2004-5 PHOTOS PAGE 5
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Some habitat for a change - in November and December, when the tickseed sunflower (Bidens sp. - e-mail me if you know which species this is) is in full bloom, the marshes and impoundments are spectacular.
American Bitterns are regular winter residents. I see one, and rarely two birds a week on about one out of every three censuses throughout the winter. I was stunned to learn how many are really there. On January 4, Randy Roth of SJRWMD took me on an airboat tour of some of the impoundments I census from the dikes, and we flushed at least 20 different American Bitterns while covering only a small proportion of the available habitat. There must be hundreds of these secretive birds present given the amount of suitable habitat. The shot on the right shows this bird's ability to orient both eyes to achieve binocular vision while looking underneath the chin.
At left above, the end of a funky day at Emeralda - in mid-December, one of the first major cold fronts of the year was coming in just as I was finishing my census around noon - this is looking east in the northwest part of my census route, along the levee south of the Yale-Griffin canal separating Area 5 and 7. The temperature dropped by about 15 degrees as the front moved in from the north. On the right is the same yellow-bellied sapsucker depicted on previous pages - (s)he lets me get progressively closer as the winter passes.
Two early morning birds that required the use of flash as the primary light source - hence the darkened backgrounds. The bird on the left is a female black-and-white warbler, while on the right is a hermit thrush. Both sapsuckers and hermit thrushes seem more abundant this winter than in years past.
Two skulking sparrows that are loathe to perch in the open for me - a swamp sparrow on the left in typical deep cover, and the much rarer Lincoln's sparrow on the right. Swamp sparrows have been particularly abundant this winter as well; Lincoln's sparrows are always a rare treat on the infrequent occasions I spot them.
Two more shots of abundant winter residents - eastern phoebe and palm warbler.
Two common winter birds that give me fits trying to catch them in the open long enough for a photo - ruby-crowned kinglet on the left, blue-headed (formerly solitary) vireo on the right.
Limpkins are seen occasionally throughout the winter, and heard more often. Numbers of robins fluctuate wildly throughout the season. At least a few are usually around in the grassy areas of the levees and fields after about December, but sometimes huge flocks appear flying over early in the morning.