Crops & Clips: This week's potpourri

It has been an eventful few days in our neighborhood Wounded Wetlands. Although spring migration has been slow, I added a (heard-only) Chuck-will's-widow to my patch list. A poor recording is my only documentation with no photos to share. It was quite near the trail about 40 minutes before sunrise. As has been the case with the Whip-poor-will, it stopped calling about a half hour before sunup.  

An unusual visitor was this Black-whiskered Vireo. It was only my second sighting at this location, and one of only two recorded in Broward County so far this year. 

I found the first one at almost this exact spot on April 20, 2011. Its namesake throat stripes are distinctive:

 

This time I got much better photos when, for a few seconds, it sat still out in the open after it ate Lantana berries (May 4, 2019):







Black-whiskered Vireos breed in The Bahamas and Caribbean islands, but their US range is generally restricted to a migratory population in coastal mangroves of southern Florida. Their secretive habits make them hard to find as they glean for insects among the leaves. They are closely related to the similar Red-eyed Vireo. In fact, at first I misidentified it as the latter species. Close inspection reveals that, although its eyes have a reddish tint, it has a more massive bill and a duller brownish back:



Here is a Red-eyed Vireo for comparison (October 12, 2018):



Two different Bobcats showed up, only two days apart. The first was a small female which stared at me from the high grass on the left side of this trail:

 

She jumped out and over the trail just as I raised my camera (May 3):

 



The other Bobcat was a large male, seen only about 100 yards away from where I saw the female. He walked leisurely across the gravel road (May 5):



He crouched down for a moment to check me out:



Male Bobcats usually occupy much larger territories than females. They seek out and mate with several but do not take part in rearing or defending the young. One of the local females appears to be quite pregnant (April 13, 2019): 



We would expect her to avoid contact with the male and take such steps as covering feces and hiding in with her kits in a den. I can tell that a male is around when I find fresh Bobcat scat piles out in the open and close to each other, as this is one way they mark their territory.

A White-winged Dove peered out from the shadows (May 4):



Loggerhead Shrikes had disappeared for over two weeks, so I was happy when one posed in early morning sun on May 4:



That same day I saw my first Julia longwing of the spring season. They have been very scarce since Hurricane Irma ravaged the area almost two years ago. This is a fresh male:



I had to get down on the ground to get a side view of a tiny but beautiful Dainty Sulphur:



We spent the week after Easter at Tranquility Bay resort on the Florida Keys. These are views from the beach at sunset (April 22-25):

 







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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Our World Tuesday by Lady Fi

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

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

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