A Jewel in the Hand

I decided to take a stroll around the net lanes to take photos that represented the area as is was that morning. Talk is that there might be a prescribed burn at some point to maintain the scrub environment and I want to have a before/after set of shots if it does happen.

The action was slowing down for the morning so I figured it would be an uneventful walk but at least I could get the series of photos done if the fire was set when I wasn't there.

I was pleasently surprised to find a bird in net 14. From a distace it could have been a migrating Warbler. Once I got closer, however, it was something even more exciting. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird!



There have been several caught in the nets in the last few weeks but I was not fortunate enough to be around when they flew in. A year and a half ago there was one in a net right near me while I was extracting another bird nearby. By the time I made my way to the Hummingbird it was partially through the net and was able to have its wings free enough to assume a kind of proper flight.

As I was reaching for the bird it powered itself at full speed, pulling the net taught and managed to pull free just before I could close the net around it. It was a sight I will never forget.

Now I had another in the net but this time she was perfectly aligned in in the folds so she could not get through the small openings of the mesh.



Since this was the first Hummingbird I had ever held it was a little difficult to figure out a proper grip. You can't grab them by the legs like other land birds. They are too small to hold without injuring them. Even if you can find their legs through the feathers!

But I did manage an awkward series of positions. At one point it even stuck its tongue out at me. "You shall never take me alive!"



I took it to a spot where it hopefully would not re-enter another net on release and let it go. With a slight buzzing sound of its wings it flew off back into the oak scrub and we wrapped up another morning at Wekiva.

Now we have a couple of weeks off. Time enough to rest up before the onslaught of Fall migration.

Cardinal Vices

One of the early lessons I learned when I began volunteering at the Wekiva Banding Station was to keep one's fingers away from any Cardinal's beak. Of all of the birds we net and band the Cardinal has one of the hardest and persistent bites of any of the local land birds.

Chickadees and Titmice will try to go for your cuticles, Vireos and Warbles will nip at anything they can snag, and Thrushes and Wrens will just stare at you and wait for any sense that you are relaxing the least bit to try and fly out of your hand but a Cardinal...? They hope to take some of you with them by the time they are released.

I heard a few chips out of net 10 and headed over to see if there was a bird there and we did have our Cardinal of the morning. After deciding which way the bird flew in the next step is to make sure you can get their head secured so you don't end up bleeding before it is even out of the net.

It was close, but I managed to only get a slight snap. This feisty female was all set to continue heading in the direction she was originally heading in. I got her back to the table and processed her.

I usually don't mind a good bite and my boys delight in seeing or hearing of some bird biting the heck out of Dad. However, the last Cardinal I banded a few weeks ago really made me step up my attention to how hard they can bite. That one was a young bird and it about tore me up.

Once they grab hold, they can sometimes apply a bite so fierce that you start to rethink this whole banding thing.

Take a needle-nose pliers and attach it to a nice soft portion of the skin just outside the edges of your fingernail. Now press down. Hard. Keep going. Harder. Until the tears start to well up.

That is a Cardinal bite.

Think you can just pull away? Give the pliers to your friend and ask them to do it and not to stop until you punch them to make them stop. Make sure it is a real friend. One who might actually fear the strike.

The only other defense you have while banding these amazing birds is to offer them an alternative in place of your tender flesh. Luckily, out in the scrub environment, there are a lot of small twigs from the surrounding oaks. When used successfully it should look thus:



Note the lack of blood. Plus the firm grip around the bird's neck to prevent movement to latch on to me.

This is one of my favorite shots of late. The same day, I got home to hear the calls of a new Cardinal chick at home calling for HIS mom to feed him.

Word to the wise. Towhees can bite almost as hard.

Almost.

Trail Walking Wekiva

With a front moving in for the weekend, threatening to cancel Sunday's banding, I was thinking of heading over to Ft. DeSoto. I figured it may be a tad crowed (later reports said as many birders as birds!) and I knew I would have to work late and have to drive early.

I decided to stay close to home and check out some trails at Wekiva I hadn't fully explored. There was an earlier report of fledging Great-horned Owls down the trails and I wanted to find them.

It was a pretty hot day but I knew I needed to get in about 5 or more miles to get where I was headed. Not a problem. Most of the hike is in the shade.

Usual suspects were around and first of the season Red-eyed Vireos made an appearance half-way through the hike. Lingering warblers and singing sparrows. When I got to the area that the owls were suppose to be, however, I found little.

I was choosing which way I should head on a new trail when I saw a white-tailed deer to my right. It watched me warily and moved on. I decided to head down that way farther and soon found a break in the brush, apparently created by animals walking through.

Following that, it opened onto the shore of Lake Prevatt. Not much of a lake left. A bit of a pond and a few mud holes and a LOT of dried mud. I walked out onto the lake bed and as I rounded a clump of bushes the far side of the lake was teaming with deer. At least 12. Another deer flushed off to my left.

Soon, a bird also flushed from the bushes to the left. It turned out to be a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron! It flew over to where the deer were, near a mud hole. I followed to try and get a closer shot.

Once I got closer to the mud I began to notice a few tiny heads around the edge of the mud where the last of the remaining vegetation. Baby alligators! First a couple, then several. I stopped walking when I noticed the series of dark bumps resting in the wettest part of the mud. Mama was keeping watch and began to push herself deeper in the muck when she sensed me approaching.

I would have to change direction. I respect the power of gators enough to know better than to mess with one protecting young.

I got back onto the main trail and headed around the other side of the lake. There I found a few tom Turkeys out on the lake bed checking me out. Suddenly, 4 more popped up around the other corner. More surprising was that a couple of them decided to leave the lake bed and walked right past me.



Time was running out for my hike so I headed back. Nearing the net lanes again, I heard some birds scolding around the bushes near the trail ahead. Out popped a Pine Snake right in front of me! I was trying to get a shot of it but it turned and fled back into the scrub. The birds continued to scold and some warblers appeared before me.



I can't remember seeing female Pine Warblers before but here she was, down out of the high branches to chase away this 4 foot snake. A male joined her, as did Gnatcatchers, Prairie Warblers, and a Titmouse.



I didn't find anything spectacular today but at least I got some shots of the Pine Warbler. The most important event would happen a bit later. This long walk in 90 degree heat sealed my decision that had been brewing for years.

Time to cut off this ponytail.

Monk Parakeets, No Foolin'!

A few days earlier, Paul emailed that another birder was reporting some nesting Monk Parakeets not too far from my house. By the time I could have gotten there that night it would ahve been near dark so I planned on trying for them after banding.

Directions placed me at an intersection with a convenience store on one side and a power substation on the other. Since I have seen parrots and parakeets hanging out at substations around Tampa/St. Pete I decided that must be the best place to look. The direction didn't pinpoint any one exact spot.

My main concern in these times of paranoid officials was who was going to jump me once I started scanning such a structure with binoculars. There have been many reports of birders being detained or questioned intensely by Men in Black just because they were staring in the direction of some government structure or another.

Luckily, I didn't have time to look too hard.

As I approached the the intersection I heard a loud noise behind me, away from the substation. I tracked the noise to a telephone pole located just behind the store. Whew.

The light was bad as it was noon and the birds were up in the transformer on the pole. The only spot to stand was next to a ditch in order to see the birds. There were 4 shapes that I could make out and the nest was obvious. After a few minutes, one of the birds walked out to the edge of the nest.



A minute later another pulled a stick out to the edge and tryed to place it in the right spot.



I have been meaning to track down Monk Parakeets for years but never found a chance. Nice to have them even closer this time.

Meanwhile, the morning banding session yielded the usual suspects, including this beautiful male Prairie Warbler.



We checked out the nest boxes again and now there were 4 eggs in the nest. As we approached, there were 2 Bluebirds in the area, one of which was the bird we banded the week before.



Not a bad April Fool's Day. No tricks.

Eastern Bluebird Surprise

Ask and you shall receive?

At the end of the last post I had mentioned that we saw many Bluebirds along the trip to and from Crystal River but I was unable to get any shots of them. Except for one right outside the hotel room that is verrrrrrrrrry far away. I showed the photo to the wife and said that I really needed a good shot of a Bluebird again.

The last shot I even got of a Bluebird was years ago in Winter Park. I never saw them in that area anymore.

Today, as I checked the nets while banding at Wekiva, I rounded the back loop of nets and saw a bird in the lower panel. At first, I was surprised by the color of the bird. We don't get many medium-sized birds with blue feathers. My first thought was that it might be a Scrub Jay. Some do live within the park.

I got closer and the other colors became more evident. Not a Scrub Jay. A Bluebird!



There are many nest boxes set up around the park and some years there are successful clutches of eggs resulting in chicks. Last year, there were no eggs in any boxes. When the chicks do hatch, they are banded in the nest. Adult birds don't end up in the nets.

Until today.

Even better, one of the nearby boxes had two eggs inside and another Bluebird leaving the scene. Maybe this signals the return of babies to the park.



Beautiful bird.

Really Ruby-crowned Kinglet

One of the first Ruby-crowned Kinglets I ever saw was at Mead Garden and the crown was what gave it away for me since I had never seen one before. Out at Wekiva, we band a LOT of Kinglets. Most them are females so we don't get to see the crowns.

We even had one last winter that had only ONE ruby feather indicating it was a young male.

This morning we captured one of the most ruby of all the male Ruby-crowns I have ever seen.



Can't mistake that ID!