of recent - and not with time to just kick back with a camera. So I am somewhere different and the call of the wild (whistles in this case) has pulled me on for a few more birds.

I find myself in Florida - the Hilton in Orlando with 4 days to use wisely. I have a conference starting on Wednesday for work. Its a long story but flights I booked to time with a longer trip involving two conferences back to back lent themselves to not being changed due their cheapness. I will be fully on the correct time for the partner conference by Wednesday which is a good thing. In the meantime room 1985 ("a jolly good year" got a laugh from one member of staff possibly not born then) looks something like the back room of a mad inventor/naturalist. Lenses, wires, laptops, bins, scopes, tripods - just a shame I forgot a bird book. Luckily Handbook of the Birds of the World online is a super resource and coupled with a pencil, paper and a camera I can back fill identification.

So lets forget about Mickey and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and understand where Florida is. Florida is sitting between 24 and 31 degrees latitude. The Tropic of Cancer is at latitude 23.43 degrees so by mid June the sun is almost directly overhead in the Florida Keys (or there abouts) or 4 degrees off the vertical in Orlando half-way up the Florida pan-handle. The tropics are situated at the axial tilt of the earth such that twice a year the sun is directly overhead either tropic after making half of its seasonal  journey. Anyway this explains why it was 96 degrees celsius on the car thermometer as I navigated myself to the Orlando Wetland's Park and why it looked liked something out of Forest Gump's trip to Nam.

I was joking to myself that this looked pretty "Good morning Vietnam" but then when I was doing my geographical trick of putting myself in context with the sun I worked out that I am pretty much on the same latitude as the "Delta to the DMZ". Dubai, Northern India and Bangladesh and Vietnam and Florida - Ah I recognise this humidity !

So its warm and that means that lots of the birds are actually shared more with the tropics and South America including these fine ducks who put on decent breeding season squabbling show for me after I had found the place using my heath robinson alternative to sat-nav (a pair of eyes, sign posts and a sense of direction and a google map). Hertz managed to supply a car without sat-nav the so-called "Never Lost" system at US 36.99 or whatever it was. Well the system itself got lost and was not installed and a Ford Focus became an SUV due to the holiday weekend demands. I am not sure whey they had a booking system as I found the Hertz lady about to give away my car to shouting family. Anyway I managed to jury rig up a system with a google map on the laptop on the front seat with directions and my blackberry. Only got lost about 3 times. Driving is expensive here - every 5 or 10 miles you have to give someone a dollar to use the next road section. I think you get somewhere in 40 minutes if they had one toll day for 10 dollars rather than 10 for 1 dollar.

40-50 minutes was a bit optimistic. The place itself is located in the small town of Christmas - I had to pass the year round Christmas tree complete with nativity scene. Its actually a giant eco-friendly water treatment facility using a large number of parcels of land and berms to filter water naturally for reusage. Home to Otters, deer and these fellows (who were not really in evidence apart from one specimen half submerged which I took to be a log a long way off).

So as well as tropical birds there are alligators and I am hoping to see West Indian Manatees at some point if I can make the drive out to Merrick Island.

Back to the ducks. I hiked round a loop trail for about 3 miles judging it perfectly for the hottest time of the day !?! I also managed not to take any water and select my heaviest equipment. The good old Bubba Gump Shrimp Company hat soaked up a litre of head juice and kept the sweat out of my eyes. The place is stunning. You could be forgiven for thinking that it is a wilderness rather than a working water treatment plant. I shall have to learn something about the flora before I go but stands of palms and pine - tracks of reeds and open water interspersed with dead forest and grassland. A patchwork quilt teaming with birds. I stumbled on a large group of what I knew were Whistling Ducks but not what kind. They were good enough to put on a squabble for me. Ever changing  gangs and pairs of thugs taking on the next set of pretenders. Perhaps establishing this year's pecking order. While the squabble continued I could get my eye back in with a new camera body. I managed to under expose everything though due to a slip of a button. Note to self - check camera settings before the action starts.

I'm coming mate !

Goose stepping ? More like the Duck-Step.

Be gone young pretender !

Three make a concerted challenge.

Don't mess with us ! This of course though was all accompanied by a racket of cute whistles as they are Black-bellied Whistling Ducks after all.

So its Sunday and whilst I will have to be watching the blackberry I think I should be able to take in perhaps 4 new places each day and maybe even return this Wetland but with a functioning camera and some water. I hardly touched the place really and its always whats just around the bend. There is a list of 50 florida endemics I am fairly keen to see - including a special squirrel !

Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis
Orlando Wetlands Park, Florida, USA
23 May 2015