Florida 2024. Part 2. Woodpeckers and Black Bears

Soon after our arrival at our rented villa in Kissimmee we got a message to say a Black Bear had been seen wandering the streets at night. The neighbouring villa had actually caught it on their ring camera. Obviously I was keen to see it but despite several night forays the closest I go was coming dow none morning and looking out the front door to see the bins opposite and alongside us had been raided and were lying on their sides with all the rubbish strewn over the road. After that incident the community cleaning team emptied the trash cans daily and moved all the rubbish into a large metal dumpster.

One of the birds I really wanted to see was Pileated Woodpecker - the largest extant woodpecker in North America. Checking eBird I discovered one had been seen recently at the Tibet-Butler preserve a bout 25 minutes drive from where we were staying.  It's literally within earshot of Disney and is part of the Great Florida Birding Trail. With 3 miles of trails and a boardwalk it sounded interesting so I set off early one morning and arrived, as usual, to find my self the only person there! 

Literally the first bird I saw was a female Pileated Woodpecker feeding in trees adjacent to the visitor centre! Result.

Another bird was calling nearby and the one I was watching flew off to join it. I was extremely lucky as although I heard, presumably the same pair in the same area later, I never had more than a glimpse of a flight view. 

With the pressure off I began to take note of other species around the preserve. By far the commonest warblers were Yellow-rumped and Palm Warbler. Palm Warblers were literally everywhere in Florida and I was really surprised at how common they were. I did see a Black and White Warbler and a single Common Yellowthroat from the boardwalk over swampy are and managed to find my first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the trip.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are seemingly the commonest woodppecker species in Florida. We even had them on our estate and every golf course we visited had several pairs.

The preserve was also full of Grey Catbirds giving their distinctive calls from within the undergrowth and the explosive song of Carolina Wren proved their presence but I only got brief views. I also saw my 1st Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the trip here, Osprey and Belted Kingfisher.

Returning to the villa I studied eBird planning my next trip out. The Disney Wilderness preserve is 11,500 acres created in an agreement between Disney, The nature Conservancy and Florida state. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were having a chill-out day by our pool followed by an Italian meal later. It appeared that the preserve trails were ope nthe day after Thanksgiving but the visitors centre was open on reduced hours . The toilets were, however, open and I was in need of the facilities after what happened! 

EBird listings showed two of my other target woodpecker species had been recently seen on the site but were considered 'scarce' - Red-headed Woodpecker and Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Arriving early and once again finding myseflf to be the only person there I studied the trail map and decide to take the longer 6 mile trail that would, hopefully, give me the best chance of seeing my target species. Once again Gray Catbird, Pine Warbler and Palm Warblers were all over the place with a smattering of Common Yellowthroats and Eastern Towhees.

Gray Catbird

Northern Cardinal

House Wren

Eastern Towhee

By now I was familiar with the calls of Red-bellied Woodpecker so a different woodpecker -type call had me searching the treetops where  ifound my first Red-headed Woodpecker followed very quickly by another. A stunning bird.

Well chuffed I moved slowly along the track, as they moved in front of me, rounded a bend and nearly bumped into a Black Bear. Complete shock and surprise for both parties. I stood stock still and the bear blundered off into the bushes where I could hear it crashing around. Debating what to do my mind was soon made up when some ominous growling started coming from within the bushes. Discretion being the better part of valour, according to Will Shakespeare, I retreated slowly whilst keeping my eyes on the track. An ominous silence ..... no growling, no crashing of large black objects through undergrowth. Not particularly wanting to have another brown adrenaline experience I retreated around 300 m before studying the map on my phone and finding  I could take an alternative trail. Paying a bit more attention to the ground rather than the trees I came across a still steaming dollop of bear poo proving conclusively they do do it in woods and some massive paw prints - each one bigger across than my outstretched hands.

By now the adrenaline surge had died off a bit and my heart was slowly returning to normal so I excitedly texted Jan and told her about my encounter. Probably not the best decision as she then spent the whole of her round of golf worrying that I was going to get mauled by a bear! 

Following my new preferred route  I came across a mixed flock of small birds that included a pair of Brown Nuthatch. Whilst watching these a small Woodpecker flew in to a distant pine. I quickly realised it was my 2nd target woodpecker of the day - a female Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

Result! Both seemingly rare woodpeckers in the space of a few hours. Meandering back to the visitor centre I bumped into a few more people who were walking the shorter trails. The visitor centre was open and I spent awhile chatting to the lady about my day. Apparently I was very lucky to see a bear as they generally avoid people. The fact I was very quiet and had taken the longer trail, which was less disturbed, meant I'd stumbled across it as it was feeding on berries. She asked whether I'd seen Florida Panther which hadn't yet been seen in the area but the preserve was part of a network used by the panthers. She also told me I'd done the right thing by quietly backing off when the bear started growling. They can climb 100 ft into a tree so you can't out climb them and you certainly can't put run them. They only thing to do if one charges is make yourself as big as possible and basically scream at it to f&ck off whilst not making eye contact as they see that as a threat...... a sobering thought.

A great few hours and I was still buzzing about it when the others arrived back after their golf.

Florida 2024. Part 1. Florida Scrub Jays

We've been to Florida many times as a family with the emphasis being on the theme parks with just the bit of causal birding thrown in. This time was different. Jan was going to play golf with friends and the idea was that I could tag along and look at the wildlife along the golf courses, drive a buggy and drink a few beers from the mobile buggy bar! I also had my own car so I could go off birding when I wanted to. 

One of the target species I had in mind was the endangered Florida Scrub Jay and thanks to Kevin Kelly and a bit of internet searching I had a few sites in mind. The Florida Scrub Jay is endemic to Florida and is restricted to the few remaining areas of unspoilt sandy scrub generally close to the coast. There's estimated to be only 7-8,000 individuals left in the wild. One of the sites I found was Helen & Alan Cruickshank preserve about an hours drive from our villa base in Kissimmee. Leaving just after breakfast I figured I'd get to the reserve around 09.00 and get some birding doe before the main heat of the day and get home for lunch and an afternoon in the pool! 

Arriving in the car park I found I was the only person there. There had been report of Jays in the car park scrounging food from visitors so  I spent  good 15 minutes waiting and looking around in the hope of seeing one. Its now illegal to feed the Scrub Jays so I guess they've no further need to venture into the car park.

Making my way along one of the trails I soon heard a Jay and stood looking until one appeared and perched up in one of the taller scrubby bushes.

During my visit I eventually saw quite a few Jays but theres always the thrill of seeing the first one and the satisfaction of knowing a plan has paid off. Interestingly this seemed to be a sentinel btid o nthe look out for predators as  I could hear other jays feeding in the scrub but couldn't see them. I saw this quite often. A bird sat motionless for ages whist others fed around them. I also noted that Jays always seemed to be accompanied by Northern Mockingbirds. Where ever there were Jays there were always a couple of opportunistic Mockingbirds.

Moving on I came across a pair of Bald Eagles in a dead pine and a few gems such as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and the ubiquitous Pam Warblers. They were literally the commonest bird I saw in Florida.

I really wanted to have better views of the Jays though so I retraced my steps until I once again found a sentinel bird. This time it was much closer to one of the tracks so I sat and waited. Sure enough I could hear the excited chatter of Jays approaching followed by rustling in the track side scrub before three birds appeared a few metres a way from me and fed unconcernedly on invertebrates and acorns on the ground. 

Two photos above: sentinel bird

The Florida Scrub Jay population is heavily studied and many of the birds are ringed (banded in US parlance) and colour ringed so they can be individually recognised in the field. From my photos  I was able to identify two different banding birds and contact the Federal banding programme who put me in contact with one of the research scientists. It turns out the Jays generally have 2-3 colour rings so the ones I photographed couldn't be identified from the colour rings alone.Luckily I had plenty of photos and managed to read one complete Federal (metal) band and get all but one of the digits on another so I'm hoping to hear back as to when they were banded.

What  I did find out was that there are 11 genetic units of Florida Scrub Jay and the area I was in was area A/C. The map below also shows movement of birds between study areas which is important to keep the gene pool fresh.

A great way to start our trip  - by midday the sun was getting to hot and most of the bird activity had ceased so I headed back to the car and to the villa for a nice cool dip in the pool and a cold beer whilst waiting for the rest of the party to get back from their golf.

A bit of garden ringing

Its a long time since I've managed to do any ringing in our garden. A combination of time and bad weather meant I've not had the opportunity to do much. The recent anti-cyclonic doldrums, due to a high pressure system sat over the UK for several weeks, gve the ideal combination of dull weather and no wind!

With Redwings beginning to stream in over our part of Cheshire it was time to try and catch a few at dawn and dusk. I don't catch many but they're always nice to see in the hand. The ones I catch are of the Scandinavian sub-species iliacus and I've never caught any of the swarthier and darker Icelandic corbuni. 

See here for a comparison of the two sub-speices when I was on a Fair Isle a few years ago:

 https://wirralbirders.blogspot.com/2017/10/fair-isle-day-3-day-of-thrushes.html

As can be seen from the photos below all 'my birds' have relatively  clean  under tail coverts.

Every year I collect our windfall apples and start placing them in strategic points in the garden to attract winter thrushes. With the arrival of the Redwings came Blackbirds and Fieldfare and  I set a whoosh net to try and catch a few of these that are attracted to the apples. Most of the Blackbirds are bulky long-winged Scandinavian birds as exemplified by a Dutch ringed control  I caught a couple of years ago in mid December. With Hilbre Bird Obs recently controlling a Blackbird wearing a Swedish ring I'm my luck will be in again this year.  See details here  on the Hilbre blog.

I've caught a few Blackbirds but the biggest prize was this 1st winter Mistle Thrush that couldn't resist the windfalls after demolishing all the berries on our yew tree! Only the 2nd I've ever caught in the garden and both have been whoosh- netted. From the photo below you can just make out the outermost retained juvenile greater covert.

I've also been catching a few other garden visitors with Goldfinches being the commonest. These can be difficult to age correctly this year as global warming and milder climates has meant many are undergoing  more extensive post -juvenile moult akin to the populations in southern Europe. There was no doubt about these birds though wit ha definite moult contrast in the greater covert with the juvenile type being buff tipped.

They must have had a good breeding season, despite the weather, as some are still looking distinctly juvenile around the head indicating a late brood.

All in all a productive few days and a chance to get my eye in again after a busy seabird ringing season!