Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Miami, MIA

I am feeling even more stupid than usual today. Having braved thunder, lightning, biting insects and crocodiles in Crandon Park on Key Biscayne, I proceeded to inadvertently delete all the photographs on my return home. The whole set went “ whoosh” into the deepest recesses of digital space at the click of a button. This sort of thing never used to happen with slides.

If this has ever happened to you, there is a solution (well partly at least). Programs exist to retrieve erased data from discs and cards. The one I used was from a software house called WhataPillock.com. The upshot was that I was able to salvage a few of my hard won snaps. Thanks to Joshua 14321 on the Canon Forum for the advice.

I knew that I would get wet, it was merely a question of depth. Miami in June tends towards heavy rain and thunderstorms. A sharp shower hit the bus as we crossed the Rickenbacker Causeway on to Key Biscayne, but cleared up before I had to step out. It wasn’t long before the clouds built up and storms began to threaten again. The few cyclists and joggers quickly disappeared with the first roll of thunder and I headed for shelter under the cover of a concrete shade by the roller-skating rink.

The flashes and crashes came almost simultaneously as the storm raged, blew the lights and made my hair (note singular) stand on end. Numerous small flocks of White Ibis didn’t seem to mind and sucked up the drips before they fell from their beaks. Some seemed to positively revel in the rain.

Stuck under cover with nothing else to see, I watched the ibis for some time, noting a few oddities that I had not seen before. There was quite a distinct difference in size between individuals. And I later learned that the males average 15% bigger than the females. I have yet to explain the grey/brown staining on some that gave them the colour of antique underwear.

When the rain eventually stopped, I made my way into Cranford Park Garden. An exotic collection of Egyptian Goose, Common Peafowl and Guineafowl meant that any really exciting rarities would have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the Sandhill Crane was probably close enough to the resident Florida population to count (although I am not sure of the original provenance of the birds from the Sunshine State).

The gardens feature a meandering tarmac road that takes the visitor round a palm-filled enclosure of lawns and lakes (It may once have been a small zoo(?)). Warnings of Crocodiles put me off getting too close to the water’s edge to look for damselflies, but their larger relatives were easy enough to see and could be photographed with the long lens.

Some were recognisable, but this one was new. I believe it is a 4-spotted Pennant Brachymesia gravida

Great Egret and Tricoloured Heron were seen along the banks and Anhinga fished in the deeper water or dried themselves on the bank, but the bulk of the biomass was split between large lizards and biting insects. I had been very liberal with the mosquito repellent on all exposed skin, but that didn’t stop the little biters going straight through my shirt. The lizards took many forms with at least two species having the talent to ‘walk on water.’

Crandon Park looks inviting on maps and leaflets with the whole area coloured green, but the truth of the matter is that it is mostly car parking hard surface or private club. Google Earth gives a more faithful representation at ref; 25 42’ 21”N 80 09’ 28”W. These coordinates also correspond to the pedestrian entrance of Crandon Park Gardens. Opening times are advertised as 08.00 onwards, but the pedestrian entrance did not have a gate and allows entrance at any time.

There are said to be crocodiles present and this one made me stop in my tracks as I rounded a corner. It took a couple of looks.

Crandon Park is shown as an extensive area of Key Biscayne, but only the side to the east of Route 903 is accessible as a birding option (to the west is the golf course and Tennis Center). The northern part is Bear Cut Preserve, which looks like the best choice for wildlife, but it has no shelter beyond the nature Centre, so I am saving that for another time when the weather is more amenable. The park’s most famous feature is its beach, which I did not visit. A bird list for the park shows that a good crop of waders and gulls could probably be found there. The extensive provision for parking makes me think that it must get very busy at holiday time and weekends.

Take the Metromover monorail to Brickell. Buses 102 or B cross the Rickenbacker causeway and continue onto Key Biscayne. Crandon Park is on the left as the bus travels south. Bear Cut Preserve and the Nature Center is the first stop after the second bridge. Crandon Park Gardens is at the southern end just before the town.

Species seen; 17

Brown Pelican 1, Double-crested Cormorant 3, Anhinga 2, Great Egret 1, Tricoloured Heron 1, Snowy Egret 3, White Ibis 300, Black Vulture 3, Sandhill Crane 1, Common Moorhen 2, Eurasian Collared Dove 8, Mourning Dove 4, Red-bellied Woodpecker 4, Northern Mockingbird 2, Fish Crow 6, Northern Cardinal 1, Boat-tailed Grackle 3.

Back in Miami, I took a little walk along the river and found what I suspect to be a Barracuda.

For other posts about trips to Miami follow the links below:

http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/11/matheson-hammock-miami-usa.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/11/miami-dragonflies-august-2009.html
http://redgannet.blogspot.com/2010/11/miami-dragonflies-november-2009.html

For other trip reports from the USA and Canada, go to the dedicated page.

http://redgannet.blogspot.com/p/posts-from-usa-and-canada.html

Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Miami, MIA

Miami Dragonflies, August 2009

This post has been transferred in from the now dormant http://www.redgannetdragonflies.blogspot.com/ for ease of linking. It was previously published there on 31st August 2009

On a trip to Miami this week, I was tempted by a new camera and succumbed. I had been looking for a little while at the Nikon Coolpix P90, hoping that it would save me a lot of carrying and lens changing. It has a 24x optical zoom. By some jiggery pokery, the tech specs claim this equates to 26-624mm on a 35mm format SLR camera. My DSLR has a sensor which is smaller than 35mm and thereby produces a cropping effect. This is how my 400mm appears to be 640mm.
Most of my photos are taken at the high end of my 100-400mm Canon. If I need a landscape picture though, I have to change to an 18-55mm. The macro lens is a 50mm Sigma. It is a lot to carry around and a common problem is dust which enters the camera during lens changing. So, a camera with a high top-end zoom, a wide angle capability and a macro function too, might just be the solution. It even has a video capability.
Could it perform well enough to replace the SLR and all it’s lenses? To save you skipping to the bottom of the page in anticipation to find out if in fact it is the answer to all my problems, I am sad to say, it is not.
There is no arguing with the macro function. The result from a quick practice was stupendous. The photo below has been reduced in quality for the blog, but believe me, it is breathtaking on my 17”monitor in the study. I bought the camera from a shop beside a small river near Dadeland Mall. In a stretch of less than 50m of riverbank, I saw 9 different types of dragonflies. Most of them have yet to be identified, but there is enough detail here to confirm that it is a Halloween Pennant.
One issue with the macro function is that the optical zoom is restricted so it is not much bigger than the 50mm Sigma. The "live view" function though allows the picture to be composed at arms length which is a big advantage over my current SLR without "live view". The screen folds out to give good sight even at odd angles. The screen is nice and bright too which allows one to view pictures even in the bright Florida sun.
The wide angle and mid range zoom are fine. I have no problems there.
The top-end zoom works well when the subject is clearly differentiated from the background. Otherwise the auto focus struggles. A dragonfly perched on a stalk with water vegetation behind it took a couple of attempts to get into a decent focus. In this circumstance, I was quite close to the subject. There is a manual focus facility which is operated with the multi function control. It works OK in controlled conditions, but would be a little slow in the event that the subject was moving. To my mind, I think it is an oversight not to provide a remote release facility. With 624mm of throbbing focal length, I would have to use a tripod and with a tripod, I like to use a remote release. It is true that no other compact digital cameras provide the feature either, but why not? Digiscopers have had to develop grips and frames and pushers and pressers in order to achieve what is really a very simple function if built in at the design stage.
I was unaware of a time lag between pressing the button and the shutter releasing. This used to be a dreadful problem, but the Nikon Coolpix P90 appears to have bettered it.
There is sill an issue with the power saving mode. (The battery supplied with the camera is a l-ion and much better than AAAs. Thank you very much to Wendy from Best Buy, Dadeland, for charging the battery for me. It took more than 200 pictures today without showing a power alert.) An SLR will reboot instantaneously when required to take a picture. The P90 took a few moments, but it was reasonably quick compared with other compacts.
I haven’t tried the video facility yet. Maybe I will open an account at Utube when I do.
On the whole, I like it and I think it is good value for money. Will it replace my SLR and lenses? No I don’t think so, unless I become too old and tired to carry that much stuff about. It lacks the immediacy of the SLR and the “hands on” feel of the slide zoom and manual focus ring. Will some of my lenses be consigned to the shelf or the lots at E-bay? Probably not. It will probably just end up as even more weight carried in my rucksack.

Miami Dragonflies, November 2009

This post was originally published on the now dormant http://www.redgannetsdragonflies.blogspot.com/ on 3rd November 2009. It has been transferred in to simplify linking.

Temperatures reached an unseasonal 85+ today during a trip to Miami. Calm air and easy access to Snapper Creek made choice of activities a formality.
I had visited Snapper Creek a few weeks ago and bought a new camera at the Best Buy, adjacent to the river and taken a memorable piture of a Halloween Pennant. Today with yet another new camera, the Canon 50D, I was hoping to recreate that success.

As I approached the river, I noticed a Great Egret and 2 White Ibis close to the water's edge. A pair of large iguanas were moving towards the sunlit grass.
Snapper Creek is approx 8 meters wide at this point and has 2 or 3 meters of grass on both banks. The margins have grass and a few other emergent plants. In some spots, mats of weed cling close to the banks. The water is very clear and has a good flow. There are many fish, some quite sizeable.
The first ode was seen from the Northern bank right beside the bridge at Dadelands North Metrorail station. It was a Scarlet Skimmer, Crocothemis servilia. This dragonfly has appeared in the blog before and today takes the crown for the most widespread ode that this blogger has seen. First seen in Singapore, it has subsequently been found in Hong Kong, where it goes by the name of Crimson Darter, and in India during October.
The website Odonata Central has very little to say about this species, which I found surprising for such an apparently abundant and dramatic-looking creature. This leads me to wonder if it has been introduced or escaped along with the iguanas and the parrots. Despite it's uncertain provenance, it is quite approachable and sits well for pictures. Without any evidence to the contrary, I am assuming this to be the female.
Next was the tiny, Spot-tailed Dasher. Another seemingly abundant species, which also fails to make it into the "Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies", which I am currently using as my reference field-guide.
The little dasher was then displaced by the much larger, Blue Dasher. The Blue Dasher was the original holder of the distribution title having been seen from Toronto, Canada to Califonia.

Then came the dragonfly which had been at the back of my mind when I had chosen to come to Snapper Creek. I had taken a picture of it for the previous Miami post, but it had not been sufficiently detailed to allow me to properly identify it. I can now reveal that it is a Tawny Pennant, Brachymesia herbula. I was beginning to suspect that the Stokes's had forgotten to visit Florida while researching their book as 3 out of 4 odes seen so far had been omitted. Despite that, the guide will probably please most people who don't get anal about identifying down to the sub-special levels.

I doff my hat to Warwick and Michele Tarboten for this next photo. I would not have even considered taking a shot, were it not for the photo on the back cover of their "A Fieldguide to the Damselflies of South Africa". Now, if ever you are considering writing an Odonata fieldguide, may I suggest this as a standard to which you should aspire. I believe it to be a Rambur's Forktail. This species is mentioned by the beginner's guide, but when you do not have the full set for comparison, how can a definitive identification be made?
And so to the one that got away. This was my best picture of the day which makes it frustrating not to get a positive ID. My suspicions lead me towards a female Eastern Amberwing. It was about the right size and the abdomen is suggestive of amberwing. The eyes and the yellow marks on the thorax fit the descriptions of the amberwing. The wings however made me doubt the accuracy of my assumptions. The creature left it's wings to flutter in the light breeze in the same way that I had seen the Halloween Pennant doing on my previous visit. The wings were also much more heavily marked than I have seen in any photos or illustrations. There were both Eastern Amberwings and Halloween Pennants in the vicinity to compare size and flutteriness with. I see that the amberwings sometimes imitate wasps, but the fluttering did not seem reminiscent of any wasp that I had seen before. So I find myself unsatisfied with Eastern Amberwing. Perhaps there is a tiny pennant that I have not found in my research yet. All thoughts are welcome.

Odonata species; 8

Rambur's Forktail 12, Eastern Meadowhawk 4, Eastern Amberwing 6, Scarlet Skimmer 8, Spot-tailed Dasher 8, Blue Dasher 2, Tawny Pennant 12, Halloween Pennant 1,

Miami Dragonflies, Dade. MIA