Purple Thistle

Tuesday February 25th

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Today was a visit to Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area in Charlotte County. It wasn't very birdy on this visit, but the flowering Purple Thistle were hosting numbers of butterflies and other insects. Black Swallowtails, Palmetto Skippers and Whirlabouts were very active on these flowers and would pose nicely for the camera. Other butterflies present included Gulf Fritillaries, White Peacocks and Zebra Swallowtails

Twin Spot Skipper

Whirlabout

Palmetto Skipper

Aside from the purple thistles other wildflowers today included Limewater Brookweed, Horned Bladderwort, Spanish Needles, Spanish Daisies, Cowpea, Axilflower, Wild Petunias, Daisy Fleabane, Marsh Fleabane, Southern Cattails, Pitted Stripeseed, Blackroot and Leavenworth's Tickseed

Palmetto Skipper

American Bumble Bee

White Peacock

Carolina Wild Petunia

Daisy Fleabane

Blackroot

White Waterlily

Pitted Stripeseed

Netted Pawpaw

Flooded Gum Trees

Peninsula Axelflower

Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area

Sunday March 19th

White-tailed Deer

The Babcock-Webb property is basically mesic pine flatwoods which hosts three bird species of concern including the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Brown-headed Nuthatches and Bachman's Sparrow. Of these three birds the Bachman's can be the most difficult to spot due to its more secretive manners.  However, from March into May the males will post itself on a low limb and sing its heart out. This is why I had traveled to this spot today, to look for some Bachman's.

I arrived at dawn and was rewarded with a pair of Bachman's in song. Couldn't get a photograph as they still proved hard to locate. Also singing this morning were a number of Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Northern Cardinals, Eastern Meadowlarks and Northern Bobwhites.

Eastern Bluebird

Green Heron

Pine Warbler

Thistle

This Limpkin has collected a fresh-water muscle

Pine Warbler

 Within the first hour I had been successfully in finding the Big Three, but was able to add, a Great Horned Owl, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellow-throat, Mockingbirds, House Wrens, Palm Warblers, Limpkins, Great Egrets, Eastern Bluebirds, Anhingas, Osprey, Pileated Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Grey Catbirds, Eastern Phoebes, a Great Crested Flycatcher, Northern Flickers, Wilson's Snipe and Tree Swallows.

An Eastern Towhee

Pine Warbler

Pine Warbler

Red-winged Blackbird showing-off his chevrons

This section at, Babcock-Webb, had recently been subjected

to a cleansing prescribed-burn

Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

A Gator laying in wait

Babcock-Webb WMA - Charlotte County

Tuesday, January 13th

A RCW hiding from the camera

Today I arrived at Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area in Charlotte County just at dawn. Because this venue is the closest location to find the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. This species requires a very specific habitat, which  has been disappearing, as their habitat is also favored by land developers.


So about twenty minutes past dawn, a pair of noisy RCW emerged from their nest holes.  A pair of noisy House Wrens would join them in greeting a new day.


The best time and place to locate the birds is be set-up near one of the nest colony sites either at dawn or dusk.

This Red-bellied Woodpecker was inspecting a RCW nest hole

Shortly after I was able to locate Brown-headed Nuthatches in a mixed flock of Palm, Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers. Other species found included Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Eastern Meadowlarks, Mockingbirds, Common Yellowthroat, American Bittern, Pied-billed Grebes, Northern Flickers and Tree Swallows.

House Wren

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Brown-headed Nuthatch

American Bittern

Eastern Meadowlark

Northern Mockingbird

Current tally of recent hunting activity on the property

Bachman's Sparrow at Babcock-Webb

The Ides of March - 2012

Eastern Towhee

I arrived just past sun-rise and expected to miss the Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers as they exit there nest holes. I did hear a couple of calling Bachman's Sparrows in the pines after I had  passed the gun range, and as I appreached the the RCW colony on Oilwell Grade I could see that I was not the first ones here today.  Met a very nice couple from up-state New York, who already had one of the woodpeckers in their scope. But the other two woodpeckers found here did not exit their holes till ten minutes later. It was very nice to have hit on two of the three special species seen at Babcock so quickly. But it was too not long of a wait for the Brown-headed Nuthatch as I had one sighted in the same locality shortly,  while sorting through a mixed flock of Palm, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Bachman's Sparrow at Babcock-Webb by Joe Turner

As we were watching the woodpeckers another couple, Leslie Starr and Joe Turner from Maryland arrived. I offered suggestions on where to find the Bachman's Sparrows and later on I reconnected with them as they were scoping on a singing male bachman.  Joe was able to offer the a couple of his better photos of the sparrows for posting on this blog.  Leslie is quite a birder. As of this posting she has 323 birds for the year and is sitting #10 on the ebird list for the United States.

I was able to add most of my expected birds for Babcock-Webb  totaling 41 species - Pied-billed Grebe, Wood Stork, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tri-colored Heron, White Ibis, Swsallow-tailed Kite, Turkey Vulture, Common gallinule, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Blue Jay, Tree Swallow, House Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle and Brown-headed Cowbird.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

,

Oak Toad at Babcock-Webb

Wednesday, February 8th

Can you see the tiny Oak Toad ?

I had planned on twitching after the neotropic cormorant at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Palm Beach County, but logistics kept me closer to home.  Maybe there will be an opportunity to see the bird later.

So, instead I spent seven hours birding Babcock-Webb WMA in Charlotte County.  I managed to find all three of the prized species here - Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch and a Bachman's Sparrow. The bachman's sparrow is difficult to locate, except when the males begin singing in March. Today I had an individual pop-up in front of me as I was walking through some open pineland chasing after a mixed flock of warblers.  The sparrow quickly rose and dove under a mass of palmetto. Typical bachman's behavior.

American Robin

Three species I was interested in finding today - bobwhite, marsh wren and brown thrasher - I dipped on, but got plenty of other good birds.  I refound an American Bittern in the same location I spotted one last month. Found a lot of Gray Catbirds, House Wrens, Pied-billed Grebes, Pine Warblers, Eastern Towhees, Anhingas, American Robins, White Ibis, Belted Kingfishers and Eastern Meadowlarks.  Other sightings included a juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Kestrel, Eastern Bluebirds , an immature Bald Eagle, Palm Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Harrier, Tree Swallows, Loggerhead Shrike, Northern Mockingbirds, Blue Jays and Sandhill Cranes.

An interesting find was a tiny oak toad. This is our smallest toad species and likes sandy pine forests in the U.S. Southeast.

On the way home I swung there Cape Coral and successfully found the family of Florida Scrub-jays and Great Horned Owl near the new water treatment plant on Kismet. Also added a Burrowing Owl and a Monk Parakeet at the Pelican Boulevard ballfields.

I might add that this morning, February 10th, had a pair of female Painted Buntings visit my feeder.  Haven't seen buntings at my feeders for several years. You just never know what you'll find.

American Wigeon



A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk at Babcock-Webb



A bad photo of the American Wigeon at Harn's Marsh

This past Sunday, the 18th,

 I spent about three hours in search of the reported pair of American Wigeons at Harn's Marsh. If I could locate the birds it would give me an  exact 200 count for Lee County for this year.

Walked about five miles and managed to locate the ducks in the company of a flock of Blue-winged Teal just a few yards from were I had parked my car. Should have turned right instead of left I suppose. I had not purposefully targeted 200 birds for a county count, but became interested when my friend Jose Padilla stated that it was his Big-Year Goal for 2011 and as I was only a few birds behind him, why not. Well as of this morning he has 203 according to e-bird. Other sightings at Harn's Marsh included Sandhill Cranes, Tree Swallows, Ring-billed Ducks, Mottled Ducks, Common Galinulle, Coots, my first American Robin for the season, a couple of Limpkins and a couple of Snail Kites. The limpkin and kite numbers are down right now as the higher water level does not help them in search of their apple snails.

Earlier in the day I had checked out Bunche Beach in search of Common Loons and Horned Grebes.  Here, I ran into Ruth Woodall, who was with Curt and Joan. They put me onto the loons and grebes and later on to a Snowy Plover. Seems we are finding snowys here much more frequently these days. Other birds included Least and Western Sandpipers, Black-belled, Semipalmated, Wilson's and Piping Plovers, American White Pelicans, a lone Marbled Godwit, Willets, Sanderlings and the usual waders and gulls. Ruth did invite me to the Bird Patrol's Christmas Count at Bunche Beach on Monday. I would have loved to attend, but my work scheduled did interfere.

A Brown-headed Nuthatch at Babcock-Webb

Today, Wednesday the 21st, last day of fall, I birded Babcock-Webb in Charlotte County.  Had not been to this venue for a couple of months.

Arrived a bit after seven am.  The camp grounds were full and swamp buggies were parked all in a row. Small game hunting was continuing on this property, but I went ahead and spent three hours birding without hardly seeing anyone else.

Flock of Tree Swallows at Babcock-Webb

Checked out the Red-cockaded Woodpecker colony along Oilwell Grade. Was on site for the emergence of at least three of the woodpeckers from their nest holes. There were lots of Yellow-rumped, palm and Pine Warblers present in a number of mixed flockes which included a couple of Brown-headed Nuthatches, several Bluebirds and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, plus a Downy Woodpecker, a Hairy Woodpecker and a  Northern Flicker. Did hear several Eastern Towhees and Eastern Meadowlarks today.  Sandhill Cranes were also numerous, along with Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets plus a couple of Wood Storks. Got a very close viewing of a swirling flock of hundreds of Tree Swallows. 

There is so much energy in their rapid and fluid flight to no-where as they move inmass. Other birds today included Red-shouldered Hawks, Kestrels, Northern Mockingbirds, Belted Kingfishers, White Ibis, Eastern Phoebes, Red-winged Blackbirds, House Wrens, Gray Catbirds, and red Cardinals