Baby, It's Cold Outside! And Then It's Warm Again. Then Cold...

Big Snow in the Yard

I'm trying to get used to Georgia winters. After 19 years in more temperate Florida, our move to Georgia has me learning how to do it all over again. I haven't driven in ice or snow since 1996, and I've been nervous about even walking on the stuff since breaking my ankle on the ice a few years before that. Yes, I know that Georgia doesn't get that much snow and it doesn't get as cold as, say, North Dakota. But yesterday I pushed a disk of ice half an inch thick off of our birdbath. That didn't happen very often in Florida. I am not unfamiliar with cold winters, having grown up in the mountain west and spent 7 years in Wisconsin. But this time it is different. I'm afraid that, as they say in Florida, my "blood has thinned" and the cold days just feel really cold! Also, the weather is so variable that I don't get a chance to settle into a winter groove. One day it is sunny and in the 60's, and then a front rolls in and we have freezing rain and snow. And then it's back to the 60's again. Lucky for me, I held onto my warm sweaters, hats and scarves when we moved from Wisconsin. And my shorts and flip flops from Florida.

Icy Birdbath

So far this winter we have had a couple of small accumulations of snow, maybe 1-2 inches. And we've had some ice. We don't own a snow shovel yet, and don't know if it will really be necessary, but after the last ice which sent our poor clueless Florida dogs sliding off the porch and down the stairs to the driveway, I invested in some Ice Melt. The city does not own snow plows, so snow or ice on the roads will close everything down. It's kind of fun. Really, it would be just fine to go out and continue life as usual, minus driving. (I've been told that people don't know how to drive in snow and ice and it's better to stay off the roads). People play tennis and golf all winter, except maybe for the snow/ice days. When it's really cold, we prefer to hunker down in the house in front of a warm fire, but we still get out. I was rewarded last month when I braved the cold to take a brisk nature walk on one of the first freezing days of the year. I went out in search of "Frost Flowers". They are not really flowers, but are ice formed when moisture inside plants expands in freezing temperatures and extrudes through cracks in the hollow stems. Most of the Frost Flowers I've seen here were coming out of Frostweed (Verbesina virginica), but I've seen them on Salvia in Florida during an especially harsh winter. I found these ones in the restored Piedmont Prairie at Sandy Creek Nature Center and every Frostweed plant had a little bouquet of ice at its base. It was beautiful. Frost covered the leaves and grass on the ground and everything looked sparkly and magical. By noon, the temperatures were back in the 40's and 50's and the frost was all gone. 

Frost Flowers

Frost Flowers

Frost Flowers

Sparkles

Around town most of the trees are bare, which makes it easier to see birds on the branches. I spotted a Red-bellied Woodpecker excavating a nest in a leafless tree across the street from our house. In contrast, the bushes (mainly camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons) are green and leafy and dotted with blossoms and buds. Our holly bushes are covered with berries, too. Yet another example of the confusing climate here. It is not as green in the winter as Florida and not as stark as Minnesota. The birds, squirrels and chipmunks don't mind either way. They're on the hunt for food all day, cold or not. On the warmer days, it is fun to watch the Chickadees and Goldfinches scour the bushes, searching old camellia blossoms for hidden bugs. And the Robins and Cedar Waxwings gorge on the holly berries. The critters have me working hard keeping the bird feeders full. Every few days I put out scoops of hearty sunflower and other mixed nuts, suet and thistle seed. We usually have 20-25 species of birds feeding on any given day. The cold weather makes them very, very hungry and they need to fatten up before breeding time. I figure that they can use all the help they can get. We humans keep destroying their habitat and removing their food sources, so putting out some seed seems like the least I can do. A little feeding oasis in our yard will help give them a needed boost, and as a bonus, I get to watch them.

Brown Headed Nuthatch Refueling

Red Bellied Woodpecker and its Nest

On the colder days I do most of my birding from the comfort of my kitchen window. I am sorry to admit that my idea of a keeping a Georgia almanac has not panned out. I tried to make a daily record of weather, temperatures and wildlife seen, but I am just not that methodical or disciplined and I pooped out after just a few weeks. I did watch our birds all weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count and made several reports, all from inside the house. But the times that I convince myself to bundle up and go birding away from home are almost always rewarding. And the birds in the woods are a little more varied than the regulars in my back yard. On my last excursion I saw flocks of Golden Crowned Kinglets and a couple of Brown Creepers, both new birds on my list. Today will probably be a good day to get out again. It was dark, dreary and frigid yesterday, but today the skies are clear and blue and I don't need my extra layers. And if I go out exploring I will feel like I earned the cookies and potato soup that I cooked up yesterday to beat the cold. Sounds good to me.

Golden Crowned Kinglet

Ginger Cookies, Hot From the Oven

30 Days in June: Day 30, Wrapping Up

Rosegentian (Sabatia sp.)

Well, here it is. The 30th of June and the last day of the June Challenge, and the last day of my personal challenge to trek all over the county and beyond to say goodbye to some of my favorite natural areas. I have had a blast! It's been satisfying and exciting. And exhausting! I can't even say how many times this month I've looked out and said "I can't believe how beautiful this is". I've seen so many wonderful places and things and have spent time with my favorite people. This month of journeys has given me memories to last a lifetime.

Delta Flower Beetle on Carolina Redroot (Lachnanthes caroliniana)

On this final day I decided to visit several locations where I thought I could catch some of the birds I was still missing on my list. There are some places that I can go to again and again and they never get old. I made an early morning trip to La Chua Trail, which was still dewy and fresh after a morning morning rain.  The butterflies were active and the spider webs sparkled in the sun.

Palamedes Swallowtail

Variegated Fritillary

Golden Silk Orbweaver

Black and Yellow Argiope Orbweaver

I was hoping to see a Yellow Breasted Chat and thought I'd actually done it until I got home and looked at my photos on the big screen. My Chat turned out to be an Orchard Oriole. It was very far away, but I should have caught on when I saw a pair in a bush closer to the road. Oh well. No Chat.

Adult and Juvenile Orchard Orioles

The Lotus is still blooming and they are so gorgeous that I can't help but take more photos every time I see them.

Beautiful!

American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea)

Down at the observation platform, I met up with fellow birders and we chatted about birds that we wish we had for our June Challenge list. They helped me find a Blue-winged Teal, and then a Wood Duck flew past us, giving me 2 new birds for my list. We looked in vain for the Scaup, but the Roseate Spoonbills were putting on a show and I spent a long time watching them and visiting with friends at the platform. The temperature was really cool and pleasant, almost the best weather I've experienced all month!

Roseate Spoonbill Flyover

Snowy Egret, Roseate Spoonbills and Black-necked Stilts

Later in the afternoon, I met Maralee and we drove to the other end of the county to visit Watermelon Pond and the Newberry Cemetery. We hoped to see Chuck-will's-widows and Fox Squirrels at Watermelon Pond but didn't see any. The trip to the Cemetery was more successful. We found 2 Great Horned Owls and a brilliantly colored pair of Red Headed Woodpeckers.

Great Horned Owl

Red-headed Woodpeckers

Driving down the road to Watermelon Pond, we saw what we were both hoping was a Northern Harrier, but were pretty sure was not, since that sighting would be very unusual. But it would have been very exciting. (During June, everyone wants to be the one to report something unusual or rare.) Later, on the same road, we actually did see a Northern Bobwhite out in the open, dozens of Eastern Kingbirds on the utility wires, and a Bachman's Sparrow that was just singing and singing. We also found a Glass Lizard squiggling across the dirt road.

Kingbird on the Wire

Glass Lizard

We headed home under the light of a beautiful full moon. We forgot to look for planets, though! The storm clouds that had threatened passed right by us and the Nighthawks buzzed overhead. It was a perfect end to a perfect month. Now it is time to clean my camera, put away the rubber boots, wash the car, spend some more time with my husband and dogs, and get packing for the move. I feel like I have said a proper goodbye to Florida and I think I'm ready to leave now. And I have a photo journal and blog to help me remember when I start to feel homesick.

Nighthawks on the First and Last Day

Full Moon

June Challenge Bird Count Grand Total: 100 Birds (96 ABA Countable/4 not countable)
Places Visited: 30, some more than once (See previous blogs!)


My June Challenge 2015 Bird List:
Black Bellied Whistling Duck
Muscovy Duck
Wood Duck
Mottled Duck
Blue Wing Teal
Northern Bobwhite
Pied-billed Grebe
Wood Stork
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-heron
Yellow-crowned Night-heron
White Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
Mississippi Kite
Bald Eagle
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Purple Gallinule
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Limpkin
Sandhill Crane
Whooping Crane
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Laughing Gull
Rock Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-headed Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Acadian Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Purple Martin
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Northern Parula
Pine Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Bachman's Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
House Finch
House Sparrow
Black Swan
Mallard
Greylag Goose
Swan Goose

30 Days in June: Day 2, Morningside

One of the Fantastic Grandaddy Live Oaks at La Chua Trail

After I missed all the excitement at La Chua on June 1, I decided to go back and try again on June 2. Unfortunately, I did not get out early enough and the construction team had closed the trail again, this time entirely. Some of my earlybird friends got out to the platform before the construction started for the morning and were able to see the Phalarope again. But I was not so lucky. I did add a Black Vulture to my list and decided to change plans. It was a nice, overcast day and seemed like a perfect day to be out, so I headed to Morningside Nature Center to see if I could find Nuthatches, Bluebirds, Summer Tanagers and maybe some Owls. I had been there just a few days before and the Nuthatches were making their little squeaky rubber duck sounds from the treetops. Of course, in the perverse world of June Challenge, the Nuthatches were nowhere to be seen or heard. I'll have to come back and try again. But I don't mind because Morningside is one of my favorite places and I hope to get there several times during the month. I did find my Bluebirds in a recently burned sandhill at the back of the park. There were quite a few of them tussling. I think they may have been fledglings, catching bugs in the cinders from the prescribed burn. The area was just starting to green up after being burned and it looked stark and pretty at the same time. Morningside is a great place if you need to find Towhees, Great Crested Flycatchers, and Woodpeckers of all sorts. I had hoped to see Owls but did not find any. When I worked at the park we occasionally saw Barred and Great Horned Owls in the daytime and I figured it was worth a shot. But no luck. I had also hoped to see a Screech Owl because I found one nesting in May. But I have visited the box several times and have seen no sign of it since the initial sighting. The young may have fledged or maybe it just found a new nest. Owls are always one of my weak points in the June Challenge. Along with shorebirds, warblers and sparrows. I have many weak points.

Stark and Beautiful

Longleaf Pine Greening Up

Red Headed Woodpecker

Screech Owl from May

I had also hoped to find a Gopher Tortoise, but did not see any this time. I understand that there was someone poaching the turtles in the park for a while and I don't know if that made a big enough impact on the population, but I haven't seen one at Morningside for a while. Of course, I used to be there more often, too, so it may just be situational. The prescribed burn made the many, many pocket gopher mounds more visible. I hope that I can see a pocket gopher at least once in my lifetime so that I can know they are real. I'm not sure if I believe in them. I did see plenty of lizards zipping through the leaf litter. And as I walked down the East Perimeter Road, a Coyote ran towards the work farm. It was too fast for a photo. I have never seen a Coyote at Morningside before, and it was very exciting, though I have seen scat and other signs.

Six Lined Racerunner--They Make a LOT of Noise Scampering!

I visited an empty Vireo nest off of the north boardwalk. I saw birds sitting on eggs in the nest several times when I was in the park in April and May and it was nice to be able to look carefully at the details of the nest this time without worrying about upsetting the parents. What a beautiful piece of work! Surprisingly, there were no mosquitos around the boardwalk and I was able to sit and enjoy the sounds of buzzing cicadas and Red-Eyed Vireos.

Empty Vireo Nest

In the June Challenge, unlike other birding records, you must actually see the bird in order for it to count on your list. This is a good thing, because I could easily have added another several species to my list just from the sounds made by one noisy Mockingbird. I listened to it for almost 5 minutes and heard it mimic a Carolina Wren, Bluejay, Great Crested Flycatcher, Osprey, Titmouse, Woodpeckers, and Mississippi Kite, just to name a few. Those Mockingbirds can be very tricky.

Though I didn't add many new birds to my list, I had a peaceful and very satisfying visit to Morningside. Then I went back home and saw White Winged Doves in our front yard feeder, bringing my count total to 55.

What Just Happened?!?

I'm still scratching my head trying to piece it all together. I was wrapping up a trip through the Natural Area Teaching Lab at the UF campus this morning when I saw a Pileated Woodpecker fly over to a snag. I watched Pileated Woodpeckers excavating a nest in another snag nearby a few weeks ago and thought maybe I might get a glimpse of some woodpecker chicks. As I got closer, though, I heard a lot of bird ruckus. Bluejays were screeching out "thief, thief, thief", the Mockingbird was making a lot of noise, and Red Headed Woodpeckers and other smaller birds were diving from the tree branches. Something was wrong. Then I saw and heard the Crows sitting in branches on either side of the tree.

Crows at the Woodpecker Snag

It looked like the Crows were trying to get something. Probably woodpecker eggs or chicks! I hurried over, hoping that my presence would shoo them off. (I know, I know, Crows have to eat, too. But I was emotionally invested in these particular woodpeckers, so I felt duty calling.) I stood near the tree, watching the activity and feeling sad at the likelihood that the woodpeckers would lose in this particular match.

Scaring off the Crows?

But then something odd caught my eye. The Crows were focused on something on the branch. It was a Yellow Rat Snake! More drama in the Pines!

Yellow Rat Snake!

I guess I had misjudged the Crows. It appeared that they were just joining in with the other birds to chase off the snake. After a while, though, the Crows flew away, accepting the outcome. The smaller birds also left. But the Pileated Woodpecker remained, which made me think that she was protecting her nest.

Guarding the Nest?

One Good Peck!

I watched in fascination as the woodpecker hopped up and down the tree, closing in on the snake, but never getting too close. It seemed like a big bird like that with its powerful bill could just peck the snake to death. But I also know that a big snake like that can eat a squirrel, so the woodpecker was smart to keep its distance. I couldn't tell at first if the snake was trying to get into the nest or if it was finished, but when I walked to the other side of the tree I got my answer. I could see 4 distinct round lumps--presumably the woodpecker eggs. The deed was done.

4 Round Lumps

Then the snake started inching down the tree. The woodpecker seemed interested in preventing this from happening. The snake persisted, and then disappeared from my view. I thought the snake had decided to climb into the nest cavity. I figured it was either going in for more, or was settling in to digest the big meal. The drama was over and I felt sad for the woodpeckers. All that work of nest excavating and laying eggs wasted. I packed up my camera and started to walk away. Then I heard a rustle in the tree and turned just in time to see the snake drop some 60 feet from the branch to the ground with a startling "thump"! I thought for a second about walking in and trying to find it, but came quickly to my senses and decided not to trail blaze. Anyway, that snake would be long gone by the time I started walking. Now, I thought, it was really all over. But wait--there's more! With the snake out of the picture, the woodpeckers started flying around again. 2 Red Headed woodpeckers flew to the snag and scuttled up and down the branches. Then the Pileated woodpecker flew to the tree next door where I had watched the nest building in several weeks ago. She flew to the nest opening and waited.

Meanwhile, Back at the Other Tree...

A Downy woodpecker flew to an upper branch in that same snag and started drumming. Then the Pileated poked her head into the nest, then climbed inside! She stayed inside for about 30 seconds, poked her head out and then flew off.

Off in Search of Food for the Babies!?

So, there is a chance that the Pileated nest is still intact, and there may be babies inside. I believe now that the eggs the snake ate belonged to the Red Headed woodpeckers, and that the Pileated stood watch by the other snag to make sure the snake didn't get into her own nest next door. That could still happen, and the chicks will be vulnerable as long as they are in the nest, even if they are big. But the amount of bird cooperation in this episode was extraordinary! And layer upon layer of intrigue! I could still have the whole story wrong, but this is the best I can come up with. I'm tired just thinking about it!