Cardinal meets the enemy and he is...

While observing the local Bald Eagles, nest watchers parked their cars in a grassy area adjacent to a woodland where Northern Cardinals maintained nesting territories. Often, even before the drivers completed parking and exited from their vehicles, a cardinal would attack a side mirror.

This behavior continued through the winter and up to the present.

January 18, 2021:

February 6, 2021. The scary image on the truck's mirror  did not dissuade this warrior:

On June 16, a male cardinal watched me as I walked away from the car:

His mate flew in to watch the battle:

A double reflection. His rivals have multiplied!

No amount of effort intimidated the enemy (* See note):

On the home front, the Mangos were ripening and we picked as many as we could reach, giving most of them away to neighbors. Those higher in the tree ripened on the tree and later fell to the ground, where we competed with the birds, squirrels and iguanas. Out early, we collected dozens more, ready to eat. We brought bags of them to church and neighbors who shared in our largesse:

A Green Iguana got to some Mangos before we did:

A Muscovy Duck mom brought her 9 ducklings to the feast. When she saw me she rushed to the edge of the lake with seven ducklings. Two were left behind as they were still eating the fallen Mangos:

Two drakes joined them. They had been competing for her attention and often try to mate with a hen even if she is tending to her young:

She gathered her ducklings together and then ran up to fetch the other two. All nine ducklings then rested together on our lawn. Some fell fast asleep:

I did not get out much this past week, but a visit to Chapel Trail Nature Preserve in nearby Pembroke Pines yielded sightings of four Great Egrets, a species which has been absent from our local wetlands for more than two weeks:

Overhead, an immature Red-shouldered Hawk screamed continuously:

Several recent downpours have increased water levels:

Rain was again threatening:

Swamp Lilies were flourishing:

In a dry patch, I found a pretty yellow flower with distinctive leaves, but am not sure of its identity and whether it is wild or an invasive alien:

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* REF: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo in Walt Kelly cartoon

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Linking to:

Garden Affair

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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Tricolored Heron, bigger than life

Although rather common in the local open marshes and along our back yard lake, the Tricolored Herons in our neighborhood are quite timid and often do not permit a close approach. This week in the Wounded Wetlands as I stood on the peninsula in the lake, watching the sunrise and listening for owls and Chuck-wills-widows, two Tricolored Herons flew by. One appeared to be chasing the other, perhaps competing over feeding territories. 

The "chaser" suddenly abandoned pursuit and settled down quite nearby on the exposed rocks of an extinct levee:

The sky was overcast and it was only 20 minutes after sunrise, so my photos were not very sharp. However, it was the heron's foraging behavior which commanded my attention. Not sure whether it was more interested in eating bugs or lizards or fish, it darted about haphazardly:

(I could go on and on, but your eyes are probably glazing over.)

John James Audubon's stylized depiction of this species, then called "Louisiana Heron," is acclaimed as art but does not do justice to the living bird. Audubon collected (shot) his subjects and draped their bodies on a framework of wires, reconstructing  postures to make them appear alive, but also fit the confines of the folio on which he painted them.  

© Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing, reproduced for personal and noncommercial use only.  https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/louisiana-heron

Grossly exaggerated plumes suggest that Audubon's bird was in breeding plumage, but at which time its bill would be blue rather than yellow as depicted in the painting. Here is my photo of a Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage in March, 2019:

The Tricolored Heron has an imposing presence, but when seen with other herons it is actually quite small. Here is one next to an immature Reddish Egret which visited us back in 2011:

The Tricolored Heron seemed to be imitating the Reddish Egret's erratic foraging style:

This Tricolored Heron was following a Wood Stork in our back yard lake in June, 2019:

This immature Tricolored Heron plumage displays "three colors" more prominently than does that of the adult (June, 2018): 

We are now transitioning to the wet season. Storm clouds were gathering up ahead on June 6 as we headed home from the Wounded Wetlands:

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Linking to:

Fences Around the World

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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Listing bird species in the Wounded Wetlands

My list of bird species seen in our local south Florida birding patch (West Miramar Water Conservation Area aka the Wounded Wetlands) had reached 182 at the end of 2020. Over the years the productivity of the patch has followed the Law of Diminishing Returns. I began keeping my sightings records in eBird in 2009, when my yearly total for this location included 47 different species. 

The year 2010 began with a flourish, adding 6 new species on January 10, including my first Short-tailed Hawk. It was this light morph. Its tail looks red due to refraction of sunlight:

The year 2010 finally yielded 33 new species, which increased the patch's total output to 80 species, about 70% of the prior year's productivity. The pattern continued during the next 5 years (2011-2015), with new species numbering 27, 13, 14, 15 and 9, during which time the productivity rate gradually decreased to 49% (averaging about 10% per year) despite an increase in my total to 158 species.

Grasshopper Sparrow, February 2, 2011

Each of the next five years (2016-2020) added only single-digit new species counts, bringing my total to 182 with an average productivity rate of 13% (pitifully, only 2.6% annually).  

Clay-colored Sparrow, November 17, 2016:

Despite the pandemic, I added five new birds in 2020. Indeed, it was liberating to walk mask-less in the Wounded Wetlands. 

My highlight new species in 2020 was a Yellow Warbler (actually there were two), my only Florida sighting of this species, on August 18:

The Law of Diminishing Returns was working against me when 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers appeared at the edge of the lake on May 24, 2021. This species can be difficult to distinguish from the Western Sandpiper. 

Over the years I have seen small sandpipers, but never well enough to distinguish their species unless they had the yellow legs of a Least Sandpiper, another member of the Calidris genus. 

Yet I assumed that I must have reported the species earlier. Nope, it was always entered as a Semipalmated/Western Sandpiper, not "countable" by eBird. I had backed into a new species! 

Semipalmated Sandpiper #183 in the Wounded Wetlands, foraging in very early morning light. Note the webbing which covers only the base of its toes, hence its name:

Here are Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers in much better light, feeding in a pond near our second home in Illinois, July 17, 2012. The Least Sandpiper displays its yellow legs:

Diminishing returns indeed. So far this year my addition of one species has raised my total count for this patch by only 0.54%. 

As my musing maysuggest, I have not been out in the field very often this past week.  Avian highlights were a Pileated Woodpecker...

...and a juvenile female Northern Cardinal:

A young Raccoon silently watched me from behind a tree trunk:

In the lake, Longnose Gar:

The pilot of a motorized parachute was checking his phone:

Before sunrise on May 30, Jupiter and Saturn were lined up with the Moon in Aquarius (iPhone photo):

Hand-held DSLR photo of Jupiter and three of its moons, a bit jittery:

Storm clouds to the east  broke up the rays of the rising sun...

...which reflected on the smoke from several wildfires and converged on the western horizon:

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Linking to:

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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