Crops & Clips: This week's clicks

A Muscovy Duck emerged from the dense Cocoplum shrub in our back yard and presented us with her 14 newly hatched ducklings:

  



She led them into the water for their first swim:



They clustered around her:



Sadly, it is very likely that the ducklings' numbers will quickly be reduced by predation from Largemouth and Peacock Bass, turtles,  herons, hawks, Raccoons and feral cats. They may even be killed by rival male Muscovy Ducks, as I witnessed and reported other instances in this blog, Purposeful Infanticide: Birds killing babies

Our back yard West Indies Mahogany tree has hosted Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers for several winters. We are concerned about the damage they may do and shoo them away as soon as we see them. They fly off, or sometimes just hide on the opposite side of the trunk or in the upper branches. As soon as we go back into the house they are busy drilling their wells and sipping the sap.

Usually we see immature sapsuckers, but this winter an adult female has dominated the tree. She occasionally allows a younger bird to work in her presence. 

Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:



Hundreds of sap wells, many freshly drilled, cover the trunk and all the main branches of the tree: 



A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has succeeded in taking over our back yard feeder. Females have defended it every winter, until a few weeks ago when this male appeared:







Another back yard visitor, a Great Egret (shot through the window):



Out in the Wounded Wetlands, the large male Bobcat appeared along the trail on February 13, emerging from the brush not very far ahead of me. I almost did not see him in the deep shade, about an hour after sunrise:





He saw me but seemed rather indifferent as he walked across in front of me, the sun behind him. Obtaining a proper exposure was difficult, so the quality of these photos suffered:



Unflappable, he looked back at me one last time before disappearing on the other side of the track:



A Loggerhead Shrike stared me down:



At the lake, an Anhinga dried its wings:



An American Kestrel kept  watch from high on a Royal Palm spire:



A pair of Mottled Ducks cast reflections on the quiet surface of the lake:



Northern Flickers put on an amazing show. The female called repeatedly from a Royal Palm spire:



She flew to a tree very close to me and a male joined her, so close that I could not fit all the action into my viewfinder. Typically, the female displays while the male (or sometimes two or three) dance about like fencers. They parry as if there is an invisible sword extending from their bills, usually not coming into physical contact, but darting and swaying, advancing and retreating. 

This is tail of the female:



Here she dives down, allowing me one of my few full-body photos:



This was my only (almost) unobstructed view of the male flicker:



A White Ibis probed the earth for worms and insects along the trail:



At Chapel Trail Nature Preserve in nearby Pembroke Pines, two female Painted Buntings appeared:





At Chapel Trail there were nearly a dozen exotic Gray-headed Swamphens, pulling up the Spike-rush to eat their tender roots and shoots:





About 15 years ago, over 3,000 of these invasive swamphens were gunned down because they were reported to kill the young of native birds and also destroy the Spike-rush, a cornerstone species in the wet prairies of the Everglades. I fear that a similar native species may have been easily confused with the dreaded swamphen. Indeed, I found far fewer Purple Gallinules after the extermination campaign. Were they an unintended "by-catch?"

This sub-adult Purple Gallinule, grazing on lotus flowers, has a pale beak. An adult's beak will be bright red with a yellow tip. It is about half the size of a swamphen:



Back on our local wetlands, other critters deserved attention. This is a Horace's Duskywing, on an Ixora flower:



One of the few Monarch butterflies I've seen so far this winter. It may be a member of the local non-migratory population:



I had to kneel down to photograph two tiny butterflies-- Ceraunus Blue...





...and Fiery Skipper:



The view before sunrise, looking back to the east:



Fog lifting over the Pine Bank:



On the morning of February 18, the Snow Moon eclipsed (occluded) the Red Planet Mars. I actually  was unaware of the event, although I noticed a bright heavenly body very close by, the white dot in the lower left of this photo, hand-held (click on photo to enlarge). My Canon 80D has remarkable image stability-- see EXIF* below. The round dot even contained a few red pixels:



*EXIF for Moon and Mars image:

Camera Model Canon EOS 80D
Shooting Date/Time 2/18/2020 6:05:49 AM (50 minutes before sunrise)
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/250
Av (Aperture Value) 8.0
Exposure Compensation -1
ISO Speed 6400
Lens EF300mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Focal Length 420.0mm


= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

Linking to :

Fences Around the World


Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Birding under a Snow Moon

On February 8 the Moon was not quite full as it disappeared into the clouds when we walked into the Wounded Wetlands. At the rookery site I found two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. One was an adult approaching breeding condition as evidenced by its bright orange legs, clear yellowish white cap and occipital and scapular (head and shoulder) plumes:



The other night-heron was an immature bird, approaching one year of age:



My camera was set for night-flying birds with flash, and I forgot to turn off the flash when I snapped the first photo, that of the  juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. It looks like an alien creature!



On February 9, we reached the lake before the full Snow Moon settled into the horizon. On the way in I had stopped to record the song of an Eastern Whip-Poor-Will. In addition to its namesake phrase, the bird uttered an assortment of "whip" and "wheel" calls. (My recording of its song may be heard at this link, but listen carefully as the bird was not very close by.)

A cold front had passed through with morning temperatures dipping into the high 40s and low 50s (~10C), grounding the insects and requiring the whip-poor-will to rest and conserve energy. Some of its Nightjar (Caprimulgidae, aka Goatsuckers)  relatives, notably the Common Poorwill, actually "hibernate," entering into a prolonged state of torpor in which their heart rate slows dramatically and body temperature drops. Hummingbirds also may become torpid and may survive periods of cold weather. 

The Snow Moon in a black sky, an hour before sunrise:



That's MaryLou with her flashlight, walking in about 55 minutes before sunrise. My new iPhone 11 Pro Max really  brightened up the night with help of moonlight and a tall street lamp about 100 yards behind me!

  

Opposite the Moon, at 26 minutes before sunrise, the eastern sky  was starting to lighten up :



At 23 minutes before sunrise, I had almost reached the lake:



A flock of blackbirds flew across the face of the Moon:



We watched as the Moon settled into the lake, four minutes after sunrise:






Six minutes after sunrise:



A male American Kestrel flew into a lakeside tree...

 

...then, surprisingly, foraged for insects on the gravel track:





A Loggerhead Shrike then drove the kestrel away. I did not capture the actual encounter. Here is the kestrel as the shrike attacked:





The shrike then occupied the high perch:



Monarch butterflies have been very scarce. There is a local non-migratory population, but because of Hurricane Irma which devastated their host plants, their numbers have been down for the past two years. This is a bad photo, but it was the first one I have seen this year:



Other  butterflies on the morning of the Full Snow Moon included a tiny Fiery Skipper, here taking nectar from a Shepherd's Nettle (Bidens alba) flower:



I always hope for a clear day after a full Moon, as it sets later and provides a nice backdrop for early morning photos. My  telephoto camera does not have much depth of field, so I cannot get the Moon in sharp focus, as shown in this image of a Northern Mockingbird...

 

...until it decided to fly up and rest on the Moon! (Only fooling--- this is a finial atop a concrete fence post):



The Moon stood still long enough to provide a backdrop for a female Northern Flicker:



The mustachioed male flicker perched by patiently, but never posed in front of the Moon:



The female flicker joined him and began to fan her tail. I have noted that the female often initiates the courtship display:



I had to back away to fit both in a single frame. Although the quality of the photo is poor, I liked the action and thought it looked "painterly:':



An Egyptian Goose flew over, his mate following:



As I was returning home, a yearling male White-tailed Deer emerged from the brush and walked towards me. The wind was in my favor and at first he seemed to think I was another deer:



The "button buck" finally recognized me and bounded off:





Two rival male Julia heliconian butterflies stopped sparring for a moment and rested near each other on a Lantana:



A note about our local Bald Eagles. It appears that they may have lost their eggs or newly hatched eaglets in an early January wind storm which damaged their nest. They could have started a second brood. Follow them in my Bald Eagle FORUM. 

Here is the female, Jewel, roosting near the nest while the male is sitting deep in the nest, possibly sitting on eggs (February 10):


= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

Linking to :

My Corner of the World

Fences Around the World    

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

________________________________________________

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

________________________________________________