Matheson Hammock, Miami, April 12

A trip to Miami at the end of April would surely bring a bagful of migrants. An internet search introduced me to the Nutty Birder who has produced a migration timetable for the eastern states and confirmed that the warblers would be on the move. E-bird’s status bargraphs showed that they should be present in great numbers. So how did I miss them?

We landed late and arrived at the hotel with only a couple of hours of daylight left. The next day was forecast to be rained out, so a quick flit to Matheson Hammock could be my only chance for an outing this week. The cycle ride takes about 30 minutes, but I was stopped by a Blackpoll Warbler along the way. This filled me with confidence despite slim pickings during the rest of the ride.

The entrance to Matheson Hammock from Old Cutler Road opens onto a picnic area with a small lake. The trees here are often very productive and I had envisioned spending the evening around this area, but it was deathly quiet with only Northern Cardinals chipping their alarms. Apart from a very approachable Yellow-crowned Night Heron, there were no other birds seen here.

Surprised, I moved on to the car park by the shore (Google Earth ref; 25 40 49N 80 15 25W) hoping to find White Ibis and an assortment of herons in the bay. Grassy shallows and banks usually attract good numbers of birds, but here again, it was very quiet. A watersports school, specialising in Kite-surfing, has been set up in the car park and I wonder if the birds have been disturbed by the action out on the water.

Apart from a few Ruddy Turnstones on a bank, there were no waders and only a couple of herons flushed as I cycled past a gap in the mangroves. A Magnificent Frigatebird floated pterodactyl-like in the distance. The Brown Pelicans used the ground effect to skim across the surface of the water, hardly having to flap.

An Osprey provided the highlight of the evening by plunging into the water for a fish. It juggled its catch to make it more aerodynamic and shook itself dry in midair before carrying the fish away.

A rising series of buzzy notes called my attention to a Prairie Warbler which was singing, full-throatedly, from a mangrove right in the shoreline and reminded me that I should have been looking for migrants. A last look in the trees between the entrance and the Fairchild Tropical Gardens as the sun set only brought more Cardinals.

Birds seen;

Brown Pelican 8, Double-crested Cormorant 20, Magnificent Frigatebird 1, Great Blue Heron 1, Little Blue Heron 1, Yellow-crowned Night Heron 3, Black Vulture 1, Osprey 2, Ruddy Turnstone 6, Laughing Gull 4, Eurasian Collared Dove 6, Mourning Dove 4, Chimney Swift 3, Northern Mockingbird 2, Common Starling 15, Prairie Warbler 1, Blackpoll Warbler 1, Northern Cardinal 12, Boat-tailed Grackle 50

Matheson Hammock is about 5 kms from Dadeland North Metrorail Station. Follow North Kendal Rd east to the T-junction. Turn left and cross the river, turning immediately right onto the continuation of North Kendall Rd. At the next T-junction turn right onto Old Cutler Rd. Matheson Hammock is 1 km on the left (Google Earth ref; 25 40 57N 80 16 22W).

See below for other posts from Matheson Hammock;

http://redgannet.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/matheson-hammock-miami-usa.html

Visit the dedicated USA page for more posts from the area.

Herping in Houston.

Drought of the past couple of years has killed more than 15,000 trees in Memorial Park. The Texas Forest Service estimates that between 100 million and half a billion trees have succumbed to the drought. On the drive from the airport into Houston, I noticed that many of the distinctive Loblolly Pines stood brown and dry, waiting to be felled to avoid too much standing dead wood. Recent rains have come too late to save the trees but the moisture has been absorbed, leaving the pines heavy and in danger of collapse. Many of them have already been cut to minimise the risk of sudden falls, but it is a big job. The forest in the arboretum was wet with lots of standing water all of which contained tiny fish and tadpoles. Raised paths and boardwalks through the most sodden parts kept visitors’ feet dry.

I had come looking for snakes this morning with a Coral Snake high on my wish list. They have been seen on occasion near to the visitor centre and I began my search there in the childrens’ climbing area before the pitter patter of tiny feet disturbed them.

The strident calls of Carolina Wrens rang through the forest with Northern Cardinals competing through the early morning. With no snakes to see, I passed on to the swampy area where a Yellow-crowned Night Heron flew over and settled in a tree ahead of me.

From here, I back-tracked past the Visitor’s Centre and made my way round to the meadow and the small lake which were by now soaking up the full sun (Google Earth ref; 29 45 45N 95 27 00W). Apart from another Night Heron and the background calls, there was very little bird action. A Great Egret took off from the long grasses at the edge of the lake and flew across the water to perch on a floating log which had already tempted a handful of turtles out to bask.

Dragonflies were already flying and in the absence of snakes and birds, I spent some time with them. Blue Dashers perched on the bankside snags while Blue Corporals preferred horizontal surfaces, such as the boardwalk, to sit out. A pin-wheeled pair of Eastern Pondhawk broke apart for the female to begin laying her eggs into the surface of the water by repeatedly diving down and dipping her abdomen.

A few other people were found by the lake and they all had snakey stories about last week or other sites, but one young lady pointed me back towards the swamp boardwalk where she had encountered two snakes earlier this morning.

The water at the swamp was choked with lily pads and after just a short time scanning, I found what I was after, a small, thin Ribbon Snake. It was sunning itself with the lilies easily supporting its meagre weight and the water reflecting its inquisitive tongue.

Texans must be pretty used to seeing snakes and a guided tour hardly stopped to glance at it as they passed through. That didn’t detract from my excitement though and better was yet to come. As a mother and two kids stopped to look, a Broad-banded Water Snake ventured out from the thick weeds onto the lily pads.

This snake was much heavier and used the water to support most of its body weight. It turned towards us, tongue flicking and passed very close, inside the 1.4 meters minimum focusing distance of my lens. In common with other species of Water Snake, the Broadband is not venomous, but can be aggressive if it feels threatened. Since it was the snake that was approaching me, it must have felt reasonably comfortable with my presence. When it reappeared later, a slight breeze had blown up and the downwind snake was far more wary.

The arboretum’s opening hours are from 08.30, so I had spent the first hour of daylight in the picnic area, close to the arboretum at Google Earth ref; 29 45 52N 95 26 23W. Most of the birds on the list were seen here from about 07.00 with four types of woodpecker and Indigo Bunting. The Warblers were disappointing with only a couple of species seen.

This area is characterised by thinner density of trees and enough picnic tables to host the whole of Houston on a Sunday morning. Cyclists like the circuit that runs for about a mile round the site. It gets very busy at weekends, so early morning is the best time to visit. Weekdays are much quieter. 

Birds  seen; 25 

Great Egret 2, Yellow-crowned Night Heron 2, Turkey Vulture 1, Mourning Dove 15, White-winged Dove 6, Chimney Swift 3, Red-headed Woodpecker 2, Red-bellied Woodpecker 1, Downy 1, Pileated Woodpecker 1, Olive-sided Flycatcher 1, Barn Swallow 1, Carolina Wren 3, American Robin 1, Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1, Carolina Chickadee 6, Tufted Titmouse 15, Blue Jay 20, American Crow 4, Common Starling 8, Black-throated Green Warbler 1, Pine Warbler 3, Northern Cardinal 15, Indigo Bunting 3, Great-tailed Grackle 50.

Conyer (soon to be) Nature Reserve.

My son has taken up squash and was attending a coaching day at a club close to the estuary. It seemed foolish, nay environmentally irresponsible, to drive all the way home only to return a couple of hours later to pick him up, so I continued north to a less-well-known tract of mud at Conyer (Google ref; 51 21 22N 00 49 04E).

The approach to The Swale (the body of water separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent) was through a disused brick and cement works which has been re-colonised by Blackthorns and Elders.  Planning permission has been granted for 24 houses to be built on the foundations of the old works, but more importantly, permission was granted on the proviso that the majority of the site be set aside as a nature reserve. Blue Tits, Great Tits and European Robins sang from the thorn bushes which were still in full bloom in mid-April. My first (UK) Barn Swallows of spring whooshed over my shoulder and north across the mud.

Sadly the game of squash is not tide-dependent and I found that the waters had receded as far as they could go. The waders that I had hoped to see were very distant. With a scope, I was able to pick out Common Shelduck, European Curlew, Common Redshank and Pied Avocets. On an island in The Swale, Black-tailed Godwits roosted in rows along the waterline and a Sandwich Tern surveyed the area from a perch at the western end. Black-headed Gulls make an awful racket even when they are roosting. Perhaps 200 or so were screaming and crying from the salt marsh island making me suspect that there may be a breeding site there. It is a low-lying island and very close to the high-tide level so it would be a precarious nesting site.

Remnants of the old wharf still exist and from here you can look out across the widest stretch of The Swale to the Isle of Sheppey over three quarters of a mile away. With the tide at its lowest ebb, it was almost entirely mud. I have an old map from 1908 which shows the navigation lines for use by barges transporting raw materials in and newly-made brick out from Conyer Creek. They appeared to correspond almost exactly to the channels and gullies cut through the mud by the receding waters a century later.

A flock of Black-tailed Godwits gave a flypast after being disturbed from their roost by the incoming tide, sadly I could not stop to wait for the tide to push the birds closer in. Time and rain was pushing me on. As I left, I was struck by the sight of a Eurasian Collared Dove that had made its nest at the top of a rainwater downpipe. With a drought in progress the bird could be forgiven for choosing the nest site, but with a storm coming, the poor choice would soon become apparent.

My son’s squash training continued the next day and I returned to Conyer for another visit with my Father-in-Law, Frank, to find that only the top of the bird’s head was visible and the nest must have shrunk and compacted with the water. As I write this up a few days, later, it is still raining (such is the nature of drought in the UK) and I suspect that the dove’s perseverance will have been in vain.

A Stoat dashed across the path in front of me and disappeared into the thickets of thorn scrub and bracken. I was very excited as I very seldom see Stoats. Even better the next day after I dropped Frank off, I stopped in at Bax Farm and saw two Stoats. They were very secretive, keeping mostly to the reeds alongside the river but I was able to track their progress upstream by the leaping frogs and the hystreical Moorhens.

Birds seen; 30

Great Crested Grebe 1, Great Cormorant 1, Little Egret 1, Canada Goose 6, Brent Goose 45, Common Shelduck 35, Mallard 15, Common Pheasant 2, Eurasian Oystercatcher 6, Pied Avocet 60, Northern Lapwing 2, Black-tailed Godwit 70, European Curlew 12, Common Redshank 12, Black-headed Gull 250, Herring Gull 2, Sandwich Tern 1, Common Wood Pigeon 4, Eurasian Collared Dove 1, European Swallow 3, Common Blackbird 4, European Robin 1, Great Tit 2, Blue Tit 2, Long-tailed Tit 1, Eurasian Magpie 6, Carrion Crow 60, Chaffinch 15, European Goldfinch 1, Reed Bunting 1.

Visit the dedicated UK page for other posts from Kent including Oare Marshes and Mote Park.

Meadowlark Botanic Gardens, Tyson's Corner, IAD. April 2012

A quick visit to Raglan's Wood (Google Earth ref; 38 55 23N 77 14 28W enter via Tyspring St. off Gosnell Rd) early in the morning produced a close encounter with the local White-tailed Deer.

My new compact camera comes equipped with a video function and I will embed some motion to the post if I can figure out how. Until then, this was my favourite still from the old Canon.

 

 

I was headed towards the Meadowlark Botanic Gardens, but opening time is not until 10.00 so I found a couple of en-route divertissements to while away the golden hours of the early morning.

Freedom Hill (Google Earth ref; 38 55 00N 77 14 29W) is just a few hundred yards beyond Raglan's Wood, but I was surprised to note that deer activity here was much reduced. There was much more understorey ground cover which has been eaten away at Raglan's Wood. The birds enjoyed the extra cover and White-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos fed from the ground in front of the thickets. A Brown Creeper clung to the trunk of a pine tree near the car park and the ubiquitous Northern Cardinals kept up their whistles as a soundtrack for the day.

Meadowlark Botanic Gardens (Google Earth ref; 35 56 15N 16 53 04W) was entrusted to the care of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority by Gardiner Means and Caroline Ware who had previously run the 74 acres as a small farm. NVRPA expanded it slightly and created a public garden in accordance with Gardiner’s and Caroline's wishes.

As a birding site, much of the gardens have been well manicured giving a sterile feel. Much of the bankside along the lakes was closely cropped and the only waterfowl seen were Canada Geese. My go to guy in times of trouble, ie when not much is presenting itself for pictures, is the American Robin. It is always to be found on nice lawns and will always sit for a photo.

To be fair, Lake Gardiner had been allowed to become slightly dishevelled with some weed growth in the water and reeds in the far corner and this concession to nature had attracted a Red-shouldered Blackbird who performed from the seed head of a reed mace.

Bird boxes have been erected around the grounds. A Tree Swallow had already staked a claim to no. 12 and had started preparations for his anticipated family.

At last I found Lake Lina which represented a slice of Virginia native wetlands and whispered to me of snakes and dragonflies. If I had known of Lake Lina at the beginning of the morning, this is where I would have spent my time.

Carolina Chickadees and American Goldfinches flitted through the trees here and a Red-shouldered Hawk soared beyond the borders of the park. The Canada Geese look set to consolidate on their position as primary waterbird of the gardens.

It was here that I found my first American ode of the new season, a red-crayon Blue Corporal, Libellula deplanata. Another darner and a damselfly were too quick for me to identify.

In the bushes close by, an Eastern Bluebird stopped for a good look.

Time was running against me this morning and I still faced a thirty minute cycle back to the hotel. I had just enough time left to take a quick once round by the Korean Bell meadow where a Cooper’s Hawk flew over, chased by Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows (PS refers to the slight recomposition of the swallows).

A small trickle runs along a wooded ditch and at last I managed to get a picture of a Chipping Sparrow. They had been calling all day, but had managed to stay out of range or tucked behind a leaf to avoid the attentions of my lens.

Birds seen; 20

Black Vulture 1, Canada Goose 20, Cooper’s Hawk 1, Red-shouldered Hawk 2, Mourning Dove 1, Tree Swallow 25, Barn Swallow 4, Eastern Bluebird 2, American Robin 15, Hermit Thrush 3, Carolina Chickadee 4, Tufted Titmouse 2, Blue Jay 1, American Crow 5, House Sparrow 6, American Goldfinch 3, Northern Cardinal 3, Chipping Sparrow 4, Common Grackle 10, Red-winged Blackbird.


The cycle ride from Tyson's Corner to Meadowlark Botanic Gardens takes you through the pretty town of Vienna. Cross the Leesburg Pike onto Gosnell Road and turn right after 600yds onto Old Courthouse Rd. Keep straight for 3 miles and the gardens are on your left. There are a couple of hills, but nothing sustained.

Opening times are from 10.00. Closing times vary with the time of year. Follow this link for more on closing times.

More posts from Tyson's Corner including; Great Falls Park and Shenandoah National Park can be found at the dedicated USA and Canada page.

Apricot Wood Duck

This is a follow up to a puzzle about a peculiarly coloured Wood Duck.

Thank you to the Yahoo group for the Mandarin and Wood Duck Breeders Association for the replies to my enquiry.

The individual above is known in the trade as an Apricot Wood Duck. I am told that this is a colour mutation that can occur in the wild, but would very rarely be seen outside of private collections. In the past, such birds would have been collected as genetic stock for a breeding program that could reliably reproduce the pattern for the duck fanciers' trade. The genetic bank containing the apricot mutation trigger has probably been much depleted in the wild stock making such a mutation unlikely outside of selective breeding.


For a post including a more traditional Wood Duck, I refer you to the Stanley Park article

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This is not a regular post. I found a Wood Duck with a strange colouration as part of a private collection recently and have made an enquiry to waterfowl collectors to see if they can tell me about it.

The base colour is buffy brown with a darker brown on the head. I suspect that it must have been specially bred for this effect.
If you have any comments about it, please reply either in the section below, on the waterfowl forum or by email to redgannet@gmail.com