Trip to Miami, 12/28 and 12/29

On December 28 and 29 I traveled to Miami to pick up Alex from the airport for a visit.  We spent a day birding in the area and saw a good variety of Florida birds, and picked up what will be our last new year birds.  We did see an adult Snail Kite on Route 41 but were a little too far for photos!

Here are some of the Florida specialties, many of which are not native but have established populations within cities.

Muscovy ducks in Florida are not true Muscovys, but are domesticated with

established populations in the wild.

Common Mynas are not native, but can be found in Miami, FL

This adult White Ibis spent a long time trying to get this frog down!

Piping Plovers were numerous on Key Biscayne

Lesser Black-backed Gull, Ring-billed Gull, and Double Crested Cormorant

on Key Biscayne

Short-billed Dowitchers on Key Biscayne

Black-bellied Plover eating a large long worm (Piping Plover in foreground) on Key Biscayne

Sanderlings foraging

(Key Biscayne)

Black-bellied Plover

(Key Biscayne)

Juvenile Peregrin Falcon

(Key Biscayne)

Common Moorhen

Anhinga

Eurasian Collared Dove

Egyptian Goose; domestic but is likely breeding in city ponds

This Little Blue Heron caught a bass but lost it to a gull

Flocks of hundreds of Fish Crows can be found all over Miami

The Kendale Baptist Hospital is home to an established population of Mitrid Parakeets.  We found them roosting in a tree just outside the entrance, hidden high in the trees

male Boat-tailed Grackle

female Boat-tailed Grackle

Boat-tailed Grackles are very common in every city in Florida

Loggerhead Shrike are fairly common throughout south central Florida

Black Vultures are also very common

Wood Storks (juvenile on left and adult on right)

Crested Caracara Field Work

I arrived in Florida about two weeks ago, and have started work on a Crested Caracara project, working for Virginia Tech.  I'll be working with Dr. Jen Smith to monitor breeding pairs at proposed development sites, and she will continue work over a few years to see changes in their movements and behavior in response to this development.  The sites include STAs, reservoirs, and ethanol plants, the last of which will be surrounded by masses of sugar cane to be used in yet another so-called "green" energy that will no doubt wipe out every Cabbage Palm that a Caracara could nest in or has nested in.  Caracaras have an extremely small range in Florida, and it is very sad that any could be displaced by such development. 

The good news is that the ranch we are living on, and that many Crested Caracaras also live on, is part of the Payment for Ecosystems Services Plan under the Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project, in which ranchers are paid to retain and manage water on their land.  Since this ranch is part of the northern Everglades region of Florida, this is of vital importance in keeping more of a balance with agriculture and the natural ecosystem.

We've got data pointing us to territories of Caracaras in previous years, and have seen them at most of those sites.  We've got a few nest trees pinned down, but are in the process of working out access on private land, which is a pickle when dealing with an endangered species.  Despite this we've been seeing lots of Caracara and are staking out areas for trapping.  Eventually we will being trapping nesting pairs and attaching satellite transmitters that will give us very detailed information about their movements in response to new development.

adult Crested Caracara

adult Crested Caracara flying into Cabbage Palm that contains its nest

adult Caracara on ground near its nest, foraging on cow patties

adult Creseted Caracara preening

Subadult Crested Caracara

Sandhill Cranes are very numerous on most ranches. 

There is a very obvious size difference between the male

and smaller female visible in this photo.

Alligators are very common along the irrigation canals throughout our study sites

Red-shouldered Hawks are everywhere in Florida and also take advantage

of irrigation ditches to hunt for small amphibians and lizards

A few different warbler species are wintering in Florida, including Common Yellowthroat (above), Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Black and White Warbler

End of raptor season and headed south....

Just a quick update to let everyone know I am on my way SOUTH as of tomorrow, much like the last few raptors left in PA.  My last few days in PA brought some great raptors and waterfowl, which I will post about later.  In the meantime my bags are packed for Lake Pacid, Florida, where I will be working on a project with Dr. Jen Smith to study habitat use of Crested Caracaras through radio telemetry.  Caracaras take advantage of large cattle ranches in Florida, much like Whooping Cranes, and I am excited to start working with a bird I've only just seen for the first time this year (in Lousiana in February).

I feel horribly bad leaving my family and friends in this icy land of blizzards and I'll be thinking of everyone when I get down there.  If you're lucky I'll send you some oranges and grapefruits...a cheap substitute for sunshine.

Thanks to everyone I worked with, birded with, and lived with this fall season in PA!

Winter weather in west-central Pennsylvania

If you've been trying to hawk watch in the past week in west-central PA, you have probably not been seeing much, if you're on one of the higher elevation ridges.  Winter weather has moved in and ridge sites are covered with a few inches of snow, forcing most migrants to the ridge edges and into valleys, and to sites further east.  The valleys of Bedford, Somerset, and Cambria County got covered last night and today with a good coating of snow that won't be going anywhere anytime soon with a forecast like this. Brrrrr!  Makes me want to migrate to Florida...

(from http://www.wunderground.com/)

The last few days, though, have been good for migrating waterfowl, and at a few different sites, I've seen Canada Geese, Tundra Swans, and Ring-billed Gulls in high numbers.  While out owling last night in Somerset County, we heard a flock of Ring-billed gulls moving over the ridge, very near the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch.  This sound is something usually associated with open lakes, so it was very strange to hear the shrill cries of the gulls in the cold night air in the woods while it was snowing.  There were about 10-20 in this flock, and they seemed to be circling, maybe looking for a place to sit down for the night.  We didn't find any owls, though.  They were all keeping quiet, or moved off ridge a little to hunt where it wasn't snowing.    At Shawnee State Park earlier in the day, Alex and I watched a flock fo 350+ Ring-billed Gulls come in and circle the lake, in addition to a few Bonaparte's Gulls that were mixed in the flock.  Today a flock of about sixty Ring-billed Gulls was doing the same.  Shawnee has been good lately for waterfowl like Hooded Mergansers, American Black Ducks, and migrant Canada Geese, but you can tell that waterfowl season is winding down.  Today, we added a two new species records for the park, including Common Goldeneye (two males) and two Cackling Geese (mixed in with a flock of 156 Canada Geese), and Northern Pintails have shown up sporadically in the last few weeks.  Don't count on seeing these if you go there, though, since waterfowl tend to have short-stays at Shawnee.  At Duman Lake County Park in Cambria County, a family of Tundra Swans (a pair with a juvenile) has been hanging out since at least Thanksgiving day.  Today a Rough-legged Hawk was reported at Joe Haye's Vista near State College, PA...which brings the total that I've heard about for the state up to seven. 

Here are a few photos Alex took this weekend while borrowing my camera.

Bald Eagle at Shawnee State Park

Male Gadwall at Whitetail Wetlands, Bedford County, PA

Female Gadwall and male Northern Pintail at Whitetail Wetlands, Bedford County, PA

Male Northern Pintail at Whitetail Wetlands, Bedford County, PA

Northern Saw-whet Owl Banding, November 2010

Owl banding has come to an end for the 2010 fall season on the Allegheny Front, but the owls are still moving through.  Our last two nights of owl banding brought 5 owls, three the first night and 2 the second.  Of the three on the first night, one was a foreign recapture. 

Cory Ritter (expert owl bander) banding an owl

Northern Saw-whet Owl with new band

On the second night, two owls were particularly vocal in the woods nearby.  We caught an owl early on in the night, but the two owls continued to vocalize. While we were waiting, I used this stuffed owl to demonstrate how an owl gets stuck in the nets.  It hits a section of net and falls into the pocket below it.  It then gets tangled, mainly by its talons.  Sometimes its wings or head also go into one of the net holes, making extraction a little more tricky.

Since we were quite bored, we proceeded to band our "owl" and even

staged a fairly believable release photo.

Eventually, we heard one of the vocal owls move towards the net, and soon after, we caught it.  It stuck around for awhile in a nearby tree, and continued calling. As we were walking towards the nets to take them down for the night, we saw the owl sitting by the decoy, about to jump into the nets.  When it saw us, it flew north and evaded its second capture.  Here are a few photos of the owl.

Kim and Ed banding

Saw-whet Owl getting a band

Under a black light, new feathers appear pink, because of a chemical in the feather called porforin. Over time, exposure to UV light causes porforin to fade. Old feathers appear white under the black-light because of this fading. So, in the above photos, new feathers appear pink, and older feathers appear white. This owl has a slightly different molt pattern on each wing, but it is an "ASY" bird, or "After Second Year.

The owl flew high into a nearby tree and stayed around for awhile volcalizing