Migrants and Muck

Hurricane Irma certainly made her mark on all of Florida and at Lake Lotus. Most of us in Central Florida suffered mainly minor damage, small debris piles, and a loss of power for various durations. Then, you could round a corner and see massive trees blocking roads and driveways. All in all, it could have been worse.

This is our first chance to get back to banding in a month. Either rain each Sunday and then Irma thwarted our efforts. Although we really didn't miss the sauna that is that time of year, really.

We could only set just over half our nets today. A large tree blocked our path by Net 12 and the river was still up to that spot meaning that our other net poles were in the water and muck. Our first bird of the day was heard calling loudly near Net 2. Andrew pished once and the bird flew right into the net. It was our first banded Ovenbird of the Session.



Bird of the Day goes to our next bird. A Worm-eating Warbler. We have been capturing more of these in recent years.



One of the most frequently captured species this time of year is the Common Yellowthroat and they are right on time. If we had all nets open, we would be catching loads more up and down the river.



Speaking of the river... Though we weren't there just after the storm you can see that the water levels were pretty high. The flattened vegetation is on the highest part of the park side river bank meaning it was much higher than that.



The observation deck that was used by school visits is completely gone. I was at least 8 feet above the river bed.



Looking behind Net 20 shows the water flowing INTO the park. It always does flow in there when heavy rains arrive but you can also see the roots of a huge oak that has fallen this time around.



The couple of trees that fell at Net 12 were a live tree and a snag. Our intrepid volunteers did a great job carving out a door to the other side.



A nice new gateway to the other side. Hopefully, it will be a little drier next week. It took several weeks to get the paths dried after Hurricane Matthew and this is a lot more water and just before peak migration. Fingers crossed.



Andrew peered across the river to survey the damage across the river in the park.



A large group of fallen trees could be seen. Every Earth Day we would set a couple of nets among those oaks. Going to be a completely different landscape over there. Rangers report highest water levels ever and many, many downed trees. They will be busy.



Andrew waded out knee-deep in the water by Nets 9 and 13 (silly Human!) and saw that the water is still up to the boardwalk in the park. Water is deeper and deeper from this point. Can't even imaging how the area around Net 21 will look once the water subsides. The Trail Cam was not visible and possibly has washed away or at least under water for a considerable time. At least we got to document some wildlife for a while.



Net 14 is surrounded by shallow water and muck right now. Olivia's Garden survived, for the most part. The sign nearby also survived and marked how high the water got. The yellow line marks the top of the muddy water before is drained away later. That shows the water was close to 3 feet deep up here on the high side of the Little Wekiva. Wow.



As the morning was winding down we caught another Ovenbird. In fact, all we caught were migrants today.



More Common Yellowthroats rounded out the day.



Hurricane Maria is swirling in the Atlantic making a lot of folks nervous. She seems to be a threat to the islands and is forecast to trek North before giving Florida another punch. Hoping for that track. Otherwise, we would be in jeopardy of having the best banding ruined this Session.

"Nets are half-full." is a slogan used around here. Looking forward to the best case scenario.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 24th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Banding Minus Some Good Nets, Pt. 1

OK. Time for the first day of banding after Matthew. The end of the nets lanes are still under water and a tree rests in Net 15's spot but we will see what we can manage to catch and release. All 13 volunteers that showed to help were anxious for the return of some Fall migrants.

Seems we have waited too long but we finally began to see the return of Gray Catbirds right at dawn.



For some reason, we were surprised to see the return of House Wrens, too. Forgot about them for a bit but we captured three right off the bat.



Substantially larger, a Swainson's Thrush soon followed.



Maria, Christine, and Susan pause for a moment before the next run in front of Net 15 and The Tree. Hopefully, the rangers will be able to remove it soon.



Using the dock as a guide, we can tell that the water has subsided about a foot overnight. The water you can see behind the dock is the pathway to the dock.



One foot of flood retreat still will not us to advance past Net 14. Andrew did manage to shift Net 9 onto drier land to add to the net totals.



Lynn ventured out into the water on the lanes to get some of our pictures. She stopped at shin-deep.



Rebecca counts butterflies and dragonflies as well as birds and she found a Three-spotted Skipper in the grasses.



She likes this shot the best showing the interesting white patch on the inner wing.



She alos got a shot of one of the several Indigo Buntings in the area. We typically catch them where the flooded areas are right now so we are still waiting for our first capture of the season. Perhaps next week will allow us to open in the prime area for them before they head farther South.



We caught a few Black-throated Blue Warblers during the morning. Still stunningly beautiful every time.



It was a busy crowd out today!



Another House Wren receives a band.



Avery enjoyed a short climb on our downed tree as he searched for critters.



Despite their abundant numbers on the property, this is the first Northern Cardinal we have captured in several weeks. They are staying higher in the trees and back in the woods.



Common Yellowthroats are still flowing through but also staying in the flooded areas for the most part.



Several volunteers had an exciting end to the morning. A Short-tailed Hawk zipped by overhead!



Still one more day to post about when we can get to it. We are planning one more full weekend so we can make up for some missed birds. If the water allows...

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Saturday, October 15th.
All nets will be opened by 7:00 A.M.

Post Matthew Recon

Hurricane Matthew caused a lot of havoc throughout the state but, fortunately, most of the interior of the state just had to deal with wind and rain. Power loss was minimal and downed trees were far less than feared. It didn't seem like that much rain over the past two days. With the bulk of the storm well to the North, Andrew headed to the property intending to simply drop off a new pallet near the lake. The first sign of weather was the tarp on the table had been blown off despite pretty heavy anchors on top.



Once he rounded the bend below the table it was clear that a simple task was going to be a little harder than expected. A large oak had fallen across the net lanes directly between the poles for Net 15. No other trees, including the dead snags we would expect to be brought down, had succumbed. Just some smaller branches and leaves scattered about.



Just past the tree one of the educational docks was nearly engulfed. During a dry season the river bed is 8 feet below this deck.



The Closed sign out front was not just window dressing. The river was indeed flowing over the banks...and straight toward the center of the park.



The pallet would never reach its intended destination. The water was backed up beyond Net 9 and close to Net 14. That leaves a total of 9 nets now out of the picture for banding tomorrow and this is prime territory for Fall birds. Sigh.



Nets 16 and 17 might be reachable from another angle. Will have to consider carving a path through the woods to get around the pools.



Heading back to the car Andrew got one last look at the swollen river as it flowed under 414. The water came up high enough to flood back into the tram tunnel that runs under the highway making it impassable for guests even if they were allowed inside the park.



Here at Lake Lotus we consider our nets half-full and hope for the best. The water is bound to drop some overnight. It is just a question of how much? Cold front is on the way. Bringing with it a LOT of migrants. Thanks for nothing, Matthew.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, October 9th.
All nets will be opened by 6:55 A.M.

Another Flood

We can't imagine the sight of the highest water level a few days ago. According to the rangers, Lake Lotus had 7 1/2 inches of rain in less than 30 hours from Tuesday and into Wednesday. Add to that all of the water that comes down stream from south Orlando and you get a huge amount of water into the Little Wekvia River before it heads North to Wekiwa Springs and beyond. We were told that the water got as high as the river trail just across from the banding area and there was extensive flooding around the park. Water has not dropped too much yet even on this Sunday after the rain event.

More on the flooding in a moment but we did start catching birds just before dawn. First up was an adult female Northern Cardinal recapture.



Close by, another recap was brought in. Turned out to be an adult Carolina Wren. We also had a Gray Catbird and another Northern Cardinal (this time a male) before we turned our attention toward the swollen river and how much damage was done to the net lanes closer to the lake.



Along the way we noticed that the holly trees are being adorned with red berries. Maybe we can entice a few Cedar Waxwings down this year.



While setting nets before dawn we got a little idea what to expect on parts of the property. Now that the light was stronger we could see the dock used by school kids when they visit was wrenched from its normal spot. Either a large limb hit it or just the shear force of water knocked it sideways.



On a side note, who says Florida doesn't have Fall color? When the Cypress trees drop all of their needles it can actually be kind of pretty.



The water has come down quite a bit but we could see the evidence of how high it was. Muck covered the grass between Net 13 and down to Net 10. The vegetation was still pointed in the direction of the flow showing it was probably a couple feet deep even on this higher side of the river. The neighbor's pond across the property line was still flooded and backed up onto Lake Lotus property.



Two weeks ago we placed new palettes as bridges across a few low spots. The river easily breached the banks there again and were still flowing hard.



And our bridges? 30 yards out in the marsh.



The next pass to Net 21 was flowing freely again just like in September.



All we could do was take a look across the water and see the poles for Net 21 soaking in the river. The last flood left us with a new beach over there. Did that increase or get washed away? Time will tell.



Heading back up the lanes we noticed our random native Coffee plant had set some fruit. Birds love this stuff.



High above our heads, a Black and White Warbler was quickly foraging for bugs in the maples.



A smaller shape was spotted a little higher. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet. We usually start catching them by now but they have stayed in the tree tops this season.



The rangers have another dock farther up the river which is on higher ground. It survived this round of flooding. In a couple areas some trees have fallen from the eroding banks and are busy collecting trash among their branches.



We wrapped up the morning and had a Hermit Thrush waiting for us in Net 2 by the banding table. Thrushes have been very scarce this year even at other banding spots in the state.



On the way home, Andrew stopped to look for Hooded Mergansers in Maitland Center. There were a few mingling with the Mallards but mostly stayed in the shadows. Every now and then one or two would drift out into the sunshine.



Male Hooded Mergansers are the showy ones but the females are still attractive. In the light you can make out all of the subtle color changes they wear.



Maybe the rain will hold off for us and we can get back out to the end of the lanes next week and assess the new river channel formed by the new sediment.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, December 7th.
All nets will be opened by 6:35 A.M.