Variety of animals at Gatorland

Lots of other animals at Gatorland besides the wild water birds nesting. Of course, there are tons of alligators. You can wrestle them or feed them (I have no desire to do either). The funniest thing to me is watching the great egrets ride on the backs of alligators. I guess you could say they are "alligator surfing birds". They are both looking for handouts. The place has tons of picture taking opportunities and it's a great way to get outside and spend a couple of hours walking around.

Wordless Wednesday

Killdeer nest or lack thereof...

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Baby birds at Gatorland

Baby great egrets

Baby snowy egret born the morning I was there with one more to go. I love the way it looks like the snowy egret feet look like they have been painted yellow.

Blue heron mom on the right and baby on left. Baby blue herons are white when they are born. As they get older they start to get blue patches until at least 6 months where they start to turn all blue.

Great egret babies being fed by mom.

Tricolored heron babies.

Tricolored heron mom with her baby.

Bird moms are very busy right now. Gatorland is full of wild baby birds. Constantly yelling and needing to be fed. They look so funny with their fuzzy feathers and beaks that look to big for their bodies. I need to try and go back in early June to see the birds growing up and learning to fly.

Nesting birds at Gatorland

Cattle egret gathering sticks for a nest.


Cattle egret counting her eggs.

Tricolored heron also counting her eggs.

Snowy egrets making a nest together.

It's a busy time for wild water birds at Gatorland. The alligator lake there is full of mangroves that make a great nesting place. The alligators keep the raccoons from getting to the nest so the birds are pretty safe there (unless a flightless baby falls out of the nest). The birds are very busy flying around with sticks and fish. They are still building nests there. Many of the nests had 3 -4 eggs on them. There was also a handful of nest that already had babies on them. I might have to make another trip there in June before nesting season dies down.

Birdathon 2010: A summary

The 2010 Birdathon was held May 7-8th. The goal of the Birdathon is to raise money for local conservation organizations by seeing as many different species of birds from 5pm Friday to 5pm Saturday (24 hr period) in a pre-determined radius centered on the Oxbow in SE Indiana (Oxbow area). Pledges are solicited from friends and members, the more species seen collectively, the more money that is raised for the local conservation organizations. This year my team consisted of Dave Brinkman, Dr. Jon Seymour (President of Oxbow, Inc.), and myself. Although our team entered in as "non-competitive" this year, we still ended up with a good number of species I thought. For the first time in my Birdathon experience, we decided to camp at Miami Whitewater campground instead of sleeping in the car. I am glad that we did. Before setting out, we got word that there was a tornado watch in effect until early morning. We put the tent up before the 5pm start time while it wasn't raining. Good thing we did. It thunderstormed Friday night, so we stayed in the car until the lightning stopped. The winds were roaring loud all night, but I somehow managed to stay dry and get some sleep in.

And now on to the birds...Both Friday and Saturday, we went to the new Fernald Preserve in northern Hamilton Co. I have been wanting to go here for a while, but it is a drive for me. I really enjoyed this place. The place was a hopping, as I was able to see Dickcissels, Bobolinks, and hear Grasshopper Sparrows all in the same field. The small but very productive biowetlands held all kinds of good birds including shorebirds, Blue-winged Teal, and an American Pipit. I am glad to be able to have a place like this to see so many different species of birds in one place. I was thinking while there that this could be reproduced with only a little work just about anywhere there was open space to do so. It is a shame that it takes something like Fernald's history to guarantee quality bird habitat in SW Ohio, but that is the sad times we live in I guess. I am hoping to go back to this preserve soon.

Friday, we failed to relocate the reported Wilson's Phalarope at the Fernald Biowetlands. We ran into another team that had said they just seen it 15 minutes prior to our arrival. We searched again, still no phalarope. Dang, that would have been a life bird for me!

Lesser Yellowlegs at Fernald Preserve

Saturday we saw quite a few Wild Turkey, including some male toms displaying to hens.

Male tom turkey displaying at Miami Whitewater Forest

We got word that there was another Wilson's Phalarope at a place called lost bridge. I was really hoping to get this bird here, since I just missed it at Fernald. The first visit yielded a Dunlin, Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers and Spotted Sandpipers. But still no phalarope.

So we headed out to bird other locations in the area. We ran into another group who stated that they saw a shorebird they were unsure of at lost bridge, so we decided to return there to see if we could find the "odd" bird. Glad we did. Just as we were getting ready to leave the spot, Dave spotted the Wilson's Phalarope flying in fast from the left - life bird for me! It landed in front of us briefly, but then disappeared. Luckily, after a long while, we were able to relocate the bird. Got some good looks at it while it was feeding right in front of us!

Lifer Wilson's Phalarope at Lost Bridge in Hamilton Co. , OH

We also stopped by a place where Lark Sparrows had been seen. This would be another life bird for me. As we approached the area where they were supposed to be, Dave found one on the road in front of us. It fled quick, and I was only able to get a brief look at the head pattern and white outer tail feathers - dang!

At 5pm on Saturday, all the teams got together at Winton Woods for the final tally and pizza. It was nice to see so many birding friends that I haven't seen in a while, some in years. Each team discussed their best bird and best moment of the birdathon. Every year, I see more and more 18 years and under young birders at this event - love this! Kathy McDonald led the Queen City Birder's/Ohio Young Birder's Club team. They got first place in the under 19 years category with 95 species!

My team got 118 species and the winning team got somewhere around 147 total species. But everybody was a winner, raising money for conservation and having fun!

Pelicans at St. Petersburg Pier

These are just the beginnings of pelican pictures for the summer. They are such a fun bird to take pictures of. When it's really hot and all of the other birds have gone north for the summer these guys will be out diving (or begging) for fish all day. There's always a handful of pelicans hanging around the bait shop at the Pier in St. Pete. They sleep all over the pilings, railings and the top of the bait shop. In the morning they are usually pretty active flying around looking for fish. You can buy fish at the bait shop to feed them. They have a platform to stand on so you don't get attacked but it makes for great tourist photo opps.

Crescent Lake Park

Opsrey having an early lunch.

Blackbird found an already dead baby duck in the grass. He eventually flew off with it.


Bluejay

The park has a very large old banyan tree that is starting to die. They fenced it off and have been mulching it and giving it some type of fertilizer to nurse it back to health. Hopefully, with the warm weather back it will get better.

Crescent Lake Park is a small park in St. Petersburg. It's surrounded by houses and apartments so there are always tons of people there walking dogs and jogging. There's a playground, tennis courts and dog park. The interesting thing is that a handful of geese have made a permanent home there. I guess someone forgot to tell them to go north for the summer. There are also a few osprey flying around since the lake is full of fish. They have the usual songbirds as well. It's a great place for a morning stroll and not to far from downtown St. Pete.