The Final Sparrow Drive?

Several of the Wekiwa Basin Banding Station crew headed out for what will be the final Sparrow Drive done by Marianne Korosy after many years of research at the abandoned limestone quarries in the Weekie Wachee Preserve on Florida's west coast. Unlike the past couple of years, conditions were much drier which is more ideal for finding sparrows in the fields. Now we just had to hope that the winds would stay down,too.



The mornings always start with an instructional course from Clay before we get to the activity of driving for sparrows on what will be involved.



Once the instructions have been delivered, the group heads out to the first phase of walking through the scrub in hopes of moving birds into the nets.



Our first bird of the day was a Savannah Sparrow.



Kay and Becki collected the next batch of birds and delivered them to the truck for data collection.



One of the next birds was a sought after Grasshopper Sparrow and it was a new capture of a migrant species.



Next up was a Swamp Sparrow.



Lynn insists on trying to get a shot of Andrew on these days and so Andrew got one back at her.



And here is Lynn's right back of the same bird.



In between runs, Andrew ran to check on the nets. The wind had blown down the end of the nets and in the end was an Eastern (Yellow) Palm Warbler.



Marianne processed the Palm Warbler back at the truck and there was a Western Palm Warbler caught at the same time.



One of the visitors was allowed to release the Palm Warbler after banding.



Another visitor was allowed to release the second Palm Warbler soon afterward.



In hopes of flushing out other birds from the far side of the net lanes, Lynn, Becki, and Andrew waded through the far grasses. Unfortunately, all of the sparrows decided to fly in the other direction.



The morning was calm until the Sun rose higher and the brought in the winds. The nets were soon billowing which decreases our chances of captures since birds can easily escape as the nets do not sit in their normal posture. If they are open like this the birds can simply fly back out.



Lynn was there when we did catch a Savannah Sparrow and we got a shot before it headed back for banding.



The next good surprise was a Le Conte's Sparrow on the way back to the truck.



Le Conte's Sparrows are one of the usual sparrows in this area from year to year and a great bird to have visitors get to see. They are are usually very elusive in grassy fields and difficult to observe up close.



During the next net run, Andrew climbed a nearby hilltop to try and spot the oncoming volunteers as they headed toward the nets. Andrew points, "There they are!"



Indeed they are! The crew crests the ridge and drives a few more birds towards the waiting nets.



As we wrapped up the morning we got a couple more Savannah Sparrows down in the square of the nets.



One of the main target birds has always been Grasshopper Sparrows and we ended up with a couple more before we ended the day.



Marianne gave details of our last Grasshopper Sparrow of the day before we headed home for this fun season. Alas, this will be the last.



Congratulations to Marianne for a very successful banding project. We have known her for so many years and have been proud to be invited and to participate in her events over many, many years. Now, she moves on to new ventures and we return to the banding site at Lake Lotus. These Sparrow drives will be highly missed by all of us.

2016 Sparrow Drive

Has it been a year already since the Sparrow Drive at Weekie Wachee? Well, really more like three! The weather the past couple of years was too risky for us spending 5 hours on the road to just be rained out. The weather was much nicer this year so the volunteers from the banding site were rounded up and arrived at dawn to help set nets.

Once all who were going to attend showed up by 9 AM the marching through the grasses began. The cold front that came through the other day left the area a bit squishy and wet feet were had by all in short order.



I got a new point and shoot for Christmas and brought it along to test in the field.



A number of other banders were out for the drive, including Jim McGinity who helped extract captured birds with us.



The first couple of runs produced nothing but in this section we captured some Savannah Sparrows and other birds.



The crew finished the first circuit and headed back to the trucks to watch as some of the birds were banded.



Marianne Korosy is in charge of the Sparrow Drive and bands all the birds we capture.



A few of us held birds so visitors could get photos. Here, Tony holds a LeConte's Sparrow that was just banded.



A close up of the LeConte's Sparrow.



I got the Grasshopper Sparrow to display to answer any questions from the group.



Let the next round begin!



Since our banding crew has a lot of experience extracting bird we station ourselves at intervals at the nets to get to birds as quickly as possible.



Jim gets another bird as Lynn moves down to the next position.



Clay extracts and holds up a Swamp Sparrow. Clay helps manage this property and maintains the nets and poles used out here.



Killian has his hands full of birds in bags and heads back to the trucks with our recent catches.



We got more Savannah Sparrows on this final sweep...



...and another House Wren for the morning.



Before we loaded out, Marianne called us over to look at the Swamp Sparrow we just had banded. No of us had ever seen anything like it. This bird had a single white feather on its wing. Pretty cool.



Back near the cars, a Gopher Tortoise was trying to decide if it should come out for a snack.



We have been doing these drives for years and never think to get a group shot. Thanks to Jim for thinking about it just before the truck took all the Wekiva Basin banding volunteers back out of the preserve.



A lot of birds, a lot of fun. Until next year...

2015 New Year's Day Hike, Part 2

Having already walked at least 10 miles, I rounded the bend and still had a little over a couple miles to go. At least I knew the car was way down that road and to the left. Somewhere down that road was a bird I would like to see so I kept moving and watched the bushes in hopes of finding it.



I got to a promising spot but all I could find was a small bird in the gloom. Once I was closer I could tell it was a Chipping Sparrow.



Pretty little birds. I wish I would get more closer to home.



A bit further up the road, a Swamp Sparrow darted out for a look around before heading back into the vegetation. I was hearing them all through the morning but they don't pop out that often.



Up ahead in the distance, I spotted a black bird perched in a tree. Could this be my bird? I walked slower and searched through my binoculars. It could be. Closer still and, yep, that was the Groove-billed Ani that was being reported.



Groove-billed Ani breed in South Texas and are mostly found through Mexico to northern South America so it is a rare treat to have them visit Florida. I had photos of Groove-billed Anis from years ago but that was still in the film days. They were very skittish back then but this bird was totally fine with me walking pretty close and snapping digitals.



I inched closer and was probably no more than 20 feet from the Ani.



I never noticed those beautiful feathers the last time I saw this species. It is actually in the Cuckoo family of birds. A gorgeous little dinosaur posing in the overcast morning. A nice experience added to my long hike.



Almost back to the car and there was not a lot of bird activity. Perhaps the American Kestrel looking for a meal played a part.



Exhausted, I climbed back in the car and prepared for the long drive home. A ton of exercise on the first day of 2015. Heres to a bunch of good trips and bird photos in the new year.