The Golden Hour in the Everglades and Big Cypress

Great Egret Crossing Loop Road

Come gentle light

Soothe edges harsh

Soften glare white bright

Dim shadow dark and stark

With your velvet touch

Whisper golden sifting glow

Messages of rest and peace

Touch field and tree

Let your genial hand

Wash over me

Usher in the Golden Hour

Toast with fuchsia hues

Kiss each flower

Quiet deep thoughts

Warm my soul

Sawgrass Sunset

Great Blue Heron

Sweetwater Strand

Dragonfly

Coco Plum

Scaleleaf Aster

Cypress Sunglow

Great White Egret on Cypress Roost

Red-shouldered Hawk--Sunset Glow

Alpenglow over Pond Cypress and Great Blue Heron

Pursuit of the Passerine* Persuasion

Morning walks usually begin at a small park at the end of my block. Mostly open except for a grove of live oak, the park skirts a small lake with a little shoreline thicket thus making it a perfect location for observing a variety of birds.

I usually don’t take my camera on these walks because if I do, I end up capturing images rather than exercising. However, as fall descended on Northern States I couldn’t help but observe new feathered visitors to the park. Most fascinating were a reading** of small songbirds with yellow-rumps that kept dropping from the trees only to run around in the grass then hop into the air and grab insects before returning. They seemed tolerant of park visitors of the two-legged sort so I decided to return with my camera. Photographing them turned out to be more difficult than I thought so my returns became habitual. Why? First, they never stop moving. Second, they flit in and out of shady trees on to sunlit lawn, presenting exposure challenges. Last, they are elusive. Could they be camera shy? Undaunted, I returned repeatedly in quest of at least one sharp photo of the little guys. Finally, as I sat resting on a park boundary railing one landed not too far away. Success!

Palm Warbler

By this time, I had observed enough field marks to identify this cute but clever bird as a palm warbler. I decided to spy on them. I learned to listen for their crisp chek, chek call and let my ears lead me to the trees they frequented. Next, I watched for a rustle in the leaves, a flash of yellow, and a snappy pumping tail. Voilà!

Palm Warbler on a Gumbo Limbo

Encouraged, I announced my new morning mission to my husband. I would come back with a photo of a palm warbler in the air with an insect in its mouth. Ha! Those of you that know how to do that, please tell me. You can see photos of flying palm warblers at The Celery Farm & Beyond. The best I could do was capture one in the grass—however, I haven’t given up.

Palm Warbler on an Insect Hunt

In the process of pursuing palm warblers, I’ve discovered other birds that frequent our park during fall migration. As a result, my digital and avian learning curves seem to be expanding, but I don’t mind one bit. To be truthful, I love it!

*Passerine: birds of the order Passeriformes, which includes perching birds and songbirds such as the jays, blackbirds, finches, warblers, and sparrows.

**Reading: a group of warblers

One Tricked Out Bird!

Big Daddy Gator

Our recent quest for local birding sites led us to an area of the Everglades that we had never visited before. There a desolate road skirted the eastern edge of the Glades where waving golden sawgrass dotted with verdant green tree islands stretched as far as our eyes could see. Along one side of the road flowed a drainage canal plied by huge alligators. Low bushes and small trees hugged the sides of the canal where wading birds congregated. One bird that immediately caught our attention was the flashy tricolored heron. Their pristine white belly and white lined necks and backs gaily decorated with slate blue and magenta tinged chestnut feathers, this medium sized heron sports greenish yellow legs and a bright yellow black tipped bill during the non-breeding season. But in the spring, when Papa Tricolor courts the desire of his heart, both sexes don long blue and white filamentous plumes on their head and neck and rust painted plumes on their backs for the courting. If that’s not enough, their bills turn to blue and their legs to pink. Whoa! Can Saks do that for you? These photos, however, were taken in November, not March so you’ll have to wait awhile for the fancy duds.

Heron Lookout

We found this adult heron perched on a treetop. When we lingered a bit too long, it rose on powerful wings and leveled out in smooth flight.

Liftoff

Flaps Up & Tabs Trimmed for Level Flight

There were lots of places to roost including canal-side brush.

Brush Camo

For tricolored herons nesting and parenting is a shared responsibility. The male picks out the homestead in the reeds or on a tree branch for his bride. When it’s time build a nest, both honeymooners contribute to the stick woven structure. Once the eggs are laid, the couple takes turns keeping them toasty warm. After the chicks arrive, both parents care for and feed them until they grow feathers and are old enough to leave the nest. Young tricolored herons have reddish-brown feathers on their heads and necks.

Tricolored Youth

AttiTUDE!

You can find tricolored herons in North America along eastern and southern coasts. In winter months, they migrate to warmer climes in the States as well as the Caribbean and South America as far south as the Amazon. Protective of their fishing territory they fight off all predators. When fishing, they run back and forth with their bodies low and flattened and their beaks ready to seize fish and other aquatic prey. I took this image from a nearby lakeshore. The wood is part of an old dock washed up by a hurricane. I spent sometime watching this young heron investigate two slider turtles sunning on the dock’s edge. Right after I took this photo the lead turtle quickly pulled his head inside his shell. Smart turtle—just look at that beak!

Curiosity

Wondrous Wood Stork

I remember making class field trips with my students to the Everglades. Our ranger guides shared some amazing facts about one of the United States’ endangered species, the wood stork. Once I began observing and photographing the wood stork I realized what a truly amazing bird graced my camera lens.

Wood Storks with other Wading Birds

The wood stork is the only stork that breeds in North America. It flies on wings with a span of over five feet and feeds with flocks of other wading birds in the wetlands of South Florida year round. In recent years, it began to winter along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts from Florida west to Texas and north to Georgia and South Carolina. It breeds from November to April if it can find low water pools containing concentrations of small aquatic fish and animals enough to support both parents and young. A nesting pair needs 3.5 lbs of small fish per day or 440 lbs over the breeding period. That’s a whole lot of little fish! To secure sufficient food the birds may need to fly 15-40 miles per day. You’re not the only one who has to work hard to feed your family!

Wood Stork Pair

Remember seeing drawings of an airborne stork delivering infants? Well, in recent decades the bird has had an increasingly hard time delivering even its own babies. Flood control in the Everglades wetlands and depletion of mangrove habitats for nesting forced the bird’s numbers to decline by 90% since the 1960’s. Breeding pairs seem to be on the rise, but the bird is not out of danger. As an indicator species, its numbers point to a deterioration in the health of Florida’s diverse wetlands.

Young Wood Stork

The wood stork feeds by feeling its food with its beak (tacto-location) as it swings it back and forth in murky shallow water. Drawn by stirring pink feet, resembling worms wiggling in the muddy bottom or an occasional raised wing creating welcome shade (see canopy feeding in Check Out those Yellow Legs!), fish swim right toward the wood stork and its hair-lined beak. When a passing fish brushes the hairs, the beak snaps shut at an astonishing speed of 25 milliseconds. That’s the fastest reflex of any vertebrate! For reference, a human eye blink takes 200-400 milliseconds. How comprehensive the wood stork’s matchless design is in equipping it for survival. I think that is awe inspiring; don’t you?

Everglades Wood Stork with Anhinga