Storm Watch

Tropical Storm Isaac was closing in on the edge of southern Florida but the radar indicated that we could probably get our day of banding in before the rain arrived. All we needed was a few hours on this Sunday morning. A large batch of storms were being pushed toward Central Florida ahead of the tropical weather so we headed out, fingers crossed.

We were secretly hoping for some sort of fall-out ahead of the weather but it was not to be. We began the day with a couple of Carolina Wrens and then things grew quiet. As we were setting nets in the dark we could see the reflections of barricades across the river. Odd. Just after daylight, Rangers Frank and Gary stopped by to ask if we had seen the dock. Nope. But on clearer inspection...



The dock is part of the new school programs being developed for the park by the rangers and children will get a chance to sample the waters, its flow rates, and other data during their field trips visits. Looks promising. Might provide some good views of gators from time to time, also.

Another item not noticed in the dark was a very large fungi along the net lanes.



Just how large? Here is a shot with Andrew's simple cell phone laid upon it. The phone is 4 1/4 inches so this fungi is about 8 inches across!



Out near the pier, a Viceroy Butterfly flitted along the blades of the Guinea Grass.



The rest of our day was pretty uneventful and we were wondering if we could even make our last year's date of 3 birds. Fortunately, some Downy Woodpeckers were foraging along the mouth of the river and helped us beat our record of 2011 of this week. Susan was busy with a couple of clingy birds before we headed back to the table.



The interesting thing was that we caught two females but the male was basically oblivious to their calls and continued to feed through the willows.



At least he provided some good photo ops as we got the females into bags.



Back at the table, we banded the woodpeckers and took the youngest back to where Dad was for release.



As we ended our day, we discovered some fun insects like this Webworm Moth on some branches.



Bob made a find right near the table that made us all pause. It was a small Stink Bug with a nearly smiling face on its back. Still trying to decide on the exact species.



While Andrew got the photos of the Stink Bug, he noticed a grasshopper hiding nearby. The antennae were three times as large as the critter itself.



Nets were gathered and the rain hit just as we got to our cars. Great timing. We should have a better weather next week and the counts should improve during our next attempts. Gearing up for a couple weeks from now when a larger amount of migrants flow through.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 2nd.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Migrants Return

A good mix of birds were seen today and we finally had the return of some expected migrants. Of course, we have our locals to round up and we caught a couple of new Carolina Wrens, both molting.



We also recaptured a male Northern Cardinal and got a new adult female.



A couple of weeks late, but we were happy to capture some Northern Waterthrushes out near the lake.



We almost walked right past another warbler as we gathered some Waterthrushes. Up at the top of the net was a male Northern Parula. So tiny and beautiful.



Another pleasant surprise was our first Ovenbird of the season. Right on time.



Out in the swampy area next to Net 18 Andrew spied a first time sighting hiding behind the branches. A Prothonotary Warbler was feeding by the water but would not pose for a good photo. Can you find it?



We hoped the bird would fly into the nets but it was not to be. Nor did the other warblers nearby, like this Prairie Warbler.



Our day ended with one more Northern Parula.



Watching the Tropics. We should be able to get through next Sunday but we could have a hurricane on our hands soon afterwards.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 26th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Day 2 A Little Quiet

We had a much quieter day today but the weather was nice. Hot, but nice. Still no Waterthrushes and we only captured local birds today. Carolina Wrens and Cardinals. Our first capture was a male Northern Cardinal we first banded a year and half ago and was going through some head molt.



That Cardinal was captured in our latest net installation. Net 22. It is situated between #16 and #10 and fills a gap we had and should be a good spot for buntings in a month or so.



One of our Carolina Wren captures was one of the babies we banded last week. Guess it hasn't figured out how to avoid the nets. Yet.



Of course, when things get a bit slow we take time to explore the flora and fauna. The Guinea Grass (Panicum maximum) is exploding all along the net lanes and is in full bloom. Should be an abundant supply of seed by the time the migration hits soon.



Despite the heavy grass growth, the Scarlet Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederifolia) continues to find some open spaces to sprinkle the green with bursts of red.



Among the other vegetation, one of the Leaf-legged bug species (Acanthocephala femorata) huddle on the branches of some small oaks and other plants.



Not a lot of activity down by the lake, either. Mainly Queen butterflies and smaller things like this Powdered Dancer damselfly (Argia moesta). This is the first time we have noticed them.



Overhead, a dragonfly rests on the tip of a branch. We will tentatively ID it as a Black Saddledbags (Tramea lacerata).



Hopefully the fronts will shift a bit so we can begin getting the migrants next week.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 19th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Session 5 Begins

We ventured out into the humid first Sunday in August to begin Session 5 at Lake Lotus. We still have some vegetation to deal with as the recent rains have really set of a growth spurt all along the river. Even the rangers say they are having a hard time keeping up on their side.

As the season progresses, bet we see a nice Fall, bird-wise.

As for today, most of our bird captures were locals. Totally expected. Almost every bird we captured was in heavy molt. Our most numerous bird species captured were the Carolina Wrens. Babies are all over the place and males are still singing. We captured a few babies and a proud parent.



Cardinals are fewer in evidence but we did get a female near the lake.



At the same time, we captured one of the huge numbers of Northern Parula that had a very good breeding season this year.



Another excellent bird near the lake found the nets. A Great-crested Flycatcher. It snapped away as we prepared it for release. Always a fun bird to view up close.



Besides wing molting, this birds is molting out tail feathers, as well.



Just as we thought we might not get a migrant for the day, we caught a good one. A female American Redstart! A Black and White Warbler was also observed across the river. Migration is under way.



No Waterthrushes yet. In the past, we have banded them around the 7-8th. Next week should find them back in the park. Can't wait!

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 12th.
All nets will be opened by 6:25 A.M.

Session 4 Annual Report

Just in time to begin Session 5, we present the Annual Report for Session 4. The report contains information about our banding site, a chart of captured and banded birds, photos and stories of our banding events, and links to local birding organizations.



This report is a PDF files (6.3 MB) and can be read online by clicking here. If you wish to read it later, just right-click that link and save to your computer.

We are compiling other data to compare and should have those reports available in the future.

Session 5 begins next Sunday!
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 5th.
All nets will be opened by 6:15 A.M.

Session 4 Ends

Well, that wraps up our latest session, the 4th consecutive at Lake Lotus. Now we take a two month break to escape the heat and let the new broods have free reign over their new home and prepare for Session 5 beginning in August. Session 4 marked some surprises and some good data, all of which will be assembled in our Annual Report which will be made accessible through this site as soon as we compile all the information. A post will be made here once that is available.

First, lets delve into our final day at the nets. We had our share of Northern Cardinals, of course, including several juveniles (new and recaptures) and another adult male and female. The female is shown here.



This time of year always allows us to find some interesting insects as we move about the morning. Our first discovery was made by Susan. It is a Curve-toothed Geometer Moth. Very pretty thing.



Red-eyed Vireos are not uncommon in the area but we don't catch a whole lot of them. Always nice to see that bright red eye and those greens and yellows.



Out near the lake we find more fauna to admire. Green Anoles are being displaced by Cuban Anoles so it is nice to find them in good numbers at the park.



Next to the Anole, an Eastern Pondhawk rests on some grasses.



Then another large dragonfly began zooming up and down the river. Taking photos of dragonflies in flight is always a challenge. Andrew managed one fairly clear shot. Still, the trickier part is getting a good ID when you don't really study them. Luckily, we have friends like Randy and Mary who help confirm or outright find the IDs for us. They tell us that this is a Prince Baskettail.



Dragonflies often get caught in our nets which are sometimes a puzzle to extract but it allows us some close looks at them as we do. This very large dragonfly, a Georgia Rivercruiser, was retrieved from Net 10 and brought back to the table for a photo before release.



It was back at the table when the sunshine drew our attention to a flash of color between the trees. The web of a Spiny Orb Weaver made web-bows in the breeze.



A closer inspection shows the smiley-face pattern on their backs. These are very common in Florida.



Back out near the lake we found this plant flowering. Still trying to get an ID on it. New to us.



Andrew's sons joined him today and the youngest noticed some butterflies he admired. On the walk back to the table we were able to get a shot of one of the many White Peacock Butterflies flying around the riverside.



Nearby, a female Fiery Skipper rests among the Richardia.



Oh, yeah. Birds! Our Bird-of-the-Day was brought back by Christine yelling, "Camera!" as she approached. We cannot band hummingbirds (that requires a special permit) but we do occasionally capture them, get some photos, and then release them.



As is often the case, hummingbirds will rest in your hand for a bit before launching back into the air. This female stayed for about 10 seconds.



So, Session 4 is in the books. We even managed to reach a total of 301 captured birds over our stretch of Sunday's and special demonstrations. We will check the totals for the past Sessions and compare this year to previous ones and post that in the report, as well.

You can also check back in the next few weeks. We are hoping to make some other changes to the blog to include more information that will make it easier for visitors to locate us and more detailed contact info. There are some other demonstration opportunities in the wings next Fall which we will detail later.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, August 5th.
All nets will be opened by 6:15 A.M.

Better Than Expected

Getting into the hotter portion of the year and we had two weeks remaining. What might today bring? Mostly, Cardinals. They made up the bulk of our birds. One of the feistiest was this adult female who had to be given something to bite besides our fingers.



We also netted a few of our other locals, including some Carolina Wrens. No babies yet but nesting adults.



There was a sad discovery along the way. The tree where we found Downy Woodpeckers last week had been broken off during a strong storm that swept through during the week. We found the broken branch where the nest was but no sign of any young birds. Hope they made it out in time.



The adult female was still nearby and seemed to be excavating a new hole or two.



Overhead, in the other direction, a Northern Parula finds a new meal.



A couple of trees down, a fledgling Red-shouldered Hawk calls out for more food.



Richard brought back a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds for us. A male and female. The female was an adult.



We quickly noticed an unusual thing about our new lady. She had only one talon. All of the others were missing. No clue how or when. It was an otherwise completely healthy bird.



Our male was a first Spring bird. Almost in full adult plumage, it still has markings of a younger Red-winged Blackbird.



We end our day with one of our newly fledged Northern Cardinals.



Here is hoping that the weather holds for our final day of Session 4. If it is as good as today then it will be a great way to end before the real heat sets in and we will prepare for Session 5.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 27th.
All nets will be opened by 6:00 A.M.