St. George Island, St. Mark's Wildlife Refuge, Florida

We took a quick trip to Florida last week to visit St. George Island again. 

St. George Island is dog-friendly, allowing them on the beach as long as you clean up after them and have them on a leash.  It is very peaceful here, no high rises or big tourist areas, just the kind of place we like. 

 This time, I rented a house right on the beach so that if it was cold and windy (which happened just two days later), we could still enjoy the view.  Having a private path to the beach was a luxury.

And the house worked out fine--dog and people friendly.  I cooked sea food every night that I bought daily in Eastpoint at Lyn's Seafood Market.    I was glad we had a covered porch the next day.....

...when a fierce storm blew in.  We had a tornado warning in the morning.  A tornado actually touched down north of here, doing major damage to a prison and other areas.  It almost felt like a hurricane.  The next day I noticed the house behind us had shingles missing--wasn't sure if that happened during the storm but the wind gusts were very strong.

After the storm, a cold front moved in.   Checking weather back home though made us feel better since the temperature was in the teens at night while here just below freezing.

Still, I bundled up in the 50 degree weather and walked the beach where I photographed these beautiful sea oats....

...and the lovely sunset. 


St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

We took a trip to St. Marks wildlife refuge almost two hours away but it was well worth the time and effort. Here's the description from the webpage:

"The refuge was established in 1931 to provide wintering habitat for migratory birds. It is one of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System. It encompasses 70,000 acres spread out between Wakulla, Jefferson, and Taylor counties, and includes about 43 miles along the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

 St. Marks Lighthouse was built in 1842 and is still in use today.

 It was great to see some flowers--I think this was goldenroad which was covered with bees and other insects.  The refuge is a stopover for monarch butterflies too although we were probably a month late for them.

 In the grass is a large alligator, probably the first time I was not scared since he was across the way and too cold to move much.

Egret?

 A great blue heron and the great ibis behind it.

  There were lots of these little birds in the shallow areas. 

 Back on St. George Island, I loved watching the pelicans fly as I walked along the beach.

On the day of departure, I got up early to take one last walk along the beach.  Just before we turned to go back to the house, Kookie stopped and stared at these dolphins.  I would have missed seeing this pod? of about 5 of them swimming parallel to the beach.    

I finish with another photo of Kookie who I hope appreciates that we plan our trips around her now!

Hermit! Thrush and Other Spring Signs (CORRECTED)

Yesterday was a great day with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s.  I saw my first butterfly, the Eastern Comma; and later in the afternoon, I spotted several lovely blue Spring Azure butterflies.  The toothwort was budding--should bloom any day this week.   Spring is here!

 I downloaded the pictures from my wildllife camera and was very surprised to see a Wood Thrush which was captured on St. Pat's day.  The temperature was 25 degrees.  He must have been thinking he came back to early from the tropics where he winters.   I can't wait to hear the sound of wood thrushes in the woods.  CORRECTION:  It's a Hermit Thursh--see comment below.   Some birder I am!

I also saw this Northern Flicker in the garden.  I captured this shot thru the screen window which acconts for the poor quality of the image.

He was looking for insects in this old cherry stump I had used for a flower pot stand in the garden.

The woodpeckers have been here all winter.  It is easy to distinguish between the Downy Woodpecker on the left and the much larger Hairy Woodpecker on the right side of the seed cake.

The temperature is 60 again and mostly sunny--time to get outside and work in the garden!

American Woodcock sighting

Last week on one of the warm days, I went up on our land in the utility vehicle to collect manure for the garden.   On the way back, I took the old logging road through the woods.  All of a sudden a bird flew up in front of the vehicle.  I turned around to see an American Woodcock....

 Can you see it, right there in the middle.  The only reason I was able to see him was that he was breathing so hard, I could see his chest heaving.   I cropped the photo below...

Not the best angle and I did not have the telephoto zoom lens but still I was excited to get a photo of him.  He sat there for awhile while I watched.   Then, Kookie, our dog, came back to check on me as she does when I stop.  I got out and held her by the collar.  The Woodcock slowly walked in the opposite direction and across the road.  I made Kookie get in the back and drove back to the house.

The woodcock will do his mating calls and courtship flights at dusk about now so I want to try walking in our woods by myself to catch this display. 

The last time I saw a woodcock was in the late 80s when I was driving down our driveway early in the morning.  There was a woodcock right in the middle of the driveway, still for awhile until I got out of the car for a closer look.  I had to look it up then but this time I knew exactly what it was.

Birds of Sanibel Island, Florida

UPDATE--I corrected some of the ids from tips from "Anonymous" comments below!

Yes, I just had to escape from snowed-in Virginia for a few days to visit my sister in Ft. Myers, Florida. It was not easy--had to leave a day early to avoid a snowstorm to drive to Charlotte for the flight, then delayed on the way back by another (not complaining about that).

When my sister asked me where I wanted to go, I said to the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. The refuge is an undeveloped mangrove ecosystem with lots of migratory birds this time of year.

Most of my photos were taken from about 100 feet away. The birds didn't want to be close to the road and cars--I could have used a better telephoto lens.



White Ibis

The White Ibis uses its bill to hunt--probably a lot of good worms and crayfish in these rich waters.




The most spectacular bird is the Roseate Spoonbill (in pink) here with a Reddish Egret and White Ibis. The Reddish Egret is quite rare so I am happy to see that.



Roseate Spoonbill with White Ibis

Here you can see how the Spoonbill got its name--a spoon-shaped bill useful for scooping up shrimp (with a White Ibis in the background).


The Spoonbills look great flying.


White Pelicans

These White Pelicans spend summers on lakes and marshes on the upper midwest of United States and Canada. They were safely on a sand island, far from the admiring crowds.


Double-Crested Cormorants

This bird has benefited greatly from the banning of DDT in 1972. Here the black color was a nice contrast to the more common whites and pink of the other birds. Did I mention there were a ton of birds?


Wood Stork

This bird is the only true stork in North America and is most noteworthy for its size--40" length with a 60" wingspan. His neck looks a lot like a turkey's except it's dark gray.


He forages in drying ponds or shallow areas like this one. The Wood Stork stays in the southern states in the summer time and winters in Florida.


Willets

These sandpipers are larger than the typical sandpipers but smaller than chickens. They were quite interesting to watch as they walked and foraged along in unison.

I still have lots of photos to go through, including a nice sequence of a Great Egret fishing--stay tuned.

Snowed In Again!

Another snowstorm is dumping snow on us today, closing all the schools. I read in the newspaper yesterday we had already had more snow here this winter than Minneapolis or Anchorage, Alaska. And, that was before this storm!


This is what our driveway looked like on Monday so this snow is on top of that--I am not even going to venture out for awhile.


Most people buy milk and bread before a snow storm, not me though. I bought 50 lbs. of sunflower seeds and a case of suet cakes. The seed attracts a lot of birds as seen in the photo above. There's not much else out there for them to eat.



These birds are waiting their turn at the feeder--can you tell how many different kinds there are?



Another photo of a white-throated sparrow...



and a snowy cardinal...

Now, the snow's really sticking to the trees--hope the power does not go out!

Birds of Tucson

Dawn asked me if I had been out of town. Well, my husband and I did spend a week early in January in Tucson, Arizona. I don't usually post photos that aren't from around here. But, since I haven't had too much to post because of the cold weather (and me not getting outside like I should), I decided to tell you a little about our trip and publish some bird photos.

We visited missions, Kartchner Caverns State Park, Tucson Museum of Art, and the Sonoran-Desert Museum. Except for the cave, these were sights we have seen before on our previous 6 or 8 trips to Tucson around this time of year. We also hiked on trails in the Saguaro National Monument located on both the east and west side of Tucson.

Perhaps I had not paid attention on our previous trips but it seemed there were an abundance of birds in the desert. The recent rains may have helped or perhaps they were enjoying the warm weather just like me. Everywhere we went, I could hear or see the birds.

My best photographs of birds came from the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum which features native flora and fauna of the Sonoran desert. This Harris Hawk was being held by a museum volunteer.

The Humingbird Aviary is an enlcosed area where it's easy to get some good photos of the birds. I am not sure what species this one is or if it's native.

I am not sure what species this one was either but he cooperated nicely. He was the smallest one there--only about 3 inches.

The Curved Bill Thrasher is a common bird of the desert. This one was singing a lot like a mockingbird in front of the San Xavier del Bac Mission, located south of Tucson. You can almost see his yellow eyes.

On a hike in the Saguaro National Monument, I spotted this Phainopepla, a silky-flycatcher, about 7-1/2 inches in length.

The Cactus Wren is larger than our Carolina Wren. I saw and heard many of these wrens in the desert.


I was surprised to see a Purple Finch in the desert since we have them at our feeders in Virginia. Of course, they have different things to eat, like the fruit of this barrel cactus.


This woodpecker was too far away to identify. It may be using the nest hole of the Gila Woodpecker which makes new holes every year. Then, other birds use the old holes. The saguaro cactus is very plump from the rains in December.

Phlox and Finches

Frost was on everything for the last two nights but the days have been warm (60 degrees). Today, it will be well above 70 degrees, prompting everything to grow fast.

All day, I hear the finches. I tried to count how many there were at the feeder--about 30 American Goldfinches and 25 Purple Finches. Besides the finches, there are Cardinals, Woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy, Red-Bellied), Carolina Chickadees and Wrens, Tufted Titmouses, Chipping Sparrows, and White-Breasted Nuthatches. On the ground, we still have Fox and White-Throated Sparrows and Dark-Eyed Juncoes. I never know which day these winter visitors will disappear. The Eastern Towhee made its first appearance about a week ago--yesterday there were 3 males but no females. Not at the feeders, I have seen the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker at a hickory tree and Pileated Woodpecker in black cherry and oak trees.

Last week, I was sitting on our back deck not far from the feeders when I heard a Tufted Titmouse sound an alarm call. I looked around for my cat, thinking she was near but instead, a Sharp-shinned Hawk came flying by, no more than 5 feet off the ground. He was not successful, the birds having fled because of the alarm call. Who said living in the country is not exciting?


Photo: April 18, 2008

The bright yellow of the American Goldfinch is striking.


Photo: April 16, 2008

The Red Maple trees have already borne fruit. It seems pretty obvious now why they are named Red Maple--red leaves in the fall, red flowers, red fruit, red twigs.


Photo: April 14, 2008

Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) was blooming at the edge of the woods along several old logging roads.

Wood Thrush Memories

The temperature plunged to 7 degrees this morning--too cold for me to go out. In looking back over some pictures I took last week, I came across a photo of a Wood Thrush nest. On that walk, I counted 6 Wood Thrush nests on one side of our driveway. Two nests were still here from the summer of 2006 but unused because wood thrushes never use the same nest twice. The rest were from last summer. Most were out on a limb only about 10 feet from the ground. But one was at least 50 feet up in a yellow poplar tree. I only discovered it late last summer because I found a piece of an eggshell below and then looked directly above me to discover the nest. When I took the shell piece back to the house to identify (via Peterson's Eastern Birds' Nests), I determined that it was a Wood Thrush nest.

I remember discovering one nest in particular on a walk down my driveway in July. Suddenly, a Wood Thrush landed only a few feet in front of me, frantically trying to get me to chase him. So, I looked in the opposite direction and up in an Eastern Redbud tree. There, I saw a Wood Thrush on a nest. Luckily, I had my camcorder with me and took video. Click on play button or ">" below...




The sound from the video is of wood thrushes but earlier in the summer. The first picture was from last week while the video is from July, 2007.

5 inches of snow!

About 5 inches of snow fell since early this morning resulting in a mad rush of birds to the feeders.



This female Northern Cardinal, two male Purple finches, and a male American Goldfinch wait patiently for their turn at the feeder.



These Mourning Doves are not waiting for the feeder since they feed on the ground. I guess they are just trying to keep warm.



This is the best photograph I could get of the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker feeding on suet. He has been around for the last month. He will not eat sunflower seeds so I am trying to keep the suet there all the time.

Chris--here are my 7 random facts about me. I don't have anybody to tag since I think everyone's blog I read has been tagged. This might be more than you wanted to know...

1. I have 9 brothers and sisters, 20 nieces and nephews, 40+ great nieces and nephews, and 2 great-great nephews.
2. For future retirement, my parents bought an Ozark farm when I was about 11. I loved the woods, the vegetable garden, and especially the creek where I swam almost everyday during the summer.
3. When I was a rising high school senior, I went up in the workmen’s elevator on the outside of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis before it was finished (actually about two-thirds done). I was the second woman to go up in the Arch (after my boyfriend’s father’s girlfriend) but officially the mayor’s wife was the first but her ride was the easy way on the inside train after the Arch’s completion.
4. I lived on a sailboat in St. Thomas Harbor in the U.S. Virgin Islands for six months in the 70s. It was rent-free because my husband’s and my best qualifications were that we didn’t know how to sail; and so, we would not be tempted to take the boat out of the harbor.
5. In 1999, I spent a week in Kuwait presenting at a conference. One evening at the hotel, I received a special delivery letter from the U.S. Embassy warning me to be on guard for kidnappers because President Clinton had given an ultimatum to the Afghan government to hand over Osama bin Laden. At the time, I had no idea who Osama bin Laden was.
6. I love to play pool and compete in an area billiards league.
7. Nature is my refueler and my best source of inspiration (also inspiring are other nature bloggers).