Christmas Bird Count: Part 2

In addition to the gathering of friends and family and a bounty of food, the Christmas season brings with it the much anticipated Christmas Bird Count. This year, Aubrey’s mom, Sue, joined me in doing my second Count of the year. Kudos to Sue for her eagerness to participate after two long days of driving down from Iowa. Also in our group were my good friend Emily and a pair of biologists, Brad and Amanda from the USFWS and NOAA respectively.

We left the house at 0330 and arrived at our destination about 0445. We did a little owling and then as the sun came up we went to the guard house at the Gulf Power Plant where we navigated the attendant through a series of communication errors. In a nutshell, access passes and all associated paperwork was taken care of well in advance as has been done for years. However, somebody in middle management neglected to pass this information to the attendant, so after a series of early morning phone calls to the higher ups on Saturday, the problem was resolved. It’s not everyday you get to call the boss at sunrise on his day off. After that we slipped thru the security gates and checked off our target species, black-crowned night herons. The species only turns up in one or two spots and in small numbers in the Count Circle so it was important we compare the numbers to the previous year’s records and add the species to the List. A total of 9 birds were present in the warm water discharge canals. While scoping the canal we were also provided the opportunity to educate and interact with a few workers who were curious about what we doing.

After a bit of birding we left the restricted access area and entered Maher farms, a very large tract owned by real estate baron, St. Joe Corporation. Although I am not terribly familiar with the property’s history, as I understand it, St. Joe tried to farm Shrimp in the 70's and 80's after altering the hydrology of the salt marshes to control salinity. Apparently, the venture failed due to pathogen control issues. This is very similar to what the Federal Government did to establish the renowned St. Marks NWR in Wakulla County - dike and dam salt marshes and control hydrology to provide migratory waterfowl (duck) habitat. In any case, the tract consisted of a series of canals and dikes and roads. The uplands consisted of recently thinned pines (the heavy equipment was still on site and there was fresh green wood, so they were in only days before). After we exhausted the canals and woodlands we turned our efforts and energy to the marshes, open water areas, and mudflats. Unfortunately we weren’t able to cover a tremendous amount of ground due to Brad’s bum knee and the tide not being conducive to covering more ground.

We covered several miles in stiff winds and cold weather, but in the end, it was worth it. We picked up quite a few species of shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers, gulls, terns,) and aquatic birds (ducks, herons, grebes, egrets…) along with numerous raptors. One of the highlights for the group was spotted by Eagle Eye Emily, who located 58 great egrets in a very distant salt marsh. I also picked up a life bird: the swamp sparrow. The robins were out in full swing- one flock we estimated 1500 birds and to be honest it was conservative - I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than 2500 feathered friends in that group. By the way, that many robins generate a lot of noise.

We ended the day approximately 12 hours after the sun came up and headed for a local restaurant where we swapped stories and warmed up with food/beverages (although our service was poor and food cold, but you get the idea). After dinner it was a 90 min drive, making it nearly a 17 hour day.

- Matt

Bay County CBC Species List:

1. Bufflehead

2. Hooded Merganser

3. Red-breasted Merganser

4. Common Loon

5. Pied-billed Grebe

6. Horned Grebe

7. Brown Pelican

8. Double-crested Cormorant

9. Great Blue Heron

10. Great Egret

11. Snowy Egret

12. Tricolored Heron

13. Reddish Egret

14. Green Heron

15. Black-crowned Night Heron

16. Turkey Vulture

17. Osprey

18. Bald Eagle

19. Northern Harrier

20. Red-shouldered Hawk

21. Red-tailed Hawk

22. American Kestral

23. Clapper Rail

24. Black-bellied Plover

25. Semipalmated Plover

26. Killdeer

27. Greater Yellowlegs

28. Willet

29. Spotted Sandpiper

30. Western Sandpiper

31. Dunlin

32. Short-billed Dowitcher

33. Wilson’s Snipe

34. Laughing Gull

35. Ring-billed Gull

36. Forster’s Tern

37. Royal Tern

38. Mourning Dove

39. Great Horned Owl

40. Belted Kingfisher

41. Red-bellied Woodpecker

42. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

43. Downy Woodpecker

44. Blue Jay

45. Tree Swallow

46. Carolina Chickadee

47. House Wren

48. Golden-crowned Kinglet

49. Ruby-crowned Kinglet

50. Eastern Bluebird

51. Hermit Thrush

52. American Robin

53. Gray Catbird

54. Northern Mockingbird

55. European Starling

56. Cedar Waxwing

57. Yellow-rumped Warbler

58. Pine Warbler

59. Palm Warbler

60. Common Yellowthroat

61. Eastern Towhee

62. Chipping Sparrow

63. Nelson’s Short-tailed Sparrow

64. Song Sparrow

65. Swamp Sparrow

66. Northern Cardinal

New Year's Eve

To celebrate the end of the year we headed to some of our favorite public lands in the region: Wakulla Springs State Park and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It finally warmed up after another early cold snap here in North Florida, so it was a beautiful way to spend the last day of the year. Many other families must have thought the same as both parks were very busy.

Our first stop, and the main goal of the day, was Wakulla Springs. Wakulla Springs is a popular tourist stop, with people coming from around the globe to see one of the deepest freshwater springs in the world. Boat tours provide visitors with a rare opportunity to see Florida’s wildlife up close, including several species of birds, alligators, turtles, and even manatees during the winter months. The cave at the source of the spring is 185 feet down and on a clear day, you can see all the way to the bottom. Unfortunately, the water is usually too dark from overgrowth of plant life, likely caused by human impacts (i.e. fertilizer runoff). I have never been to the park on a day when the glass bottom boat tours are running, and the rangers will inform you that this may only happen a couple of days out of the year. Even if you can’t see to the bottom of the spring, the waters that flow from it, forming the Wakulla River, are usually crystal clear, making it easy to see the fish, turtles, and manatees swimming below.

We had heard from several sources that there was a large group of manatees seeking refuge in the warmer waters of the spring this winter, and Matt had only seen manatees in south Florida. We arrived a little before noon and were fortunate enough to get the last seats for the 12:00 boat tour. We saw the usual suspects (alligators, Suwannee river cooters, common moorhens, and black vultures), as well as an American bittern, bald eagle, and three yellow-crowned night herons. Before we even got on the boat, Matt got a glimpse of the manatees hanging out near the dock, but we got an even better look from the boat. During the tour we saw six manatees! During the winter months they seek out warmer waters such as Wakulla Springs, which is a constant 69 degrees year round. These gentle mammals often fall victim to boat motors as is evidenced by the scars visible on their backs.

After we accomplished our manatee goal at Wakulla Springs we headed south for our annual winter visit to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in search of wintering ducks. We came up with a decent species list and enjoyed the warm weather. Some of the highlight species were redheads, northern shovelers, dozens of tricolored herons (the highest density we’d ever seen), another American bittern, and, I believe, a marsh wren. We also saw thousands of peeps (e.g. little shorebirds such as least sandpiper) that, without a tripod for our spotting scope, were next to impossible to identify. Even with a spotting scope I’m not sure I would have been able to ID them, as peeps are one of the hardest groups for me to identify! We just wanted to do some leisurely birding, and to give you an idea of how hard we were trying, at one point Matt was snoozing in his pickup while I walked one of the dikes. A full list for the day can be found below.

The final highlight of the day was a mother alligator with her babies resting on her back! Even though they are common, I will never get tired of alligators.

New Year’s Eve Bird List:

1. Pied-billed Grebe

2. Brown Pelican

3. Double-crested Cormorant

4. Anhinga

5. American Bittern

6. Great Blue Heron

7. Great Egret

8. Snowy Egret

9. Little Blue Heron

10. Tricolored Heron

11. Green Heron

12. Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron

13. White Ibis

14. Wood Duck

15. Mallard

16. Northern Shoveler

17. American Wigeon

18. Canvasback

19. Redhead

20. Scaup (Greater or Lesser?)

21. Bufflehead

22. Hooded Merganser

23. Black Vulture

24. Osprey

25. Bald Eagle

26. Northern Harrier

27. Red-shouldered Hawk

28. Common Moorhen

29. American Coot

30. Semipalmated Plover

31. Killdeer

32. Willet

33. Gulls

34. Belted Kingfisher

35. Red-bellied Woodpecker

36. Eastern Phoebe

37. Marsh Wren?

38. American Robin

39. Gray Catbird

40. Yellow-rumped Warbler

41. Savannah Sparrow?

42. Boat-tailed Grackle

Happy New Year!

Aubrey and Matt

Christmas Bird Count: Part 1

Matt and I participated in a couple of Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) in our area this past month. The first was a new CBC that Matt participated in a trial run of last year, near Vernon, FL. We left the house EARLY and started owling our section around 5:45. We did actually hear a pair of barred owls so at least the early start was worth it! We spent the rest of the day driving around our section, wandering around the few public areas we could. Unfortunately, our section consists mainly of inaccessible private lands, which made it difficult to spend the entire day surveying. We did find a few good hot spots though, and we ended our day with 41 species and over 700 individuals (not great, I know). There were several common species missing, and we didn’t see large flocks of robins and other species as would be expected. Our species list can be viewed below.


18 turtle shells found around a cypress swamp complex
near Vernon, FL.

The most interesting findings during the Vernon bird count were actually turtle shells. Lots of them. Our section had a large cypress swamp system, but only one pond was public. We walked around the pond in the morning, hoping to scare up some cool birds. Instead, I found one very large river cooter shell and one slider shell. We chalked it up to good luck and continued birding the remainder of our section. In the early afternoon, however, we were driving on the north side of the swamp when Matt thought he spotted another turtle shell just off the road. I went in to investigate and found yet another shell before I reached the first one! Within 10 minutes, we found over 20 shells (river cooters and sliders) around the margins of the swamp. Of course, my first thought was harvesting by people, but most of the shells were intact, and there were no bullet holes either. My second theory was that we had such a cold winter last year, maybe these turtles froze under water when the water levels were higher. However, a fellow conservationist suggested that it was actually raccoon depredation as the water levels dropped. He said he has found hundreds of shells just as we described and with little to no scratch marks. This was a very disturbing thing to find, and any other theories are most welcome. I thought it was so cool when I found the first cooter shell, but by the end of the day, it was just depressing.

Great Blue Heron

Black Vulture

Wood Duck

Red-Shouldered Hawk

American Kestrel

Killdeer

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Barred Owl

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Eastern Phoebe

White-Eyed Vireo

Blue-Headed Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Brown Creeper

Carolina Wren

Winter Wren

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Northern Mockingbird

Orange-Crowned Warbler

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Pine Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Red-Winged Blackbird

Eastern Meadowlark

Brewer’s Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-Headed Cowbird

American Goldfinch


Look for the second CBC in Part 2, coming soon!

Critters in Action!

Great news! Fingerprince Prints now has a YouTube account. We currently have 15 videos available and there are many more to come! I never realized we had so many until I decided to open the account. A couple of my personal favorites are posted below.

Photos that have accompanying video can be found in our new Photos with Video collection; although, photos are not available for all videos.

Enjoy!

-Aubrey

Botany and Birding

We have been busy almost every weekend since we've returned to Florida, exploring the parks and forests in the area. This past weekend was no exception. On Saturday we joined the Sweet Bay Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society in a field trip to Torreya State Park, led by well known botanist, Gil Nelson. Torreya State Park is named after the Torreya tree, an endangered species, threatened by a fungal disease. This unique tree can only be found on the slopes along the Apalachicola River. There are efforts to recover this species, however, it has not been determined where the fungus came from or how we can stop it from spreading. The Atlanta Botanical Gardens have been successfully growing torreya trees in hopes of eventually reestablishing populations in areas where they have disappeared. If you visit Torreya State Park you can see "captive" Torreya trees growing at the Gregory House. The park is a beautiful place any time of year, but the fall is especially captivating as the leaves are changing on the slopes along the Apalachicola.



Gil Nelson teaching the group about Florida's
native plants at Torreya State Park.

Below is a partial list of the speices we found:

• Acer saccharum floridanum (FLORIDA MAPLE)
• Acer leucoderme (CHALK MAPLE)
• Amelanchier arborea (COMMON SERVICEBERRY)
• Andropogon glomeratus (BUSHY BLUESTEM)
• Aristolochia tomentosa (WOOLLY DUTCHMAN'S-PIPE; PIPEVINE)
• Celtis laevigata (SUGARBERRY; HACKBERRY)
• Celtis tenuifolia (DWARF HACKBERRY)
• Crataegus spathulata (LITTLEHIP HAWTHORN)
• Crataegus uniflora (DWARF HAWTHORN)
• Crataegus viridis (GREEN HAW)
• Dirca palustris (EASTERN LEATHERWOOD)
• Epifagus virginiana (BEECHDROPS)
• Fagus grandifolia (BEECH TREE)
• Forestiera godfreyi (GODFREY'S SWAMPPRIVET)
• Fraxinus americana (WHITE ASH, AMERICAN ASH)
• Hydrangea quercifolia (OAKLEAF HYDRANGEA; GRAYBEARD)
• Ilex ambigua (CAROLINA HOLLY)
• Ilex decidua (POSSUMHAW)
• Ilex longipes (GEORGIA HOLLY)
• Liriodendron tulipifera (TULIPTREE; YELLOW POPLAR)
• Lithospermum tuberosum (TUBEROUS GROMWELL)
• Magnolia grandiflora (SOUTHERN MAGNOLIA)
• Magnolia macrophylla ashei (BIGLEAF MAGNOLIA; ASHE'S MAGNOLIA)
• Magnolia pyramidata (PYRAMID MAGNOLIA)
• Magnolia virginiana (SWEET BAY MAGNOLIA
• Mitchella repens (PARTRIDGEBERRY; TWINBERRY)
• Monotropa uniflora (INDIAN PIPE)
• Ostrya virginiana (EASTERN HOPHORNBEAM)
• Oxydendrum arboreum (SOURWOOD)
• Prunus serotina (BLACK CHERRY)
• Prunus serotina alabamensis (ALABAMA CHERRY)
• Quercus hemisphaerica (DARLINGTON OAK)
• Quercus laurifolia (DIAMOND OAK)
• Rhapidophyllum hystrix (NEEDLE PALM)
• Sideroxylon lanuginosum (GUM BULLY)
• Sorghastrum elliottii (SLENDER INDIANGRASS)
• Staphylea trifolia (AMERICAN BLADDERNUT)
• Strobilurus conigenoides
• Symplocos tinctoria (COMMON SWEETLEAF; HORSE SUGAR)
• Taxus floridana (FLORIDA YEW)
• Torreya taxifolia (GOPHERWOOD; STINKING CEDAR; FLORIDA TORREYA)
• Vaccinium stamineum (DEERBERRY)

Site lists for areas of interest in the Panhandle can be found on Gil Nelson's website. Overall it was a very productive trip with 20-30 participants taking part.

Green anoles were in abundance on the forest floor, and I found a Florida redbelly snake (Storeria occipitomaculata obscura) in the leaf litter. One of the other nature enthusiasts, Robin, spotted a grizzled mantis climbing up a tree. Fungi were also abundant and I’ve done my best to identify those we saw. If you notice a mislabeled species or one without a label, please feel free to contact us if you know what it is! Although I am learning, I am by no means a botanist, and your input is appreciated. We strive to provide
accurate, educational information.

After the field trip to Torreya we headed down towards Lake Powell where a group of friends were having an appetizer cook off and bonfire; a great way to wind down at the end of a long day in the woods!

The next morning we left Lake Powell early to make it back to Florida Caverns State Park in time for a bird walk at 9 am. The bird activity was pretty minimal so we didn’t see much to note, but it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning. What a great weekend!

-Aubrey

Notecards and Coupons

You can now purchase our handmade notecards (set of 12) directly through our website. Select up to 12 images to add to your cart and select the "Hand-made Notecards" when purchasing. And from now until the end of the year you can save 10% on all notecard and digital download purchases! Just enter "10%FPPcards" as the coupon code.

Hand-made notecards by Fingerprince Prints. Card and envelope
colors may vary.

We are doing some gallery reorganizing and are still in the process of syncing all of our galleries with Flickr. We will also have new photos coming soon, including a flatwoods salamander that Matt encountered crossing a road this fall. Now is the time for amphibians! Happy herping :)

Aubrey

FPP Update

Hey folks!


Fingerprince Prints is back in North Florida! Matt is currently working for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) as a private lands biologist out of Marianna, and I am still unemployed, looking for work in the area. Fortunately, this has given me ample time to update the website and make a few changes. We now have a flickr account in addition to our original galleries on Zenfolio. We have added this new account in hopes of reaching the audience of the flickr community. All new images will be added to both sites; however, purchasing can only be done through the original galleries. We have lowered our prices on all of our prints and some of the gifts (calendars, keychains, etc.) as well. We have also set up package deals (including 4 prints for $14.95) in time for the holidays! All of our merchandise comes from high quality photo shop partners, and I have been extremely satisfied with everything I’ve seen to date.



The Gift Package includes one set of coasters (4), black mug,
canvas bag, calendar, and one 8x10 print with the photos
of your choice.



We have also been hard at work, creating new galleries (Washington, Colorado, and Yellowstone) and adding new photos to existing galleries. If you are curious what’s new, we have now set up a “New Photos” collection that can be found in the “Recently Added” section. Here you will find all of the new additions (not including photos in new galleries), so you don’t have to hunt around in older galleries you have already viewed. New images will be left in the collection for about a month so check in frequently!

Happy Holidays,
Aubrey