"W" is for...

...Wet.

Apparently, it rained hard overnight in the Lake Lotus area. Morning skies were completely clear before dawn but the property was saturated and did not really dry out all morning. Not a good situation for banding in our experience. Birds tend to stay tucked away, unless they are rubbing against the soaked leaves to bathe like Hummingbirds were doing. Otherwise, we were soggy.



We did not hear many birds throughout the morning. Our one (!) banded bird was a super worn molting female Northern Cardinal. She has seen better dresses but is coming out of Mommy mode so she will be much prettier soon.



Then things got quiet. We did catch a juvenile Carolina Wren, but it escaped the bag on the way back to the table. However, it flew up to a snag nearby and made Andrew notice something up in the vegetation above. A large Air Potato vine was reaching up about 40 feet high and it seemed to be trailing something underneath. Andrew hauled it out of the tree and was surprised to find it was flowers hanging there.

We have observed Air Potato in the area for more than a decade and none of us have ever seen one blooming. Seemed they only spread by tubers, which is mainly true, but those had to start from somewhere, right. Chicken and egg thing. Potatoes come from somewhere and the ones you get in the store do bloom.

Time for research! According to the IFAS Extension of the University of Florida: "Although air potato rarely flowers in Florida, the plant can produce small, fragrant flowers that arise from the leaf axils and grow in loose clusters up to four inches long. Male and female flowers are found on separate plants. No fruits or male flowers have ever been observed in Florida."

Interesting.



The Air Potato Beetles are appearing in larger numbers in many areas of the property. They need to catch up!



One of our resident Limpkin was near the marsh just across the fence and wandering to and fro. No calling this morning.



There were many Grasshoppers hanging out on the wet grasses waiting to dry out, like this brown one. So many species, so little time for research this week...



The wooded area behind the net lanes have undergone big changes over the Summer. Grape vines have covered vast swathes of the forest floor and many old snags and branches have fallen during the many storms in the past few months. Where you find downed tree material, you soon find fungus feeding on it.



Nearby, an Orb weaver (probably a Tropical Orb weaver) was enjoying a late morning meal. Closer inspection revealed it to be the last of some dragonfly species.



There are several patches of Sensitive Briar spreading throughout the lanes and back in the pine flat woods. This one was being visited by a metallic green bee.



We are going to end with a great collection of Kate's macro work this morning among the grasses. Not a ton of time to track down exact species, so if anyone knows then we can update later.

We do recognize Earwigs. Don't see them all the time as they shuffle around in the leaf litter, but we remember being terrified by them as children while exploring in the woods. Not dangerous. So they say...



Another spider for the morning. Looks related to Long-jawed Orb-weavers but hard to tell from this angle. Nice droplet web, though.



A two-fer! A Grasshopper and Leaf Hopper having a chat. Possibly a Rosemary Grasshopper?



Beetle time! There are a lot of beetles in the state in all colors and shapes. Most of them are overlooked. Kate did not miss them. We could take insect portraits all day, if we chose to.



Ok, maybe a hopper? Too cute to pass up despite those spines!



Beetles have to start somewhere. This one is in the larval stage which looks a lot like Ladybugs before they form their round, spotted carapace.



So...not skunked, but perplexed. Migrants should be in the nets by now. Winds are odd to the North and the Pacific is super stormy while the Atlantic sleeps. Just need one more big gust to shift toward the southeast. Hoping tomorrow starts the more interesting part of the early season.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 19th.
All nets will be opened by 6:25 A.M.

Session 10 Begins

Ah, the beginning of the next Session. Number 10. Lanes are cleared and most of the day was spent clearing some remaining trouble spots, repairing broken net lines and catching the same thing we capture every first week of August: Baby Carolina Wrens. It did rain the night before, so we had a fairly pleasant morning, tempture-wise. No real sauna as we usually find.



We have a new volunteer on site, Melanie, who was given the task of banding the first of our morning Wrens. Nice to have someone to get things rolling as Andrew and Richard were busy repairing lines and sprucing up overgrown areas where we can.



The rain for the past few weeks has caused the Little Wekiva to rise even higher than last year in a consistent fashion. So much so, that Andrew moved Net 23 back toward Net 18. It is now designated Net 24. Chances of reaching the lake at this point are slim to none. As Andrew's Dad used to say, "Slim to none, and Slim left town..." Maybe late Fall, but the water is encroaching closer and closer to the end of the lanes.



It is interesting to look at past data and see that, almost exclusively, all we band during the first week of August are juvenile Wrens. Typically, we catch 3. This year it was a total of 5, so species seems to being doing well this year.



Another task we set to is looking for Air Potato Beetles. Last week we found only signs that they were in the area since leaves were being eaten. Today we found many adults all over the property. This bad photo shows one hiding under the foliage.



Our last bird was the 5th Carolina Wren of the morning. The main crew was there, and Melanie is 3rd from the right. Thanks, again, Melanie! We look forward to your help in the future.



Records show that migrants arrive next week. Mostly early warblers. Time to gear up for real science. Just get those spiders out of our face for a bit, please.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 12th.
All nets will be opened by 6:25 A.M.

Preparing for Session 10

Time to get readied for the next Session at Lake Lotus. Session 10, in fact. Can't believe it has been so long since we first opened nets on this wonderful property. The past year was a bit dicey with rain and hurricanes dominating and restricting many weekends so we hope this year is a bit drier. However, it is not looking that promising yet. In fact, rains yesterday have begun to flood the lake end of the lanes already. More on that later.

We arrived early. The temperatures were not oppressive as the rain left a cooling air first thing. Andrew began the day at 6:30 by beginning clean up on the out of the way nets that could not be reached by the rangers. Those rangers did a fantastic job mowing the lanes throughout the property in the past couple of weeks, by the way.



Richard changed his mind and decided to help out with the minimal spruce-up. His native plantings are doing very well this year. The Yaupon Holly, particularly, is exploding in foliage and berries and should provide food and forage for years to come.



Kate showed up about the same time and helped weed out some of the vegetation. There is maybe a bit more Air Potato growth this year but there are signs of the beetles clearing some areas so we hope they catch up as the month wears on. Muscadine Grape is getting a tad pesky, again.



Susan and Phyllis hacked away in another section of the lanes like Net 14. Grasses are very healthy. Last year, Hurricane Irma flooded them before the Indigo Buntings could take advantage of the seeds. Perhaps we can be spared this year and be able to capture and band more buntings.



Christine made it down to Net 23 and reported it was flooded. It was not on Andrew's visit last week. This new breach in the river bank is much like the one farther down that made us abandon Net 21.



That past view matched this one and now the first breach is a full on flood leading toward the lake. Executive decision: Good-bye Net 23, welcome Net 24 which will be set back toward Net 18 next week. We never caught much in 23, anyway. Wind comes through the wrong way.



We have a trail cam that we check from time to time and after our meeting with the new rangers they revealed the fact that they also added a cam near ours. Not sure exactly what they are looking for as it is set fairly high on the tree. Perhaps to identify people that are wandering over without permission. Like the guy jogging down the trail past Andrew before he left for the morning...?



Back behind the banding table, several blossoms were spotted among the small oak seedlings. We are leaning toward Ipomoea pandurata (eep-oh-MEE-uh pand-yoor-RAY-tuh) while doing basic searches.



We took a longer break for Summer this year and are looking forward to a new Session. We are getting invitations for more demos at festivals in the future so who knows what we will discover in the next 10 months. Stay tuned!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 5th.
All nets will be opened by 6:20 A.M.

Session 9 is Officially Over

Scheduling and rain chances have me canceling banding for the end of Session 9. Many Life events are happening this month along with increased rain chances for Sunday morning. I thought long and hard for the past week and had to make a choice. If only I was retired and could do banding at my own pace...

When I can, I will try to recap the past Session here and then we will make plans to get ready for Session 10 starting in the first week of August. Thanks to all of our great volunteers and visitors over the past nine months. It was great to share memories with all of you as we banded through many enjoyable mornings. Hurricane Irma was not too nice to us, spoiling all of our Indigo Bunting weeks and still has part of Lake Lotus boardwalks out of service.

Now to do inventory, get ready for trail maintenance, and rest up for an exciting Session 10!

P.S. I HATE WIND!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 5th.
All nets will be opened by 6:20 A.M.

No Banding May 6th

Scheduling and rain chances have me canceling banding for the 6th. Next week it is!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 13th.
All nets will be opened by 6:05 A.M.

Migrants Winding Down but Babies All Over

As April winds down, we caught a lot of local birds and some migrants moving North to their breeding grounds. Our first bird of the day was a Gray Catbird.



Next up was a female Northern Cardinal.



A nice surprise for the morning was a female Black-throated Blue Warbler.



Next up was a female Northern Cardinal.



One of the remaining Ovenbirds for the season was captured. A little late for them to be here, but we will take it.



The most surprising catch of the day was a juvenile Northern Cardinal just out of the nest. This is the youngest Cardinal we have ever banded. Its Mom escaped the net as it was being extracted but the caterpillar meant for consumption was in the same net. We took the chick back to the same area as soon as it was banded.



Flowers are abundant now that we are in April. A nice break from the browns of late Spring.



It is kind of hard to see, but Andrew found a Northern Cardinal feeding babies in a nest among dried Skunk Vine by Net 21.



Just below the nest, a Grass Carp was clipping at blades of grass hanging over the river, slowly rising up to take bites.



The day wrapped up nicely with a male Black-throated Blue Warbler.



Rains are moving in so we might miss a week. Then we move into a lot of local birds for the last month of the banding season.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 13th.
All nets will be opened by 6:05 A.M.

Earth Day is April 22nd

With a heavy heart, I have decided to NOT band at the Lake Lotus Earth Day event. Rains are forecast for the majority of the day accompanied by high winds. Chances of catching birds and telling others about it seem low. When folks see a rainy forecast for the day I would bet that most will not venture out to the park in the first place. Oh, well. We will try to be at our regular spot next week.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 29th.
All nets will be opened by 6:15 A.M.

Preparing for Earth Day

It was the weekend before our Earth Day demos and Andrew headed over to the park to scout the situation since Hurricane Irma damaged some areas usually used for net sites. It was fairly quiet until a noisy Prothonotary Warbler made an appearance behind the fishing pier.



Mama American Alligator was in front of the pier soaking in the sunlight. Far across the lake, a male was bellowing in search of a mate.



Near the Window on the Lake, a male Anhinga in full breeding plumage takes some time to dry its feathers.



From that point on, the boardwalk is still closed off in a couple of places due to needed repair after Hurricane Irma.



Many large oaks came crashing down in several areas of the boardwalk. The rangers are steadily making progress on fixing the closed sections when they can.



Just before the playground, a nice large Tiger Swallowtail grabs a few rays of light.



We opened the nets for our regular Sunday outing and soon had an Ovenbird in hand. All of the migrants we captured today revealed traces of fat stores, showing that they are bulking up before their trip North.



Gray Catbirds are certainly getting restless and we captured a couple during the morning. Most were staying closer to the river and grabbing Nightshade berries one after another.



Northern Cardinals are out and about, too. This recaptured male was first banded 2 1/2 years ago.



Mock Bishop's Weed (Ptilimnium capillaceum) is spreading all around Net 18 and up the path to Net 10.



Another strikingly colored adult Ovenbird was banded as the winds continued to increase, lowering our chances of catching more birds.



Our final bird of the day was a female Northern Cardinal.



Out in the marsh across from Net 23, baby American Alligators were enjoying their time in the warmth.



We only had Opossums, a ranger, and a few Raccoon trip the trail cam during the week. The only exception was this small-looking Bobcat passing by in the daytime.



We are looking forward to banding during Earth Day next weekend. However, there are some extended forecasts already calling for rain and more wind. Stay tuned...
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 22nd.
All nets will be opened by 7:30 A.M. but the park does not open until 8:30 to the general public.