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The more I write about nature, the more people identify me with the subject. Every week, I get texts and emails with pictures, links to articles and sometimes even a call to get out here NOW… there’s a huge flock of birds at the three way… referring to the intersection of Card Sound Road at Crocodile Lake in North Key Largo. From Ocean Reef, as you turn north on Card Sound Road, it is the first wetland to the right, and is a productive birding spot.  A huge congregation of wading birds on a cold overcast morning in Crocodile Lake. Photo by Jeanette Rivera. Such was the case on January 31st, about 8:00 am on a really cold morning with overcast sky when I received a call from Jeanette Rivera, naturalist at Ocean Reef, who was heading to work when she spotted a huge congregation of wading birds. She snapped a photo with her iPhone and in it were White Ibis, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, White Pelican, Great White Heron, Reddish Egret and Wood Stork. It was just beautiful. Rivera said, “I was in shock that there were so many birds in that one spot! It was really magical… special…I love it!” As you can tell, Jeanette is very passionate about nature. Of the birds present on this morning, the Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, White Pelican, and Great White Heron were a special treat, as they are most typically seen flying overhead, but on this day they were all here! According to Isabella Collamati, Invasive Species Biologist at Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, ‘time of day, time of year, temperature, and tide would probably be the biggest factors for why they chose to gather that day. It all lined up so that the water was deep enough to host enough prey to keep all parties interested, but shallow enough to make the hunting easier.” The birds diet consists of minnows, mullet, and killifish, and they are pickier about size than species.  Observe how the Reddish Egret hunts. They do a “Crazy Dance” using their wings to shade the water for a better view and then give chase until they can strike their prey. Reddish Egrets differ from other egret species, that simply stand and wait for food to come before they strike.     By the time I arrived, some of the birds had already left, but there were still dozens of birds. I had fun photographing the Reddish Egret and it’s distinctive hunting behavior. As it searched for fish, it would do a “crazy dance” as it jumped and hopped back and forth with outstretch wings raised over its head, peering at the water. The wings cast a shadow so they can see the prey better. The Reddish Egret is also one of the rare egrets, with only 2,000 pairs thought to be breeding in the U.S. A Roseate Spoonbill sat grooming on a red mangrove perch. Not sure it was there because the tide had risen and it’s short legs were no longer able to maneuver in the deepening wetland. Spoonbills have the broadened bill-ends full of nerve-endings, to feel for animals when mud-grubbing.  Spoonbills have the broadened bill-ends full of nerve-endings, to feel for animals when mud-grubbing.  Show me a little pink, peach and fuscia you pretty Rosie. Though not a wading bird, I saw a Belted Kingfisher hunting near this shallow wetland. The Kingfisher can regularly be seen perched on the power lines along Card Sound Road. Winter and Spring is nesting season for these birds, though I am not sure where these particular birds were from. Historically wading birds nested in the small Keys and nearby mangrove islands, within Florida Bay, far from human disturbances. The Everglades supports 70-90% of all wading bird nests annually. Wading birds initiated approx 89,514 nests in the Everglades in 2021. The wading bird nesting in 2021 was the highest recorded in 80 years.  The Kingfisher often perches along Card Sound Road. Their “mohawk” style feathers on their head give the kingfisher an air of confidence. Nesting success is highly dependent on the availability of fish and waters shallow enough to concentrate the fish, and water just the right level for the birds to wade in. Wading birds are abandoning their traditional nesting grounds in Florida Bay, and are moving north, partly due to increased salinity and the resulting reduction of species of fish that thrive in brackish water. Salinity of the Florida Bay is a problem, and the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is intended to divert more fresh water through Taylor Slough to Florida Bay to improve the bay's health by reducing salinity. On the mainland Everglades, Madeira Hammock and Paurotis Pond, are locations with a reliable amount of birds and also a short field-trip from the Keys. It is very special living near designated wildlife refuges and national parks, but birds cannot read, and can easily settle in parks and gardens with suitable conditions. Or even can be seen flying overhead… This story was told to me by an avid tennis player Pat Holbrook, about a situation that occurred in mid-serve, requiring a “do-over”. As Pat tossed the ball preparing to serve up a winner, she called “let”… there is a Roseate Spoonbill flying over the tennis court. It is rare to see a Roseate Spoonbill, but never had she seen one flying overhead. An unexpected pause, a brief delay of game… and all the players agreed, nature had served up a winner.
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A manatee is a harmless, slow moving aquatic mammal - not a fish - with a light brown to gray hide, often covered with barnacles and algae. Their nickname “sea cow” comes from their diet of seagrasses and aquatic plants, found in shallow waters adjacent to tropical shorelines. Fossil records indicate manatees were present in the bays and rivers of Florida about 15 million years ago.  A family of manatees, one with a mutilated tail, forage in an Ocean Reef channel. In 1951 Everglades National Park biologist Joseph Moorea began the now-standard practice of identifying individual manatee by the propeller scars on their backs caused by careless operation of motorboats. In 1832 when Audubon visited the Keys he wrote about “those singular animals called Sea Cows or Marratees [sic], and he had conquered hundreds of them…because the flesh and hide bring ‘a fair price,’ at Havannah [sic].”  1890 John and Eddie Pent and a crowd around a manatee on a Coconut Grove pier. (Credit: Archives State of Florida) In 1891, Kirk Monroe wrote that the manatee “abounds” in Biscayne Bay and related an incident in which his Miami neighbors killed one of a “herd” of five, supplying the “settlement of 100 souls with meat for three days.”  Indians killed the manatee for food- fried, grilled, or boiled or dehydrated by smoking beside a fire under a chickee hut. They’d trade the hide for coffee, sugar and salt. Bones were used for rituals. In 1893, Florida law made it illegal to kill or capture manatees. Despite the law, the waters of the Keys were akin to the wild west… albeit a wet and wild frontier. In 1919 Zane Grey, renowned author of westerns, and President of the Long Key Fishing Club, wrote: “Who fishes just to kill? At Long Key last winter I met two self-styled sportsmen. They were eager to convert me to what they claimed was the dry-fly class angling of the sea. And it was to jab harpoons and spears into porpoises and manatee and sawfish, and be dragged about in their boat. The height of their achievements that winter had been the harpooning of several sawfish, each of which gave birth to a little one while being fought on the harpoon! Ye gods! It would never do to record my utterances.”  The Save the Manatee Committee was established in 1981 by Jimmy Buffett and Gov. Bob Graham. Committee Chairman Jimmy Buffett and Pat Rose, Department of Natural Resources, review a script promoting awareness and education about the endangered West Indian Manatee. (Credit: Archives State of Florida) Miami’s boom of the 1920’s gave rise to greater populations living in South Florida, particularly near the coast. Then came the bust and Floridians resorted to hunting manatee to put food on the table to survive the Great Depression of 1929. Historically, the Seminole Indian Tribe used the manatee for food, traded the skins for essentials, and used the bones in rituals.  Manatees search for fresh drinking water, but never feed or water them. This could attract them to dangerous areas, like docks, putting them at greater risk of a boat strike. It is also illegal to feed and water manatees. Manatees are thermoregulators, meaning that they attempt to maintain a constant body temperature. In nature, manatees retreat to deeper areas where a layer of salty bottom water helps to trap heat and allow for warmer conditions near the bottom. Like manatees, Florida was settled by people seeking refuge from the cold. As populations grew, so did the range of the manatee. who were frequently seen in canals and yacht basins, attracted by a new form of warm-water refuge caused by population growth. The advent of large power plants aligns with the manatee’s expansion up the Atlantic Coast of Florida. Power plants were constructed in Fort Lauderdale (1926), Palm Beach (1946), and Ft. Pierce (1945), and later up the Gulf Coast to Ft. Myers and St. Petersburg (1958) and Crystal River (1966).  1980’s Highway billboard By the early 1970’s it became clear that the manatee was struggling with the effects of living close to man. Boat collisions, habitat loss, seagrass decline, coastal development, human interaction, toxic red tide algal blooms and climate change impacts threatened their existence. The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972. In 1975 the Florida Legislature named the Manatee the “Florida State Marine Mammal”. and in 1978 enacted Florida’s Marine Sanctuary Act. The Save the Manatee Committee was established in 1981 by Jimmy Buffett and Gov. Bob Graham to promote awareness and education about the endangered West Indian Manatee.  Today it is illegal to pursue, harass or play with a manatee. Man hugging a manatee Miami Seaquarium circa 1987 (Credit: Archives State of Florida) In 1991, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) aerial survey of the population of the Florida manatee revealed only 1300 individuals. By 2016 things were improving, and the manatee moved from an endangered status to a downgraded threatened status. In 2019 the USFWS estimate of Florida Manatee was about 6300 individuals. The 2022-23 USFWS survey estimated Florida Manatee numbered 8,350–11,730. With 3,960–5,420 on the west coast and 3,940–6,980 on the east coast. The manatee’s history in Florida is linked to population growth and development, and their survival in our modern era is unclear. The fact that this creature has persisted to this day gives me hope for the future.   A Florida “Save the Manatee” license plate is a smart way individuals may support manatee research, rescue, and monitoring efforts, to guide conservation actions. “I see said the blind man as he picks up his hammer and saw,” is one of my favorite expressions, where “see” refers to sight or understanding. and the moment when I finally recognize what is going on. It was just a regular trip to the mailbox; on the way I’d glance at the bed of aloe vera plants with their tall bloom spikes, hoping for a hummingbird to hover on by. Surely one day I’d see a hummingbird as each Fall Hummingbirds leave their breeding grounds throughout the Eastern United States, and winter in the Florida Keys. while others take their fly-way South through Texas to Panama.  Ruby-throated hummingbird approaching an aloe vera flower. Surely they were present in my yard. Yet they eluded my vision until I took the time to sit and wait, camera in hand, for the invisible to appear. To say I'm a multitasker would be accurate, while I sit in wait for the hummingbird, the phone rings and now I’m also talking to a client about art work when suddenly I blurt out “Wait wait I gotta go… It's here…” My reaction to spotting my first hummingbird could have been likened to giving birth to my first child. But in a flash it was gone again.  Ruby-throated hummingbird male hovers in midair while sipping nectar. I silenced the phone, and waited with my strict attention on the flowers. In about 10 minutes the bird returned. I lifted my camera, pulled off some shots and I captured that amazing bird approaching, hovering, and nectaring on an aloe flower. The photograph revealed it was a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), its name referring to the ruby-red feathers on the male bird’s throat.  Firebush (Hamelia patens): a Florida native with orange-red flowers Having finally seen a hummingbird in action, I can truly appreciate these amazing little helicopters, as they swoop down from the treetops, hover in midair while sipping nectar, then zip away all in the blink of an eye. They are so small, about 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches, weighing less than a quarter of an ounce, a hummingbird could easily be missed. Perhaps you could hear them coming by the humming sound caused by the rapid beating of their wings… that’s why they are called “humming” birds. Ruby-throated hummingbirds’ wings beat at an amazing 55 beats per second. They have to keep moving since hummingbirds have tiny feet, which is great for aerodynamics, however there's a downside: these birds cannot walk. They can only perch or scoot sideways.  Firecracker plant: with red, tubular flowers, growing 3-4 ft. tall and 6 ft. wide Hummingbirds need to feed every 10-15 minutes which increased my opportunities for getting a photo. They can only feed from dawn to dusk so they must consume more than half their weight in food and 8 times their weight in water. They’ve adapted to survive darkness when they cannot feed by eating as much as they can just before dark. At night, their heart rate and body temperature drop to conserve energy, sort of like a daily hibernation, otherwise they likely would starve. Hummingbirds preferred flower color is orange, red or pink. Their needle-like beaks are specialized for feeding on tubular-shaped flowers, where they eat insects found inside, and with their tongue extending beyond their beak, drink the nectar, as if sipping through a straw.  Geiger Tree (Cordia sebestena): a large Florida Keys native with bright orange flowers Frequently mentioned on lists of Keys Hummingbird plants are the following:
The aloe plant is rarely mentioned as a nectar plant for hummingbirds, although the aloe bloom is pinkish-yellow and has a tubular shape. Hummingbirds learn by trial and error which flowers give the best results, so the aloe in my yard evidently has passed the taste test. They also like the red Bombax blooms which appear in late Winter/Spring.  Adult Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird o a feeder looking “back at ya”. Photo by: Ed Cox A short while later I resumed the phone call that was interrupted by the bird. Luckily I was speaking with a fellow nature photographer who understood my enthusiasm, and then shared some of his great photos of hummingbirds. I noticed some photos involved feeders which are great for viewing hummingbirds. A feeder is filled with a mixture of 1 part white sugar to 4 parts water. Boil the sugar solution till the sugar is dissolved, then cool.. Since the feeder itself is red, there is no need to add red food coloring. Be careful to avoid placing the feeder in direct sunlight, as this stimulates bacteria growth, and clean the feeder every five days. Though feeders satisfy the sweet tooth, gardening for wildlife is always a better nutritional option, especially if you have a variety of plants which are in bloom at different times.  Adult Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a feeder. Photo by: Ed Cox  Juvenile Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird Photo by: Ed Cox |
CAROL ELLIS
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September 2024
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