Painted Buntings at the Visitor Center

 Florida 2013 continued (the never ending blog series!)

My mom and I finished up the Black Point Wildlife Drive at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and headed over to the Visitor Center. It was near 1:00 so we had lunch in the van then walked the boardwalk at the center looking for songbirds. Not the best time of day for birding, I admit, but again, when your time is limited you take what you can get.

There wasn't much going on along the boardwalk, but there were several different woodpeckers active along one stretch. We saw a red-bellied and a hairy, and this male yellow-bellied sapsucker. This is not a bird I see around home, and I didn't have very good images of it, so I was happy to spend a few minutes following him through the trees.

Male yellow-bellied sapsucker. The female lacks the red neck patch.

I like catching birds in motion, especially when they are just taking flight. You get some pretty interesting poses. Wings up and back, ready to flap, I love how his feet are sticking out like he's still clinging to the tree.

We walked back to the Visitor Center to check out the feeders. This is where the painted buntings are most likely to be seen. I imagine this is one of the most photographed feeders in the country. I set up my tripod and waited, and within a few minutes this little green bird flew up. I had no idea what it was. Duh.

Oooo, a mystery bird!

Shortly after we got there a couple we'd met on the boardwalk joined us. One of the women was new to birding, and her partner had been pointing out the differences in the woodpeckers. The novice watched the green bird through her binoculars while the other got out her bird book. She'd been birding around the world so I'm a little surprised she didn't just know what this was--and rattle off its Latin name while she was at.

Anyway, she flipped the pages and then said, "Ah, a female painted bunting!"  Yeah, I should have figured that one out! Look at that beak!

Female painted bunting. She would blend in very well with the lush foliage of the south.

 Shortly after ID-ing the female, the male made an appearance.

Male painted bunting. Nothing else in the States can compare, in my opinion. What a privilege to be able to see one.

Just can't get enough of this amazingly colorful bird!

Oh, this shot has potential--I love the pose! I have done an indigo bunting, and have snow bunting images from last winter. Do I see a series in the making?

And now I have a confession. The birds took off soon after this but the female stuck around (there were actually two of them) and posed prettily in a bush next to the feeder. I took lots of shots, happy to see the birds in a more natural setting. But at home, sorting through several thousand images, these all got deleted before I copied them to my computer. What I do is make folders for all the species and/or places, and copy the images to the folders, kind of sorting as I go. I must have thought I'd copied them when I deleted the images from the camera card--and when you delete images from the card, they are deleted permanently. I've checked the card and my flash drive, where I had also stored some images, but they are no where to be seen. I guess I can check the laptop as a last resort but I fear the worst. Ah well, we learn as we go. I am happy then to have any shots of her at all. Sigh.

Next: A chance encounter along the boardwalk.

LSPP Crescent Lake Trail

After over five hours in the car and setting up camp it was starting to get a little late to do much in the way of hiking. However, after five hours in the car, neither one of us wanted to sit in a kayak. We were happy to see that there was a short trail off the campground road and decided to stretch our legs. The sun had begun to peek out and it was a pleasant evening so an easy walk seemed like just what we needed.

One of the things that surprised me about this park is there were no trail maps available. Each trail head had a sign with a map and description (in English and French) but I guess they figured you could memorize the trail map. I for one like to have a map handy as I like to know where I am and what I'm looking at. I don't feel like the journey is any more adventurous without a map!



There are a lot of lakes in this park and there are many canoe routes between them. Crescent Lake (bottom right on this map) is part of a canoe trail that includes portages to MacGregor Lake (top), Kenny Lake (left) and Mudhole Lake (middle). We had talked about the possibility of doing this water loop but we never got around to it. The Crescent Lake hiking trail crossed several of these portages.



Right off the bat we found the portage from Crescent lake to Mudhole Lake and saw this beaver track. Remember, this was before we saw any beaver, and I was excited to see more sign of them. I forgot to mention last post that I had only seen a beaver once before, at a great distance in the Seney Nat'l Wildlife Refuge in Michigan, so I was eager to see some on this trip.



More sign of beaver. They take down trees of this size in order to get at the branches, which they strip to eat the inner bark.



We followed the portage over to Mudhole Lake and found a beaver lodge on the far side.




This little plant was everywhere, and I could not for the life of me remember what it was while we were there. But just the other day I was reading a book about an island in the Puget Sound and the author was writing about wood sorrel. Ah ha!



Following the trail we came to MacGregor Lake. I was surprised to see how rugged this country is. Apparently this whole area, from northwestern Wisconsin on up through Ontario, was once a mountain range, way way back, and these are the remnants of them. From what I recall there was once a lot of volcanic activity here and the mountain ranges were created much like the ring of mountains and islands we see in the Pacific today, from Indonesia through Japan and up to Alaska.



There were a great number of yellow-bellied sapsuckers in this area. Signs of them were everywhere, including on this downed tree trunk. While downy and hairy woodpeckers make rows of horizontal holes, and pileated make huge oblong-shaped excavations, the sapsucker makes its holes vertically (remember, this log is laying on the ground).




I finally caught sight of a sapsucker on a snag and managed to get a few decent shots. I may do a drawing of this bird and add it to my woodpecker series!



By the time we'd gotten round to Kenny Lake it was really starting to brighten up. I can't get enough of the spruce/cedar/birch forests that line these lakes. All the shapes and contrasts are a treat for the eye!



The woods along the trail were a nice mix of young birch and poplar and some huge yellow birch. The birds were singing their evening songs as the sun turn the tree canopy to gold. It was a splendid evening indeed.


Next: Morning on Crescent Lake