Florida close-ups

To return to Florida once more, the best thing about the Green Cay wetlands park is that the birds were often right up close to the boardwalk--sometimes even on it, like this Tricolored Heron.

And also the territorial Limpkin I mentioned in my first Florida post:

Those birds had no real fear of people.

We made two trips to Green Cay. On Presidents' Day we had wanted to see the nearby Wakodahatchee park, another man-made wetlands area somewhat older than Green Cay, but it has very little parking (Probably better to try it on a non-holiday weekday). Since rain was threatening, we decided not to wait and headed back to the more capacious Green Cay.

The rains did come while we were there, sometimes quite heavily, though many of the birds weren't bothered much by it, especially the waders. You can see some rain in the Tricolored Heron photos.

Smaller birds avoided the rain more, but even some of the Grackles stayed out in the open.

When the rain stopped, they all came back out. Here's a tree full of Grackles in the clearing storm:

There were some very visible large nests near the boardwalks, including this Great Blue Heron nest:

And a coupel of trees right next to that had several Anhinga nests.

There were a lot of Anhingas. I didn't see any come up on the boardwalks, but they got pretty close. I like this subadult, who looked very punk.

Their feet are pretty amazing:

I still can't believe how close the American Bitterns got to the boardwalk.

Aren't they supposed to be really skittish?

The Spoonbills were a bit more standoffish, but still pretty close.

And here's one more Tricolored Heron portrait to finish off:

And that's it for Florida. I'll be back soon with Spring's early arrivals here in New York City.

Ambigugoose

Taking a short break from the Florida posts to talk about a goose that turned up on the Central Park Reservoir in Mid-February, and is still there. It was found by Peter Post, who identified it as a Cackling Goose, and then later reviewed his photos and thought it might be a Lesser Canada Goose, and then things went down.

[] Goose

So, Canada Geese used to be easy. Big brown goose, black neck and head, white cheek patch--you know, Canada Goose. Branta canadensis, in the scientific lingo. There were a bunch of subspecies--more-or-less isolated populations, the ones who bred in the far north generally smaller--but those were pretty esoteric for most birders.

About a decade ago, the ornithologists decided that some of those smaller northerly subspecies were in fact a separate species, the Cackling Goose. (Branta hutchinsii, for those of you keeping score at home.) So now there's two species, each with several subspecies, and it's quite hard to tell which is which. So now if a birder is looking at a small white-cheeked goose, they have a problem.

Anyway, Cackling Goose is a fairly unusual visitor in this area--there was some excitement about the one that showed up in Flushing Meadow Park in January--but a Lesser Canada is almost unheard of. In fact, some prominent voices on the NY State Birds mailing list said there was "zero percent chance" of it being a Lesser Canada. Apparently, the Lesser Canada Goose _never_ shows up this far East. And we know his because it never has before. And we know that because any similar goose that does come around here isn't a Lesser Canada, but some other goose, because Lesser Canada Geese never occur here. See?

The email exchanges went on,some in the stiffly polite manner that the scientifically-inclined use when they're losing their tempers. So a couple of days later I went to see the goose. It took a while to find it, just because i had to walk most of the way around the Reservoir before I ran into the particular flock of Canada Geese it was hanging around with, but when I found them, it stood out a mile.

picking him out of a lineup

Much smaller than the somewhat smallish Canadas it was with, maybe 2/3 their size or less. Small head, small beak, very short neck, didn't associate closely with the bigger geese--even when it was in the middle of the flock, there was usually a good twenty feet separating it from the nearest other goose. Kind of dark on the "white" areas.

closest approach to a regular Canada Goose

I don't know. It looks like a Cackling Goose to me. But what do I know?

our suspect with a Shoveler, a pretty small duck

...and with a Ruddy Duck, a very small duck

I see on the mailing lists today that the goose is still around, and has been joined on the Reservoir by another very small goose, who is not so brown. So there's excellent opportunities for further dispute.

Branta somethingorother

And on twitter, I see a report that the British Ornithologists' Union has added the Lesser Canada Goose to its list of species that have been seen in Britain. Except that what they're calling "Lesser Canada Goose" is B. hutchinsii, what we over on this continent, where they come from, call Cackling Goose. Because why not?

Florida, part 2: more birds

Thanks to the wonders of technology, we got continually notified as our flight home was delayed again and again, so we were able to travel more around the Ft. Lauderdale area. We spent a little time on a narrow strip of beach near a small park (Hugh Taylor Birch State Park), where Adam had frequently gone when he lived nearby. There were Sanderlings dashing in and out of the crashing waves, and Brown Pelicans cruising stately on the high wind.

The Sanderlings were another life bird for me--like the Blue-Winged Teal, I'm sure I've seen them before, but they weren't on my list. Cute little guys.

Anyway, I also got great looks at a lot of birds I had seen before, so I'm going to share a few pictures. This Belted Kingfisher was hovering pretty high over Green Cay. I guess she was grabbing insects from the air? This is one of my better bird-in-flight photos.

Most of the familiar birds we saw were at Green Cay. This Green Heron hinted along a marsh edge only twenty feet or so from the boardwalk.

Soras are usually hard to spot (except the one who was stuck in the Loch in Central Park last Fall). This one was pretty confiding.

Snowy Egrets are usually shyer than this, too. I wonder what about Green Cay made these birds all so confiding?

My first Painted Bunting was the famous Prespect Park (Brooklyn) bird earlier in the winter. In south Florida, they're feeder birds.

There's a feeder off the path between the parking lot and the nature center, which the Buntings liked. I saw my first female painted bunting there. While not as gaudy as the males, they are quite pretty birds. I think they are the only all-green birds in the U.S.

This very friendly Boat-Tailed Grackle hung around the Greek restaurant we stopped at the first day, begging food and singing. The waiter told us the bird would steal sugar packets from the tables.

There were Boat-Tailed Grackles all over Green Cay. Here's a nice close shot of a female.

We saw various warblers, as well. Besides this Palm Warbler (one of several), Yellow-Rumped Warblers were thick in the reeds. There were a few Black-and_White Warblers as well, and along the path from the parking lot I spotted a Prairie Warbler.

And in the last minutes of our second trip to Green Cay, we spotted this Nashville Warbler near the parking lot, a local rarity that had been frequently sighted there this winter.

This Red-Shouldered Hawk was one of two hawk species we spotted in Florida (the other were a juvenile and an adult Marsh Harrier). This Red-Shouldered is quite pale, which apparently is a common color morph in south Florida.

Here's a nice close-up of a Pied-Billed Grebe to round things out. I'll have one more Florida post in a couple of days.

Florida, part one: Life Birds, Green Cay

Elena and I went to Florida over Presidents Day weekend. We were making a long-overdue visit to our friends Adam and Judy in Palm Beach County, but with their indulgence we got in some birding.

exclusive valet birding

I hadn't been in Florida in fifteen years, since before I started birding, so the life birds started coming as soon as we left the airport. White Ibises are all over the place--roadsides, along the ubiquitous canals, parking lots... And I saw my first Anhinga ouside a restaurant where we stopped for lunch. (My Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. Very nice place. Try the keftedes.)

Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)

And Cattle Egrets are common roadside birds as well.

this one was at Green Cay, but trust me, they were all over the roadsides

Birding by the roadside is fun, but the best thing was Green Cay Wetlands.

totemic

This is a fantastic man-made wetlands park, run by Palm Beach County, with about a mile and a half of boardwalks that bring you right up close with normally-reclusive waterbirds.

very shy

This American Bittern wasn't a lifer, but what a view! It was not eight feet away from me, almost under the boardwalk. Funny thing--right after seeing it, I ran into Central Park birder Brian Padden, who was birding there with Big Year birding legend Sandy Komito. I had the pleasure of pointing them at the Bittern.

just off the parking lot

The birds at Green Cay start even before you reach the boardwalk. Along the path from the parking lot to the nature center building, we saw several warblers, Painted Buntings, and White-Winged Doves.

And then you get into the wetlands, and there's just a riot of birds. There are ducks:

I don't know how I missed seeing Blue-Winged Teals before, but I had.

in south Florida, Mottled Ducks replace Mallards as the common ducks

gallinules:

Common Gallinules live up to their name at Green Cay

juvenile Purple Gallinule. I didn't get a really good picture of an adult.

Grey-Headed Swamphen, an exotic South Florida speciality

herons:

Tricolored Heron. Well, I suppose you can claim any number of colors you like...

juvenile Little Blue Heron

adult Little Blue Heron

Glossy Ibises! Wood Storks! Limpkins!

Glossy Ibises, another introduced species quite at home in Florida

Wood Stork. It took HOW long to figure out these were dinosaurs?

this Limpkin was loudly asserting his territorial rights after a dispute

and Roseate Spoonbills. My god, the Spoonbills.

that spoon, that spoon, that Spoonbill...

And those are just my life birds! I'm not even close to done writing about Florida. More soon.