STA5 Revisited

I had made an afternoon visit to Estero Lagoon earlier in the week with hopes to capture the Green flash in the setting sun.

The Willet above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

No luck with that although I had an enjoyable time nonetheless.

There were no birds in the north lagoon upon my arrival which might be expected under the circumstances.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

A good number of shore and wading birds worked the surf as shelling by humans was observed.

The lores of one Snowy Egret in particular had a brilliant dark pink that can be seen during the breeding season.

The Royal Tern above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

What I believe to be the same pair of Reddish Egret seen a few months ago were present with one of the birds sporting its leucism.

A few Willet meandered by followed by a few Ruddy Turnstone.

The Ruddy Turnstone above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

In addition, a solitary Osprey and a Royal Tern had control of the sky above.

A Brown Pelican arrived in the last light of the day and dove in the water in search of prey.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

After photographing the setting sun, a solitary Roseate Spoonbill was seen actively feeding in the lagoon.

An 18 inch red snake (possibly Red Rat Snake) was seen in the mangroves in the last light of the day.

The Brown Pelican above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

Due to my inability to appropriately plan a visit to STA5, I made a last minute email to Margaret England to advise her of my interest in joining the first Big "O" birding tour of STA5 on the morning of March 23rd.

Upon my arrival a few minutes after sunrise, I was surprised that there were no vehicles at the entrance gate.

The sunset above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in March 2011.

A South Florida Water Management District employee entered STA5 as I waited in anticipation of seeing Margaret greet her visitors to the Stormwater Treatment Area as was the case in February.

As the minutes ticked by I sensed something was wrong.

The Snail Kite juvenile above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

With Snail Kite active in the northeast corner of Cell 1A, I walked to water control structure G-343A which allowed me site of my vehicle and any incoming cars.

The water level in Cell 1B appeared lower to me than I thought I had seen it last month.

The Purple Gallinule above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

If this was indeed the case, it was only a matter of inches and possibly impacting the number of birds which were half those within this cell seen previously.

A water control structure to the east of the entrance to STA5 appeared to have water pumped into Cell 1B near maximum flow.

The scene above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Some bird species certainly favor ideal conditions for them to be present in an area.

This was brought to my attention by Tom Obrock in my first observation of Black-necked Stilt at the Exit 131 Rest Stop on Interstate 75 in late July of 2010.

The Snail Kite juvenile above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Although I observed a handful of the stilts at STA5 in February, it was a treat to see them again this past week.

Shortly after I settled down to observe and photograph the scene, a SFWMD helicopter was apparently making a survey of the area and flushed the stilts from behind tall grasses to my southwest.

The Caspian Tern above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

I had not seen one of these "official" helicopters since an overflight at Bunche Beach Preserve about a year ago.

I was able to count 11 (one is out of frame in the image enclosed) of the birds in the flock before they flew out of view and would not return.

The aircraft above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

In addition to the stilts, as many as 25 Fulvous Whistling-Ducks were seen in flight and was likely my first sighting of the species.

After the helicopter left the scene, the ducks returned either individually or in small groups.

The Green Heron above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

I had never observed so many Green Herons as on this occasion which made low flybys on a frequent basis.

It was a treat to see the male and female Snail Kite with a juvenile while for some reason the male Snail Kite is not seen predictably at Harns Marsh Preserve among the many females of the species there.

The Black-necked Stilt above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Many of the other regular species expected to be seen in the area were present in my few hours of observation at the STA5 water control structure.

Later in the morning I was surprised to see a small caravan of cars approach from what appeared their first lap along the levies.

The Anhinga above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

It was at that point that I knew I wish I were able to have committed to this trip much sooner.

I was impressed to hear that this group of observers had arrived at 6:00am "for sunrise" although it didn't actually occur until about 90 minutes later.

The Fulvous Whistling-Duck above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Sunny conditions predicted for the day were were not seen in the morning with heavy fog and low cloud cover through mid morning.

After the fog burned off the clouds that remained diffused the available light making the long distance photography somewhat of a challenge for focus tracking and sharp images especially considering the necessary heavy crops of the images taken.

The Limpkin above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Although it was my expectation to again explore STA5 on this visit, I'm glad that things happened as they did which gave me the opportunity to have a better understanding of bird behavior in a relatively confined area over a longer period of time at this venue.

I'm looking forward to a return to STA5 next winter.

The Green Heron above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Interesting wildlife news this past week was the report of the sighting of the oldest free flying bird known that is a survivor of the most devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami to strike Japan since records have been kept.

The Laysan albatross seen is believed to be in excess of 60 years of age and was observed supervising its chick within Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge after the disaster.

The Snail Kite above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

The albatross was banded in 1956 with the designation triple O seven as seen in the most recent photograph of the bird.

A great story about the bird and facts about the species may be read here.

The Blue-winged Teal above was photographed at STA5 in March 2011.

Too Many Birds At Ding Darling NWR

The title of this post is made in jest while it's somewhat accurate with regard to my perceptions for bird photography at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge of late.

The Great Egret with White Ibis above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Of course, an early morning visit to the refuge at a low tide is the ideal time to be here for wildlife observation.

At that time, the rising sun will be for the most part behind you as you make your way along Wildlife Drive.

The Roseate Spoonbill above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

To clarify earlier comments made related to the importance of the tidal conditions, it is best to arrive at Ding Darling four to five hours after a low tide at Matanzas Pass timing a visit as close to sunrise as possible.

The time of an ideal low tide will vary depending on the time of year of your visit.

The Ring-billed Gull above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Biting sand gnats can be a nuisance at the Refuge as I've observed in virtually all of my visits, so you may want to have an insect repellent with DEET available.

Please note that if viewing the exif data for any of the photographs taken this week that I failed to change the time ahead an hour in my camera.

The White Pelican above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

I've observed the tide to change this many hours after the low at Water Control Structure 2 with predictability.

My last three visits to the Refuge have been particularly overwhelming in the wildlife seen.

The Roseate Spoonbill above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

This smacks in the face of commentary I've been told or read that there has been a reduction in wildlife observations made in recent years across the state of Florida.

I've given some thought to this perception and what the explanation for it may be.

The White Pelican above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

I have been diligently observing wildlife in southwest Florida for about four years with 12 favorite venues that I visit as regularly as possible.

These southwest Florida venues include Ding Darling, Bunche Beach, Estero Lagoon, Lovers Key, Harns Marsh, Lakes Park, Corkscrew Swamp, Six Mile Cypress, Venice Rookery, Eagle Lakes, Tigertail, and Babcock Webb in no particular order.

The Double-crested Cormorant above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

So what might be the cause for such a negative perception of a wildlife decline?

I can think of a few things that may have different degrees of relevance.

The Great Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Foremost is perhaps the unprecedented back to back hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 when hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne in '04 and Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in '05 undoubtedly devastated countless nesting colonies.

Hurricane Charley is particularly noted as having changed the ecology and topography of Ding Darling NWR.

The Double-crested Cormorant above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Hurricane activity in Florida has fortunately been subdued in more recent years giving wildlife the opportunity to recover with more favorable conditions.

Abnormally cold weather the last two winters has possibly impacted birds favorably in Florida with the '09-'10 fish kill when wading birds gorged themselves earlier than they typically do when water levels are at there lowest before the start of the rainy season.

The Great Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

A comment overheard by a volunteer at Ding Darling noted however that rainfall, whether plentiful or not, has not been a cause of the failure of Wood Stork nesting colonies at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary the last couple of years to the extent that cold weather has been.

Wood Stork have been seen in the Fort Myers area with frequency this winter (though not this past week), particularly at Ding Darling NWR and Harns Marsh Preserve.

The Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

In addition to the above speculated uncontrollable forces, I've made observations that have negative impacts from moment to moment.

Most recently was an observation of a few young kids at Estero Lagoon that were running into a flock of resting birds near the surf.

The playful activity above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in February 2011.

This event reminded me of kids doing the same on the flats at Lovers Key State Park at New Pass with much greater numbers of birds impacted a few years ago.

The lack of parental supervision is disappointingly seen with positive efforts made at Ding Darling noted recently as a bus load of kids passing by were heard educated about the wildlife they could see.

The Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

The education about wildlife has been made in the form of questions like, "What do you see?"

On occasion I've also observed pets that are allowed to run unrestrained by their owners with the dogs as expected attempting to play with wildlife which reacts as you might expect.

The White Ibis above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

I'm not sure the impact of exotic pet release or hunting, but these factors may have notable impact for observations of wildlife as well.

Florida has allowed the hunting of snakes in the Everglades this past year.

The Belted Kingfisher above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

I've encountered an abundance of wildlife during my visits to the venues mentioned in this post with very rare exception.

Ding Darling NWR was my sole focus this week devoting much time along Wildlife Drive at my favored observation point at WCS2 with numerous observations made that were no less than extraordinary.

The Little Blue Heron juvenile above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

As was normal in the moon's cycle, the favored low tides had been getting higher and later in the morning each day.

I believe this was the cause of fewer birds seen overall on each successive visit to the refuge while the most recent visit I found to be the most memorable.

The Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

A Swallow-tailed Kite was seen for the first time this season as it gracefully circled above.

Toward the west near mid-morning I thought I observed smoke rising into the sky, but it was thousands of Tree Swallows upon closer inspection.

The Swallow-tailed Kite above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

There were many opportunities to observe feeding behavior, overflights of birds, and the mere daily routine of the interesting avian creatures.

I was able to photograph for the first time the double crest of a cormorant which is not an easy thing to do even considering how abundant this species is in the area.

The Tree Swallow with egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

An adult Snowy Egret was not tolerant of a juvenile that was within its territory.

A distinctive waterfowl observed flying with a pair of Mottled Duck would be identified as the rarely seen Northern Shoveler at the Refuge.

The Northern Shoveler above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

And perhaps the most exhilarating experience was an overflight of about a hundred Willet that strafed me at less than ten feet from behind.

The allure of Indigo Trail has been incredibly enticing, though yet to be explored.

The Willet above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Too many birds at the refuge has been my concern for a photograph of the wildlife without a distraction in an image taken of a particular subject ideally engaging in behavioral action.

I'm not a fan of manipulating photographs beyond traditional means though desperately need to learn how to add canvas to an image which I hope to do in the near future.

The Double-crested Cormorant above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

For returning visitors to my blog, I hope you find the new look appealing.

I'm grateful to Tim Rucci for his help with my Pbase style sheet while attempting to emulate it in this blog.

The Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of timing visits to venues nearby the Gulf of Mexico for the most part at a low or near low tide.

If you fail to do this, you may end up being disappointed.

The Brown Pelican above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in March 2011.

Mockingbird Nocturnal Audio

As I've mentioned before, the documentation of bird behavior is becoming a greater interest of mine.

The Reddish Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

Normally I would be presenting images here taken this past week, but due to much time spent doing research and recording birdsong as opposed to photographing wildlife, the images are for the most part from my previous week's trip to Ding Darling NWR.

In the last six weeks or so, there has been interesting nighttime activity of birds that have been making brief stops near my residence for a few days at a time or less.

The Great Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

This week involved a bird not seen until the third day when I put the beam of a flashlight into the tree to determine the species making the racket.

After determining the bird to be Northern Mockingbird, I had thoughts of the video of the Sir Attenborough study of the Superb Lyrebird in Southern Australia.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The Lyrebird is noted to remarkably imitate upwards of 20 other bird species, a car alarm, a camera's shutter mechanism, and a chainsaw cutting the forest within its surroundings.

While I'm very unlikely ever to see or hear the Lyrebird firsthand, another bird species that is perhaps equally as interesting is the appropriately named Northern Mockingbird.

The Tricolored Heron above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The mockingbird and starling are species of bird that are adept imitators.

I often see the Northern Mockingbird in my efforts to observe wildlife but rarely hear its call.

The Red-breasted Merganser above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The Northern Mockingbird is the state bird of Florida and four other states.

The male mockingbird is commonly known to be heard at night (unlike most other bird species I'm aware of) with its song certainly an effort to attract a mate.

The White Pelican above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The recording of bird song with high tech recording equipment that I had anticipated engaging in during retirement is unexpectedly underway with nothing more than my cell phone and computer.

Recording attempts were made over several nights ranging from minutes to over an hour where through practice I was able to figure out what I was doing.

The Pied-billed Grebe above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

One 30 minute attempt was met with failure as I accidentally turned off the recorder when I placed the phone strategically in the tree's branches.

With a total of about two hours of mockingbird recording under my belt within a half dozen files, I began my investigation of a way to offer the best and longest recording to you here.

The Red-breasted Merganser above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The drone of distant automobile traffic was regretfully unavoidable even at two o'clock in the morning.

I am impressed with how Birdjam presents its audio capability and asked them if I could emulate their service.

The Ring-billed Gull above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

I received a prompt reply advised to utilize Youtube as an entry level approach.

That wasn't considered the best help, so I began research on other options of having an audio file of the mockingbird's song accessible here.

The Snowy Egret juvenile above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

A lot of time was spent with a solution determined if you ever have an interest in uploading an audio file created by a cell phone.

The phone's AMR file conversion to a computer friendly one I was unsure of.

The Double-crested Cormorant above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

Conversion to an MP3 file verses a WAV file was decided upon due to the former reportedly usable with more computer programs.

It may have been a poor choice as the 76 minute AMR audio file at just over 7MB of memory converted to 105MB which seems like a comparatively awful waste of space.

The Red-breasted Merganser above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

My conversion of the AMR file to MP3 was made by a program provided by Miksoft which I highly recommend for its speed and simplicity.

I will return to Miksoft to make a donation for their resourceful product.

The Ring-billed Gull above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

Then was the decision that had to be made of the host for the file where I investigated four options other than Youtube.

I first looked into Fileden which I frequently see affiliated with many of the musical songs that are incorporated into the Playlist gadget seen here.

The Reddish Egret above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

This is where I wasted most of my time as I encountered a "fatal" error when attempting to become a member.

I really like the slick appeal and "simplicity" of Uploadrobots, but hit a snag there when the MP3 file size of the Northern Mockingbird recording couldn't be uploaded with the constraints of their free service.

The White Pelican above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

Filedropper was also investigated where I reached the point where a file became available to "download."

Since I know you don't want to do that, I then had the best impression with 4shared.

The Reddish Egret with Double-crested Cormorant above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The upload of the relatively large audio file transferred at 4shared extremely quickly in comparison to Fileden.

Well, let's get back to the mockingbird.

The Osprey above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The bird was very entertaining to study and hopefully worth your interest in listening to.

I've found the bird that had chosen to perch in a tree closest to me to be stunningly varied in its song.

The mixed shorebirds above were photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

This bird was the most adept with two of his competitors heard at greater distances clearly not having anywhere near the diversity of song.

The Northern Mockingbird male is thought to have between 50 and 200 songs in its repertoire.

The Red-breasted Merganser above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

With my longest recording at over an hour, I haven't had the time to determine if the bird repeats its song within it.

I wish I were more more knowledgeable of song and calls of different species as I can only recognize a handful of them in the recording and hope you can help identify them all.

The Red-breasted Merganser above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.

The image of the band of Bald Eagle 862 is presented below as promised with another angle of it offering additional detail.

The juvenile eagle should be near ready to take flight from its nest with no competition for food from a sibling as observed this year.

The Bald Eagle above was photographed at Lovers Key State Park at Big Carlos Pass in January 2011.

Please consider enjoying the song of the Northern Mockingbird by pressing play at far left of the gadget below . . .



The Little Blue Heron above was photographed at J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in February 2011.