Barn Owl and Coyote howl on morning prowl

About two years ago we started taking our morning walks about an hour before sunrise. We were always out "early," meaning after the sky began brightening up. Since I like photographing the setting Full Moon, we occasionally got out when it was very dark. After we became full-time (summer) Florida residents it became a habit. 

During the summer we escaped the heat of the sun and came to enjoy trekking out with flashlights and listening to the sounds of the night. We heard the calls of Eastern Screech-Owls and experienced the pre-dawn songbird chorus.

On April 8 I heard the eerie scream of a Barn Owl. It was high in a Royal Palm next to the gravel road which leads into the wetlands.  It was 6:20 AM, about 45 minutes before sunrise.  I could only see it using my flashlight. It was so dark that my camera would not click, even though I manually cranked the ISO up to 16,000. 

I had to hold my flashlight beam on the owl to permit the camera to focus, and the photos turned out to be very soft, with "red eye" which I corrected during processing:





Years ago, when I first heard heard its unfamiliar scream I thought it was a mammal, perhaps a Bobcat. This time, the Barn Owl called unexpectedly while I was recording the song of a Chuck-wills-widow. 

AUDIO FILE-- Chuck-wills-widow and Barn Owl

This was my tenth, but by far the best local sighting of (or hearing) a Barn Owl since first discovering one in 2015. I found a wing feather in 2018 in the same general location:



The owl first called from on or very near the top of the trunk of this dead Royal Palm. It could be a nesting or resting place, so I am checking it carefully:



On March 25 I heard several Coyotes barking and wailing along the Big Levee Trail. By the time I reached the spot they had departed, but a treed Raccoon may have been their intended prey:





Nearby Chapel Trail Nature Preserve has since closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but my last visit there started with a peaceful stroll along the boardwalk, which starts out through a wooded area:



Among the birds and butterflies at Chapel Trail, a Blue-headed Vireo was a cooperative subject:



A Black-and-White Warbler foraged along the trunks and larger branches:



Cattle Egrets walked along with a Longhorn cow and bull in the adjacent pasture:



A Prairie Warbler flitted high up in the canopy:

  



Out on the wet prairie, there were a dozen of these established exotic Gray-headed Swamphens:





Swamphens were joined by a pair of Mottled Ducks on the flooded prairie:



A Zebra longwing butterfly sipped on wild Lantana blossoms:

 

A male Queen butterfly provided two nice views:





White Peacock wings are often damaged by their fighting,  so I never pass up a chance to capture a near-perfect specimen :



A Magnolia tree bloomed in a light rain shower:

 

The sun rising over the entrance to our local Wounded Wetlands:




The April Pink Moon setting:



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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

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

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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


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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