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.