Date: 7/15/25 9:19 am From: 'Keith' via NFLbirds <nflbirds...> Subject: Re: [NFLbirds] Winter Wren - Easy tick near I-10
Hey Bob,
That sounds like an amazing birding trip! Ponce De Leon State Park sounds like a great spot to check out – thanks for the detailed directions! 129 species at St. Marks is incredible; you guys really hit the jackpot. A Violet-green Swallow – wow, a potential state record! That’s fantastic news. Even with less-than-perfect photos, what a find! I'm definitely adding St. Marks to my list – it sounds like a must-visit. Thanks again for sharing your adventures and the great tips!
Keith
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Monday, December 30, 2024, 11:07 AM, Lucy and Bob Duncan <robertaduncan...> wrote:
Hi,
Anyone traveling on I-10 between Pensacola and Tallahassee who wants to see this species can try for it at Ponce De Leon State Park right off I-10 near DeFuniak Springs. Thursday my family and I had 3 birds there. Lucy and I usually find it each time we try every winter. The park is about a mile or two from the highway and there is a small entrance fee. Walk to the spring and take the trail behind it which winds along the creek. It's just a short distance to where the birds respond. It's a quick and easy effort though not always but usually successful. We also had one at Marianna Caverns State park.
The Duncan Birding Machine (named by Greg Jackson), Lucy, Scot, Will, Caralyn and Wren (age 12 and a good birder) and I, spent all day birding St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. It never disappoints. We had 129 spp. Noteworthy birds were Black & White-winged Scoters, White-faced Ibis, Purple Gallinule, American Flamingo (present for several weeks), Wood Stork, Short-eared Owl, Bachman's Sparrow (Appalachicola NF en route).
The best bird was found by Scot at the Picnic Pond, a swallow which we watched for about 15 minutes. It had a white rump and was originally thought to be Mangrove Swallow but the consensus among experts concluded it was a female Violet-green Swallow. Photos were taken but there was a low gray overcast and they were not the best. They did not show a dark line down the middle of the white rump. We all got to study it but under suboptimal conditions. It would be a first documented state record if accepted by the FOSRC!
It was a great trip and the seafood at Posey's was as good as ever! I'm up to 129 spp on my "Over 90" list in only 20 days effort! Go to St. Marks and have a great birding experience.
Bob DuncanGulf Breeze, Fl
Date: 7/7/25 2:38 pm From: Don Morrow <donaldcmorrow...> Subject: [NFLbirds] Encounter with a Shrike
Thunderstorm winds have strewn unripe wild grapes and overripe black
cherries on the trails I walk. Along those trail edges, the small flowers
of bittermint are attracting solitary bees. In wetlands, spicebush
swallowtails are feeding on the globular flowers of buttonbush. Juvenile
Brown-headed Cowbirds have deserted their foster parents and are flocking
with adult cowbirds.
Most of our resident nesters, like cardinals and mockingbirds, are on
their second broods. Our migrant summer nesters, like Great-crested
Flycatchers and Orchard Orioles, are usually single-brooded. They and their
young are wandering away from their former nesting territories in search of
seasonally abundant food sources, making them easier to find. Some will be
migrating by the end of the month.
The J.R. Alford Greenway is one of my favorite walks. A wide peninsula set
between Alford Arm and Lake Piney Z; it allows me to get a long walk in
while providing some good birding. It is one of the most accessible places
in Leon County to find Loggerhead Shrikes. In Florida, shrikes form
permanent territories and a pair has successfully bred in the first field
near the parking lot for several years.
Loggerhead Shrikes are cardinal-sized predators. They are white underneath
and gray-backed with a black mask, wings, and tail. Their tails have white
edges and they have a white wing patch that is visible in flight. Shrikes
have small hooked beaks and feed on insects, small mammals, birds, and
reptiles. Like many other grassland birds, they are in serious decline due
to land use changes and agricultural pesticides.
The clay entrance road through the first field at Alford is lined with
live oaks. Shrikes nest in them and can often be found perching on oak
branches. This morning while walking at Alford I saw a Loggerhead Shrike
trying to impale the remains of a snake on an oak branchlet. It had already
eaten the head and an undetermined portion of it, leaving about a nine-inch
length of the snake.
Shrikes commonly impale prey on thorn bushes or barbed wire fences.
Shrikes are songbirds and unlike raptors, they don’t have strong talons
that they can use to manipulate prey. Impaling aids them in feeding on
their prey. They also impale prey as a means of food storage and possibly
to attract mates. This habit gives them the colloquial name Butcherbird.
My old birding friend John lived in rural Alachua County. One of his
neighbors came to him and said that he thought a witch was trying to put a
spell on him. He took John to a section of his barbed wire fence that was
festooned with impaled anoles and small mice. John explained that a shrike
was responsible and was just filling the pantry.
I am pretty sure that shrikes don’t cast spells, but even though it’s hot,
humid, and full summer in the Big Bend, there are magical things out there
that you won’t find if you sit in your air-conditioned living room watching
the Nature Channel through binoculars.
Headquarters Pond lies about five miles past the St. Marks NWR Visitor
Center on Lighthouse Road. It is not a particularly large pond, only
17-acres or so. Named for its proximity to the refuge’s former
headquarters site, it was formed when the construction of Lighthouse Road
dammed a section of marsh. It has a raised viewing platform that gives you
a good vantage point over the pond. To get to it, park at the Tower Pond
Trailhead, where the bathrooms are located, and walk out the short,
well-marked trail.
I have been watching Headquarters Pond slowly change over the years. It
was once a good spot for ducks. I have a photo taken back in the eighties
that shows open water, but no cattail or floating-leaved plants. I have
recorded about a dozen duck species there, including Long-tailed Duck, a
winter sea duck normally found in the Gulf. The bare branches of an old
dead oak at the back of the pond are a favorite resting spot for Roseate
Spoonbills in early summer and for White Ibis in winter, when herons and
egrets roost on the pond. Black-crowned Night Herons roost in the trees at
the back of the pond year-round.
Both of the refuge’s gallinule species, Common and Purple, are found at
Headquarters Pond. Common Gallinules are dark duck-like birds with
red-and-yellow “candy corn” bills that extend up to a red frontal shield on
their forehead. They spend most of their time swimming near floating leaved
plants and will occasionally walk on them. They are year-round residents at
St. Marks. Once called the Florida Gallinule, in 1983 ornithologists lumped
them with the Common Moorhen, a species found in Eurasia and considered
them a single species. In 2011, they were separated from the moorhen and
the Common Gallinule is again considered a distinct species.
Their Purple Gallinule cousins are slimmer and more brightly colored with
deep purple, light blue, and iridescent green plumage. They also have a
red-and-yellow bill, but have a pale blue frontal shield. Unlike Common
Gallinules, they spend almost of their time walking on floating leaves.
They have long toes that spread their weight and allow them to climb stems
to reach seed heads. Although some overwinter, they are mainly summer
residents. Headquarters Pond has always been the easiest spot on the refuge
to find Purple Gallinule.
The pond has always had a marshy edge; a good place for Green Herons and
Least Bitterns or for Sora and Virginia Rails, depending on the season.
Shallow wetlands like Headquarters Pond can evolve over time. Successive
generations of wetland plants die and decompose, forming an ever-thickening
layer of mud that fills the pond. New species of wetland plants are brought
in by birds, wind, or storm surge.
White water lily, a common wetland plant at St. Marks, became established
on Headquarters Pond and for years its large round floating leaves covered
parts of the pond, providing habitat for Purple Gallinules and leaving
deeper open areas for ducks, American Coots and Common Gallinules. This
changed after Hurricane Michael’s storm surge inundated the pond. In the
years since that storm, American Lotus has replaced the water lilies.
American lotus has large yellow flowers that open in late morning and
close in mid-afternoon. The plant’s seed pods resemble a showerhead. Some
of its large round leaves float on the surface of the water, while others
are raised above the surface. This summer, its leaves have almost
completely covered the pond, leaving few spots of open water. Common
Gallinule numbers are down, but Purple Gallinules, which feed on lotus seed
pods, seem to be doing well.
There are also other changes occurring on the pond. Cattail has become
established and now forms a border along the edge of the pond. Cattail
creates a single-species thicket, crowding out all other plants. Each year
the cattail border gets wider.
The changes that are occurring at Headquarters Pond are natural processes
of wetland succession. Other natural processes, like drought, storm surge
or fire, may intervene, but unless they do, cattail will eventually form a
monoculture in the shallows and American lotus will dominate the deeper
areas. Both American Lotus and Cattail are native species and are not
without wildlife value. However, a wetland dominated by two plant species
has less diversity of insects and birds and is a less interesting place.
St. Marks NWR is a dynamic and ever-changing landscape. The larger pools
at St. Marks are actively managed by refuge staff, primarily for waterfowl,
but also for species like Wilson’s Plover and Least Tern. Without periodic
draining and flooding, they would slowly fill with vegetation. However, the
refuge has limited staff and resources and is facing increasing shortages.
Because of that, Headquarters Pond can no longer be actively managed and is
slowly changing into Headquarters Marsh.
