Florida Fall

Our most popular capture today was the 'Winter Leaf Bird'. Welcome to Florida Fall. For those outside of the state, let us explain...

In Northern climes, "Fall" happens before Winter as all of the deciduous trees shed their leaves and grow dormant. In Florida, the dominant oaks wait until late Winter to begin new growth and then push all of the dead leaves off of their branches en masse. A bit of wind, and the day sounds like rain as all of the dead leaves fly about and loads of leaves land in our nets. Most of the day is spent removing them.

The morning actually began with the first flying creature in Net 1. A Brown Bat. Some of the crew headed back to the table to get gloves but Andrew decided not to wait and, with the help of Jenny, extracted the bat as carefully as possible.



Gray Catbirds have been few and far between. Our first bird was a recaptured one.



In the adjoining net was a recaptured Carolina Wren.



Cherry Laurel are in full bloom as is the few Black Cherry trees along the river.



Out near the lake, Swamp Dock is exploding where we used to have Net 21. The seen birds here are very different from the birds found up the lanes but their numbers are still fewer than in the past years.



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



Cold fronts are swinging through, hopefully wringing out the last of the oak leaves, and then we can get some migrants as they start to head North.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, March 3rd.
All nets will be opened by 6:20 A.M.

Locals Getting Restless

No fog, today, thankfully. But not a lot of migrants around. Some flying over, but other than that...

Most of our day was filled with recaptured Carolina Wrens, all juveniles banded in 2018 and roaming the lanes like crazy.



Christine had a couple of visitors from the UK, Sakkara and Jonathan, join us and got a tour of the banding process.



Also joining us were Melinda and Ron who got to release a few of our Carolina Wrens.



This female Northern Cardinal was actually recaptured threes times today. Seems that she is nest building and moving all over the center of the lanes. Her brood patch (and nasty attitude) seem to confirm our thoughts. She was biting everything in sight.



Just at the end of the day, we finally captured a migrant. A recaptured Ovenbird.



Local birds all over the area think we have hit Spring. No wonder since we are in the solid mid-80s for a while. February usually sees at least one cold snap, but the forecast is not looking like it this year. We shall see how many other local and scarce migrants move around next Sunday.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, February 24th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Another Month, More Fog

Back to the site after 2 weeks down due to bad weather. Should be nice, right? Nope. More fog greeted us and lasted al morning. The only difference was Jenny and Andrew being serenaded by Limpkin and frogs before dawn.

One thing that fog does is expose all of the Bowl and Doily spider webs up and down the lanes.



Most of our bird captured today were recaptures, starting off with a Gray Catbird first banded just over a year ago.



Next up, one of our juvenile Carolina Wrens banded last August.



The next recap was a female Northern Cardinal first banded earlier in the year.



As we closed up. Susan brought back our first new bird for the day. An Eastern Palm Warbler. Warbler and other species have been way down in numbers this year. This is the first 'butter butt' we have had all season.



On the way out of the banding site, Connie nearly stepped on a Glass Lizard sunning along the path. It froze as we all walked up and took photos with cell phones.



Andrew picked up the Glass Lizard, much to Jenny's dismay, and we got a few more shots before it was released back into the woods.



Weather is 50/50 for next weekend. Stay tuned.

Note: See, told ya! No banding this week due to forecast rain and wind.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, February 17th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Back to the Drought

Well, the fog is gone, again, but so are most of the birds. Many species were seen around the property in the marsh and high in the trees. Still, they did not drop lower into the net zones.

We did get a recaptured Carolina Wren just after dawn. Another of our juveniles banded in this past Summer.



See those beautiful cottony clouds? Just below that is and arching oak that many birds use to travel just above nets 9 and 13 to forage. The entire Titmouse family is up there along with over warblers and kinglets. They chose not to play lower today.



So, when there are few birds in the nets, we explore to see where they are. Again, they were closer to the lake. A Blue-headed Vireo has been hanging out near the end of the lane for weeks and todayy it was busy feeding against the light where the old Net 21 used to be.



A male Downy Woodpecker soon chased the Vireo out of the way to explore the trees around the area.



Our other captured bird was a recaptured female Northern Cardinal, also banded last August.



Richard decided it was time to extract rebar from the old poles that had them stuck inside while we had time. Teamwork came together with Kate, Susan, and Richard holding the pole as Andrew pounded another piece of rebar into the long end to get the stuck one out. Sparks flew, folks held tight, and Susan protected her hearing throughout. Much success!



Andrew took a long way through the woods and flushed the Barred Owl pair trying to hide out.



The Limpkin pair were chasing each other all morning and at one point they flew straight at Andrew near the lake. You cannot mistake their calls, which often begin before dawn.



Nets are always half-full in our minds, but migrants are noticably missing this year. We hope to get more birds next week as some folks might be visiting for the Lake Apopka Festival. However, rains might derail any banding at all this week as a cold front charges through during the weekend. Rain is forecast most of Sunday as of this writing. Stay tuned if we are banding or not late in the week.

Note: No banding January 20th and 27th due to the forecast of rain and high winds.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, February 3rd.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Finally, No Fog

Finally, a morning devoid of fog. Winds have shifted and brought back clear skies as new front pushes down from the North. For now, that means a bit more wind and less humidity.

This season has seen very few thrushes. no Swanson's at all for the first time ever. Just when we were worrying about them, we recaptured two Hermit Thrush during the morning.



Most of our juvenile Carolina Wrens that get recaptured nearly every week are now back in the woods, so it was nice to get a new youngster this day.



Gray Catbirds were very active today, almost restless. They made up the bulk of our birds today. All juveniles.



We ended the day with a male Northern Cardinal.



Still searching for Winter birds. Most seem lacking all over the state. A few Myrtle Warblers would make the weekend more fun. Where are the Cedar Waxwings?
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, January 13th.
All nets will be opened by 6:50 A.M.

Son of Super Fog

Last weekend of 2018 and we have another week of heavy fog greeting us as we set nets in the dark. That means fewer birds for the day, in our observations, mainly due to moistures keeping insects down and sunlight making birds stay up in the treetops to grab caterpillars. Overall, though, bird numbers seems way down this year in general.

While setting the last nets of the morning, Andrew was met by a new visitor, Mary, who was asked to hold the first bag of the day which contained an Eastern Screech Owl as he got the remaining nets in place. Back at the table, Mary was tasked with holding the owl's foot as Andrew applied the lock-on band.



Eastern Screech Owls have two different feather colors: Red and gray. This one seems to be more reddish.



Things quickly grew quiet, as expected. Here are our Florida Winter woods.



Nearly 4 hours later, while we were getting ready to head out, we did catch a previously banded Gray Catbird



Mary waited all morning with us and got to release our Gray Catbird. At least there was that.



It has been quite awhile since we have seem many American Alligators in the river. One spot we used to see them was just beneath the table where there used to be a sand bar. That has been taken over by a lot of grasses and there is not much sand there anymore. Still, Christine found Pat, one of our frequent gators, perched just out of the river today.



We are still wondering where all of the birds are this year. Definitely not around here. Very few butter-butts. Very few warblers at all. Cedar Waxwings are only being heard singularly. This is the first week we saw larger flocks of American Robins. Too quiet. Maybe next week?
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, January 6th.
All nets will be opened by 6:50 A.M.

Super Fog

This may have been the foggiest start to any morning in our Lotus history. It was very thick before dawn and getting thicker while setting nets.

Barred Owls were heard calling in the dark near the cars and even by the sunrise, the view was rather bleak.



The dawn chorus was loud enough, but we only caught a Carolina Wren previously banded earlier in the year. One of our new juveniles born here this year.



Our most recent visitor, Cindy, took our advice and arrived just after dawn and got to release our teenage Carolina Wren after records were taken.



The rest of the day was spent searching the area for birds. The fog never burned off, but the Maple still stood out in the gloom. Florida does not have real Fall changes like this, so we enjoy the splash of color when we can.



The only other interesting view of the day was a female Downy Woodpecker digging into a snag by Net 5. Hoping that she is making a nest for the next generation.



Our next banding day will be December 30th to ring in the New Year.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, December 30th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.

Quiet. Yet, the New Normal.

Colder temps came and went since last week. We were waking to the upper 30s during the week but are back to the mid-80s today. Such is Florida weather. We will dip again some next week and then finally settle into seasonal temperatures for the foreseeable future. We will welcome highs in the 70s for a bit.

Bird-wise, it was slow. Not many birds heard or seen for most of the day. Early on, we did start the morning with an adult male Common Yellowthroat. Many others were heard out in the marsh and near the lake.



Then we spent quite a while waiting for other birds to fly through. The entire Titmouse family had been hanging up below the banding table all morning. Finally, we got one of the recaptured members at Net 15. He was an angry little guy, constantly pecking at Andrew's finger tips.



While watching a Barred Owl, we found a pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers tapping away on their favorite wintering trees.



Along the neighbor's fence, there is still a lot of green popping up unlike the fungus we featured last week. All of those structures have declined, nearly completely.



Christine and Andrew were wandering the lanes and Christine found a new bloom near Net 13. It took them a couple minutes to recall that is was a Mistflower, seen here occasionally over the years.



As the day was winding down, we got our last bird of the day. A Northern Cardinal first banded earlier in the year.



Andrew went home on the search of Hooded Mergansers but only found a few Sandhill Cranes resting at Maitland Center. Two were resting on the lawn but the other was standing on point next to them.



The Sandhill Cranes were right next to the lot and made for nice, close shots. The last shots was more of a "Don't even think about it!" kind of look.



On the way out of the Center, a couple of birds flew up in front of the car. Seems a small flock of American Goldfinch were taking advantage of the puddles to grab a drink before heading off for more feeding opportunities.



We wrapped the day with three birds in hand. Looking at the past data, that is the norm for the past few years. 2015 had 7 birds on this date. Seems the numbers keep going downward. Hmmm...

And, one more thing...KNIGHTS WIN! Orlando's Hometown Team has gone two straight years undefeated and AAC Champions!!! Where is the love, NCAA?



NOTE: No banding this weekend. Forecasts are looking bleak. Going to give them the benefit of the doubt this time. Could be strong at anytime. We will try for the 16th and then take a break for the holidays.
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, December 16th.
All nets will be opened by 6:40 A.M.