Category Archives: Behavior

I discovered a Barred Owl family at Gemini Springs!

by Amy Posted on 24 April 2012

Much to my chagrin, I have zero owl-finding skills. So this post’s title isn’t really 100% accurate. Something like Baby Barred Owls make so much noise I can’t help but find them might have been more appropriate. Anyway…

On April 10th I was birding at Gemini Springs, taking my usual route over the spring run bridges on my way to the path that runs along DeBary Bayou. While crossing the second bridge, I heard the unmistakable hissy begging call of a baby owl. Naturally I followed the sound, which had me take a right after the bridge and head into the woods. A few minutes later, I sent a text message to Arthur.

iPhone photo of my camera’s viewscreen [phone screen shot edited for space / privacy]

So even though I’m lousy at finding owls, two hungry babies taking turns crying for food are hard to miss. I had located two branching babies but no adults.

Baby Barred Owl begging for food | 10 April 2012

Baby Barred Owl | 10 April 2012

After I sent the text and took a lot of photos of the two babies, I continued on my walk.

Before heading to my bike, I went back into the woods to see if I could relocate the owls. This time I found one of the adults perched beside a baby.

Adult (#1) Barred Owl | 10 April 2012

I texted Arthur again and he indicated he was on his way over, so I sat down to wait. That’s when I saw the second adult bird fly in to deliver a green anole to one of the babies. After the delivery, the adult perched nearby. Of course I took more photos, which is what I was doing when Arthur joined me.

Adult (#2) Barred Owl | 10 April 2012

Superzoom! The adult (#2) Barred Owl is dead center | 10 April 2012

Here are a few more photos of the second adult Barred Owl: Sleepy Barred Owl; Alert Barred Owl; Sunning Barred Owl.

I can hardly begin to describe how happy I was to find and observe these owls. I had only seen a handful of individuals before that morning, so discovering and observing this family at length was a tremendous treat (made even more wonderful when Arthur joined me).

The next morning, April 11, Arthur and I headed back to Gemini Springs, but we were only able to locate one baby owl.

Baby Barred Owl from behind – lots of adult feathers | 11 April 2012

Same baby Barred Owl as pictured above | 11 April 2012

During a visit two days later, on April 13, I found one baby and one adult.

Fluff! | 13 April 2012

Adult Barred Owl searching for prey | 13 April 2012

I guess you can tell I can’t get enough of these beautiful owls. I have returned to Gemini Springs to look for the owls (and other birds!) a few more times in the last weeks. I’ll have some more photos to share in the coming days (you have been warned!).

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Posted in Behavior, Gemini Springs, Volusia Birding | 1 Comment

It takes a lot of work to look this good

by Amy Posted on 12 April 2012

How does a Wood Duck know when it’s time to take a bath?

I happened to be watching this one when it was time. He looked quite clean to me, but what do I know?

After a whole lotta splashin’ was going on, he joined his companion on a nearby snag for some serious preening.

All done.

Lookin’ good, hot stuff.

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Posted in Behavior, Florida | Leave a comment

Willet Threat Assessment

by Amy Posted on 27 March 2012

The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is located right on the beach in Indian Shores, Florida. During our visit, we found this sleepy Willet on the white sand. Though the bird stood on one foot, it rotated its body slightly to watch us pass (we gave it wide berth).

Alert Willet checks out the birders walking by

Curious Willet assesses threat level of passing birders

Sleepy Willet resumes nap

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Posted in Behavior, Florida | Leave a comment

Peregrine Falcon feeding on a Laughing Gull

by Amy Posted on 24 February 2012

Florida birders are probably familiar with Michael Brothers, a Volusia County birder who frequently shares interesting sightings on the local listservs. This week he posted a remarkable story and photos and I asked him if I could share them with my blog audience. Here’s his original post as it appeared on the BRDBRAIN email list:

Today, 2/21, I stopped by to see the gulls at Daytona Beach Shores and witnessed an amazing sight. I saw a large group of gulls take off from along the beach and assumed that some people had chased the birds off.
When I got closer I found an adult Peregrine had killed a Laughing Gull and it was calmly eating it right on the beach. The bird was amazingly tame and allowed me to sit only 20 feet away and photograph it for 15 minutes or more. It did not seem bothered by beach walkers going by only a few feet away from it. A few other birders came up and were also able to sit and watch the spectacle. Meanwhile, folks were driving by just behind us, either staring at the bird or oblivious to the rare event right beside them.

Now check out the photos he captured below. You can click on them to see larger.

Peregrine Falcon feeding on Laughing Gull, photo by Michael Brothers, posted with permission

Peregrines are regularly seen hunting around the huge gathering of gulls that occurs near Frank Rendon Park in Daytona Beach Shores. Seeing one feeding right there on the beach, though? Remarkable! Thank you, Michael, for letting me post your story and photos.

UPDATE: It seems I’m not the only blogger sharing Michael’s photos and story! And that’s not all – there are even more photos!

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Posted in Behavior, Florida | 1 Comment

Sunbathing Nicobar Pigeons

by Amy Posted on 17 February 2012

The Nicobar Pigeon is one of the most beautiful species in the family Columbidae. They average 1.5 to 3 inches larger than the average Rock Pigeon. And they are colorful!

Besides their beautiful metallic green, blue and copper feathers, Nicobar Pigeons have long hackles (long feathers) around their necks.

Nicobar Pigeons are named for the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. During a recent visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, I saw a group of these gorgeous pigeons sunning themselves. They were in a large walk-through aviary in the Maharajah Jungle Trek attraction.

Throughout the park that day I noticed many new cast members being trained or following orientation from more experienced Disney employees. As I stopped to watch the sunbathing pigeons, I overheard one cast member explaining to another that the sunbathing area was a hotspot for questions from visitors who express concern for the birds. A sunbathing bird may contort into an odd-looking position, or appear to be injured, while exposing various body parts to the sun. If you want to learn about avian sunbathing, this article on about.com is a good place to start: Birds Sunning.

Unfortunately, the Nicobar Pigeon is considered a Near Threatened species in the wild. Threats to the species include hunting, the pet trade, non-native predators, and habitat destruction.

Their beautiful plumage makes Nicobar Pigeons popular birds in zoo aviaries. Because they do breed easily in captivity, breeding programs are able to stock overseas zoos.

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Posted in Behavior, Disney, Zoo | Leave a comment

Volusia County Gull Spectacle

by Amy Posted on 3 February 2012

One of the largest concentrations of gulls found anywhere in the United States occurs on winter afternoons right here in Volusia County, Florida. A stretch of beach in Daytona Beach Shores hosts from 30,000 up to 50,000 loafing gulls as they gather before nightfall. The gulls group together on the beach in the late afternoon before heading just offshore to spend the night. This short video clip featuring Michael Brothers of the Marine Science Center explains this unique phenomenon.

While I find this huge concentration of birds amazing, I have to admit I still haven’t fully embraced the joy of identifying and ageing gulls. Luckily for me, there are birders that are more than up for the challenge. Even luckier, they are happy to share their knowledge with larophobes like me.

During the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival, a team of larophiles, including Michael Brothers and Alvaro Jaramillo, headed the Gull Fly-in based at Frank Rendon Park. Here Arthur and I joined several other birders in happily watching the gulls flying in in huge, unbelievable, remarkable numbers. We watched them gather into gigantic flocks on the beach that must have stretched for several miles.

Before the field trip began, Arthur took this video as we drove along a stretch of beach, heading to the park. This was taken at about 2:45PM, hours before the gull numbers reached their peak.

We birders gathered at the park to watch the gulls fly in before we headed down onto the beach.

The most common gulls in the flocks were Ring-billed, Laughing, Herring, Lesser Black-backed, and Great Black-backed. Among these species, keen eyes can pick out the birds that are different. Shortly after we stepped onto the beach, Alvaro found a California Gull. There was also a Glaucous Gull and a hybrid gull that I didn’t get a chance to see. Another highlight was watching a Pomarine Jaeger harassing gulls out on the water. But the biggest highlight was simply seeing huge numbers of beautiful birds hanging out and doing their thing.

Glaucous Gull

California Gull – notice dark eye, red/black on bill, red gape, brown speckled nape

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Posted in Behavior, Festivals & Events, Florida, Space Coast Fest, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

Snowy on the beach

by Amy Posted on 22 January 2012

I see Snowy Egrets at my local patch all the time, but until earlier this month, I’d never seen one at the beach. Arthur and I were relaxing on New Smyrna Beach on a cool afternoon when we noticed a large white bird heading our way along the waterline. It was hunting, successfully, small fish as it proceeded down the beach. I took a few photos from where we sat; later Arthur got a bit closer for some action shots and a short video. Its hunting style looked a bit frantic, but it was very successful!

photo by Arthur de Wolf

video by Arthur de Wolf

I’ve submitted this post to this week’s Bird Photography Weekly. BPW is a regular collection of user-submitted bird photos from all over the world. The new edition comes out every Sunday. Go have a look at this week’s submissions!

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Posted in Behavior, Bird Photography Weekly, Florida, Volusia Birding | 1 Comment

Splish-splash

by Amy Posted on 17 January 2012

Arthur and I went kayaking at Gemini Springs this morning. It was probably the birdiest kayak route we’ve ever had, with herons, egrets, ibises, coots, gallinules and others lurking at every bend. We even saw several relatively scarce species: Green Heron; Limpkin; and American Bittern – three of them! Tree Swallows, Belted Kingfishers and Osprey hunted from above. In the four-mile round trip paddle I was surprised to see more Tricolored Herons (over a dozen) and Glossy Ibis (a flock of about 50) than I’ve ever seen before. Numbers of Wood Storks, White Ibis and Snowy Egret were also surprisingly high.

Despite all this abundance I think the most interesting thing I saw all morning was this Great Blue Heron, a very common bird.

It was standing up to its lower body in the water. Hmm, I never saw a GBHE hunting from this depth before. Interesting.

After a moment it was clear the bird was not hunting at all. It was bathing! What an operation! Unfortunately I am useless when it comes to taking photos from the kayak. As soon as I reach for my camera, the kayak starts spinning, or moving directly towards the creature I want to photograph. So I only managed this splash action picture before stabilizing my kayak and watching this big beauty proceed with a very active bath.

Afterwards it stepped up on some nearby reeds to complete its preening duties. I couldn’t find any information about Great Blue Heron bathing habits on BNA Online, bummer. I did find a nice photo series of a Great Blue bathing on Flickr, though. Check it out: Great Blue Heron Bathing.

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Posted in Behavior, Florida, Gemini Springs, Volusia Birding | Leave a comment

Great Blue Heron shapes

by Amy Posted on 8 January 2012

Great Blue Herons are year-round residents here in central Florida, and they are extremely common at my local patch, Gemini Springs Park. When I see them they are typically alone, and rather still. Usually they seem to be stoic hunters, watching and waiting. This bird I saw last week, however, was rather active. It was hunting in the streaming water running through the dam.