A few weeks ago I took a short walk on the beach at Daytona Beach Shores. I noticed some gulls scrambling over pieces of fish, maybe scraps left behind by anglers who were done fishing for the day.
Isn’t that last picture cute? I thought I was capturing a whimsical photo of an “unlikely friendship” but I didn’t notice until looking at the photos later at home that the gull has fishing line trailing from it. You can click on the photo to view it larger on Flickr.com. I feel terrible I didn’t notice it at the time, though if the bird was flighted I don’t think I could have done anything. Fish scraps aren’t the only things left behind by fisherfolk. Please please please pick up and properly discard loose fishing line whenever and wherever you see it.
Because vultures are never sure where their next meal is coming from, they are known to gorge themselves — sometimes, so much so that they become too heavy to fly. I’ve never witnessed this myself, but a lucky tourist visiting the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center in South Africa captured some interesting footage of a vulture in trouble. The bird appears to play dead in order to avoid being attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Once the dogs move off, the vulture works to unload some of its extra weight so it can finally fly away from the dogs.
Nestling Superb Fairy-wrens learn unique begging calls from their mothers — before they even hatch. Researchers “conclude that wrens use a parent-specific password learned embryonically to shape call similarity with their own young and thereby detect foreign cuckoo nestlings.” In other words, the baby birds must chirp a secret password to be fed.
Well, hello there! Long time no blog. We lost our beloved cat Arby on Monday after about eight weeks of slowly deteriorating health. It’s been a tough summer. I’m so ready for fall! Bring on September — which happens to start off with International Vulture Awareness Day on the 1st.
I find vultures endearing for several reasons. These pictures of Black Vultures, taken at Hontoon Island State Park back in June, show three of those reasons.
When one doesn’t have the chance to go birding as much as one would like, it is nice when the birds come to one.
During a heavy thunderstorm last week, Arthur called me to the window to watch a Red-shouldered Hawk feeding on something in our back yard. The bird was eating while standing completely exposed in the middle of the grass. It was soaked. After a few bites, the hawk grabbed hold of its meal, a rat, and flew to a post to finish the job.
OM NOM NOM
With not much remaining to the prey but fur and tail, the meal was finished and the Red-shouldered Hawk retreated to a nearby citrus tree.
I thought it might wait out the storm under the relative shelter of the tree, so I was surprised when the hawk took off and flew to an exposed perch, a metal bird feeder pole. There it remained for just a moment before taking off once again and leaving our yard.
Here’s a short video to give you an idea of the rate of rainfall during this encounter.
That’s a pretty hearty hawk, huh? Or perhaps just a hungry one.
I’ve been spending a lot of time fretting over the health and happiness of this old man lately, which has put me on an unexpected birding hiatus.
Arby watching starlings, December 2008
So here’s a dip back in time and another installment of blog catch-up. Back in May, when I visited family and friends in Illinois, I took a few walks at my old favorite, Rollins Savanna.
Rollins Savanna on May 10, 2012
Male Bobolink
In mid-May Rollins was hopping with Bobolinks. Their robotic calls could be heard from nearly every step along the 3.5 mile main loop trail.
Bobolink eating dandelion seeds
You’ve got a little something stuck to the side of your beak there, Bob.
Bobolinks normally first arrive in Lake County around the beginning of May, so the birds I observed chowing down on dandelion seeds along the path may have been new arrivals, refueling after a long leg of their migration (they come from as far south as Argentina). Bobolinks breed in northern Illinois, but their breeding range goes as far north as the Canadian border and beyond.
Female Bobolink
Bobolinks pass through Florida on their journey in both directions, but I have not been able to add one to my state list so far. Maybe, if I’m very lucky this September…
Late last month, Arthur and I visited Spruce Creek Park in Port Orange. It was hot and birds were keeping a low profile. Once we climbed up the 15-foot observation tower we had a very nice view over the property. I spotted a heron sitting on a picnic table below us, and did a double-take when I realized it was a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron.
The bird hopped off the table and proceeded to successfully hunt a large amount of crabs in the mud.
Timestamps on my photos tell me we watched the heron hunting for about a half hour, and I would guess it caught and ate a crab or other tasty morsel at least every two minutes.
We climbed down the tower and proceeded with our hot mid-morning walk. Later we came across another YCNH, this one awkwardly perched on top of some kind of weather apparatus (I think). It didn’t stay perched long.
Sandhill Cranes are omnivorous. They feed on grains, berries, small reptiles, invertebrates, aquatic plants, and more. They will feed on nestling birds, if the opportunity arises.
At Rollins Savanna last month I observed a small group of Sandhill Cranes foraging in a marshy area. A male Red-winged Blackbird was giving them a hard time, dive-bombing and attacking the backs of the large birds.
The blackbird may have thought the cranes were up to no good, but during my stay I didn’t see the cranes discover any tasty nestlings. The blackbird eventually left the cranes alone.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen a blackbird attacking cranes at Rollins Savanna. Back in June 2009 I saw a small mob working together to drive away a pair of cranes.
I continued to visit the Barred Owl family at Gemini Springs as much as I could last month. And I took a lot of photos. You have been warned. 🙂
both babies | 16 April 2012
On April 20th I was kind of surprised to find one of the adults feeding a baby. Earlier I had seen adults delivering small prey items to the babies but this meal seemed to be a large rat or maybe a pocket gopher. The adult bit off pieces and fed them to the baby.
begging baby | 20 April 2012
Barred Owl feeding baby | 20 April 2012
“got your nose!!” | 20 April 2012
feeding baby | 20 April 2012
When they were done, the adult flew off with the remains of the prey and perched on her own, away from the baby.
a break after feeding baby | 20 April 2012
Four days later I was watching the Red-shouldered Hawk nest, which is in a different part of the park than where I generally find the Barred Owls. I was taking photos of baby Red-shouldered Hawks when I suddenly heard the unmistakeable hiss of a baby Barred Owl coming from just behind where I was standing. After a bit of searching, I found one baby and one adult Barred Owl.
here baby sits dead center in the frame | 24 April 2012
baby Barred Owl | 24 April 2012
baby Barred Owl | 24 April 2012
This location is about 350 yards from the usual Barred Owl spot. I don’t know if the babies are strong fliers at this age (which I don’t really know, exactly). Could the baby have flown all the way to this new spot? If not, would two families of Barred Owls nest so close together? Arthur and I had seen one adult Barred Owl in this area once before. Hmm.
baby Barred Owl with parent | 24 April 2012
During my next two visits, on April 29th and 30th, I found all four family members back in the area where I originally found them. I noticed that one of the babies stayed very close to an adult, while the other baby had ventured off on its own to explore. The meek baby showed great alarm when a dog-walker passed by, even clacking its beak and scrambling along a branch to be closer to its parent. The other baby spent all of its time looking around, seemingly on the hunt.
bold baby Barred Owl | 29 April 2012
bold baby Barred Owl | 29 April 2012
bold baby Barred Owl | 29 April 2012
shy baby Barred Owl | 29 April 2012
shy baby Barred Owl | 29 April 2012
I’ve had so much fun watching this beautiful family of owls. I hope I’ll be able to continue locating and observing them as they grow up.
bold baby Barred Owl | 30 April 2012
shy baby Barred Owl | 30 April 2012
shy baby Barred Owl with adult (mom?) | 30 April 2012
After finding the Barred Owl family at Gemini Springs on April 10th, somehow I found myself at the park nearly every day that followed, just to get another look at my favorite birds. On April 11th Arthur and I overheard a park employee speaking with another visitor about a Red-shouldered Hawk nest. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that the nest was in rather plain view, but somehow I had missed it until it was pointed out to us with at least two babies inside already becoming independent though not yet fledged.
That first day, we only managed to see one baby, who looked to be very well fed (look at that crop!). The park employee told us there were two babies on the nest.
11 April 2012
11 April 2012
A few days later I watched one of the adults hunting. It caught and ate a bright green caterpillar but did not visit the nest while I was there.
13 April 2012
13 April 2012
On April 16 I finally saw both babies in the nest. Oh my, aren’t they cute?! And again looking well-fed.
16 April 2012
16 April 2012
Just four days later, they looked so different! I saw a parent deliver food to them a few times on this visit.
20 April 2012
20 April 2012
20 April 2012
On April 23rd I again only managed to see one of the babies. I later learned via a Facebook acquaintance that one of the babies probably fledged that day.
23 April 2012
On April 24th there was still one baby hanging out in the nest tree, possibly pre-fledge.
24 April 2012
Today I lucked out by finding a juvenile fly into the nest tree with an adult. The adult took off immediately while the baby waited (and I got to take some photos).
