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