Session 8 Ends

It was a nice day to be out on our final morning of Session 8. As expected, we only captured local birds. Completely typical this time of year and why we stop for June and July. The first Carolina Wren of the day escaped before getting into a bag but we got a second soon afterwards. A juvenile.



Next up was a new female Northern Cardinal. Where are all of these new birds coming from?



Things are a bit drier around as Tropical Storm Bonnie cruised up to South Carolina and pulled most other moisture away from us. Still, it was plenty wet out by the lake and prevented us from reaching the shore. Not much out on the lake, anyway.



Cicadas started calling early and though the mosquitoes were not too bad, there were plenty of dragonflies around to hunt them.



Many dry runs later Richard and Christine did catch something. A Leopard Frog. We have now caught two in the past two weeks. No, we can't band them...



As we were taking nets down for the Summer break, a male Northern Cardinal flew into Net 17. We first banded this bird just a few months ago. Sorry for the poor shots as we left the point and shoot at home. Doh!



On the way home, Andrew stopped over to the ranger's office to remind them we were done for a while. Frank mentioned a new visitor to the office. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird has set up a nest right outside their window.



She returned as they watched the nest with a bit of fluff to rest the eggs in a nice pillow. Hummingbird nests are primarily constructed of lichen and spider web and other fluffy, soft material.



Frank and Andrew retreated to the office for a while to give her space to get back to work and she finally returned to sit in the cup. This shot is from within the office.



They snuck outside to get a different angle but the light wasn't that great. It is still great to find this tiny bird on her tiny nest and young birds should be appearing in a couple of weeks.



The Moon followed us home. It was an interesting Session 8. Time to take final data and send it to the lab and compare this year's catches to all of the previous ones.



We will be back from time to time to do maintenance and then prepare for Session 9 on the first Sunday of August. This was a very wet Session from beginning to end. What will next year bring? Can't wait to find out.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 14th.
All nets will be opened by 6:21 A.M.

CSI: Lake Lotus

The title of this post will be resolved near the end. Interesting day in the long run but nothing too out of the ordinary. Except for the reason for the title. Anyway...!

Not too bad of a start. Birds were calling early, way before dawn. Even Great-crested Flycatchers were calling in the dark and all the way back in Orlando, Blue Jays were calling before 5 AM. Odd. At Lotus, we had a nice moonrise not long after dawn.



We watched a Brown Thrasher escape the nets at 7 AM but managed to capture another later on. A Northern Cardinal was recaptured a bit later. We also got a couple more Gray Catbirds, probably the last of this season.



Titmice began calling and moving through the trees. One was captured while another called above wondering what was taking so long for its companion to rejoin the foraging. By the way, Titmice bite REALLY hard.



Richard did another check of the nest boxes. Though no birds were found nesting this week, we got probably the cutest Flying Squirrel shot ever taken.



As the morning was drawing to a close, Ivana helps Christine extract a Carolina Wren as Andrew heads to the end of the net lanes.



Once there, Andrew found another Carolina Wren in the nets to round out the bird captures for the day.



This particular Wren thought it was a Bittern for some reason and spent most of its time pointing North.



This time of year always provides more than just birds. Maria got a bunch of photos of insects found along the trail. Here, a Gulf Fritillary sips on a flower in the early light.



Out in the brighter Sun, a dragonfly pauses for a break before chasing more mosquitoes.



Last week we had a bunch of pupa on a Nightshade plant and it took a while to hunt down the species. This week we found the adults which lead to a positive ID. They are Blue-banded Lema Leaf Beetles!



Nearby, another beetle was discovered. This one is a Cottonwood Leaf Beetle.



Then, there was a caterpillar found near the river. Appears to be a Lateral Lined Army Moth (Spodoptera Latifascia).



On to the CSI explanation. Fair warning, if you are at all squeamish, please read no further. Just know that we will be back out next Sunday around 5:30 AM.

Still here? K.

Recent rains have brought down more trash into the river. The Little Wekiva actually starts way up in Orlando and many water ways drain into this small river that leads to Lake Lotus. Every now and then we get a lot of trash flowing into the river system and a lot of it gets tangled up in the the trees that have fallen across the river. Some as recent at from Tropical Storm Fay just before we began banding here.

Today there was a very large collection of trash noticed down below the banding table.



This fallen tree is actually the bridge that the Black Bears used to cross back and forth from the woods and the park proper. Tempting as it is, though, none of us is willing to walk out and try to clean things up. The water is actually very deep right behind the tree trunk.

Andrew did go down to start pulling some trash out of the water. Tadpoles hugged the shoreline but there was a smell in the air. A dead fish was found but this smell held something else about it.

Eventually, a glance just behind the trash line revealed another source of the odor. A severed limb of a mammal.



Further investigation makes us think that is may have belonged to an otter. Alligators live in the lake but remainders of prey shouldn't end up 'up' river. There are other lakes that lead to the river so who knows where this actually came from.



Info has been sent on to the rangers in case they have more thoughts. A weird end to the day but another proven case that there is always something to discover out here in this small area of a fairly urban area.

Next week may have us discovering more clues about nearly anything.
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Next Banding Day: Sunday, May 9th.

We will open around 6:10 A.M.