BIRDS FOUND IN THE EVERGLADES - FROM MY ARCHIVES

 These are an archive continuation from our trip to the Everglades in January 2014.  One of the many reasons I enjoy Florida is because of the abundance of birdlife.  You can get up relatively close to them, especially when we were in the Everglades.

Wood Stork above and the Great Blue Heron below.

Next shows you the extraordinary pattern of feathers on the Anhinga.

Another perched on an old tree branch...

and one taking off across the water.

The Green Heron I shared recently.

The following extraordinary-looking bird is a Purple Gallinule.  Look at those feet?  Its long toes help it to walk on floating vegetation like lilypads.

Next is a Tri-colored Heron.

and also a Great Blue Heron (link in my second photo). He had just caught his lunch. Further away and photo is a little blurry.  

I made a collage of heads and already identified above, except for the Double-crested Cormorant top right.

That's all for today. 

Thanks for looking and 

enjoy your Friday!

A GREEN HERON FROM MY ARCHIVES - ANOTHER POST FROM THE EVERGLADES

I am not getting out and about right now as I have a sprained knee and have been told to rest up, so I am using another archive post from The Everglades. It's one I published on my old blog 10 years ago.

I was very happy to keep company with this Green Heron while he was fishing, and he wasn't that far away. He was very focused on his fishing to bother about me. I was on the walking path not too far from his position. (These photos were actually taken in January 2014.) 

You can learn more about this beautiful bird here. Its calls can be heard here.

A few facts, the Green Heron is one of the few tool-using birds.

In flight it resembles a crow but the wing beats are slower, a slightly different shape and the neck is a reddish brown.

Both parents incubate the eggs for 19 to 21 days (three weeks). My information came from this link and there is much more to learn at their website.

The birdlife in Florida left us with several amazing sightings, this being one of them. Since my first sighting of this awesome bird, I have seen them since in various places, on other holidays but also closer to home at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria. You can revisit those posts below if you like.  

https://anenglishgirlrambles2016.blogspot.com/2023/09/more-from-huntley-meadows.html

https://anenglishgirlrambles2016.blogspot.com/2019/05/another-huntley-meadows-walk-part-2.html

I hope you have enjoyed my first ever sighting of the Green Heron.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

HUNTLEY MEADOWS PARK IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

Last Saturday (September 2nd), we went to Huntley Meadows. We were very surprised when we realized it has been over a year since our last visit.  It seemed a long time but not that long.  With one thing and another, our excursions were not as frequent.  Being back here again felt incredible as it truly is one of our favorite places.  It is a little wilder than our more manicured gardens, which most importantly encourages a lot of wildlife.  Gregg usually carries the camera with the zoom lens as it has grown too heavy for me.  I content myself with my cell phone. I have a nice little strap attached that I put around my wrist.  No dropping my phone into the water while walking on the boardwalk!  I am always impressed with the quality of my phone's photos.  If I need the larger camera, then I just ask Gregg for it.  I am sharing the Green heron we saw today.  It is in the center of my cell phone photo below, a mere speck but it gives you an idea of its surroundings.  The heron was fishing for its supper...

and Gregg caught the heron with its catch. We at first thought it was a small fish, but it turned out to be a tadpole morphing into a frog.

  When we got home that night and looked closer on a larger screen, we could see the upper part of the body with newly formed legs, and the tail was still attached.  

I had sympathy for the frog/part tadpole, but understand that all creatures need to survive and its nature's way.

Green herons are the smallest of the North American herons...

and they are persistent fisherman, being one of only a few bird species observed using tools/bait for hunting.  One researcher reported watching a heron drop the same bait into the water more than 28 times before a fish finally bit.

Although Green herons are considered to be widespread and common, their shy nature combined with their well camouflaged exterior and odd feeding times, makes them hard to spot.

It sounds like we were very lucky to come across our friend here.

Some Green herons migrate, and some don't. They are year-round residents in most of the southern coastal parts of their range. Other birds migrate from their nesting grounds in the north a short distance south for the winter. They are considered to be mid-distance migrants.

It has had some interesting colloquial names, including Fly-up-the-creek, Poke, Chalkline, Indian Hen, and Chucklehead.  I think I have heard "Chucklehead" before somewhere.

Onto the next catch!

You can read more information about this bird here.

We didn't see a lot of birds on our visit.  This one was the closest but we did see swallows flying above us.  There were also several birders along our walk, looking up into the trees with binoculars.  One group was very interested in a Red-bellied woodpecker, but it was so high in the treetops that we could barely make it out.  We also saw a couple of Egrets and one Grey blue heron, a pair of snapping turtles that looked huge, the biggest we had ever laid our eyes on.  But they were at such a great distance it was impossible to get a decent photo and was a blur.  We only found out that they were snappers when we saw them on a larger screen that evening and could just about make out what they were.

It depends on the time of the year when we visit.  On each one there is always something fascinating to see.  Huntley Meadows becomes very busy during migration with several species of ducks for instance.  We saw no Red-winged blackbirds today, and no Canada Goose.  However, there were a lot of things that took our interest.  We didn't make it to the second pond we usually go to, but there will be next time and hopefully it won't be as long between visits.  

More photos to follow.

WILDLIFE AT HUNTLEY MEADOWS PARK

The last time we had a walk here a few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to see quite a lot of wildlife, and I put together a collage to start off today's post.    

When I was taking photos of this butterfly, a gentleman came by and told me what it was.  He was carrying a camera and a tripod.  I wish I could remember his name!  He said he had taken a photograph of the butterfly and went through several on his phone to show me.  All his photos looks wonderful and he said he had an account on Flicker and mainly took videos, that I do remember.  Hopefully I will come across it one of these days.

He told me this was a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly, and I found a blog with great photos here.  This is the first time I remember seeing one, or more likely had the chance to take notice.  The butterfly posed very nicely for a while.

It is sipping nectar from a Climbing hempvine, botanical name Mikania scandens.

Eileen at Viewing Nature with Eileen (you can see what she says in her comments attached to this post) identified this bird as a Juvenile Little Blue Heron.  Thank you Eileen.  I love how our blogging friends help out, and always appreciate correct identifications. 

You can learn more here.

Their habitat information was found at the above link: "you will find them at the edges of shallow water, particularly where there is adjacent emergent vegetation or overhanging bushes or trees."


A Great Egret is next.   Gregg took its photos.  There were several of them at the park when we were there...

many putting on a wonderful display in flight.

He also took there, two Great Blue Herons.  Unfortunately most of the birds were further than we would have liked, but always grateful for whatever we can get.  If you go to this YouTube link it will show you a great video of this bird.

In the next photo is a female Eastern Pond Hawk Dragonfly, Erythemis simplicicollis. You can see a photo of the male at this link.

The brown dragonfly is an Eastern Amberwing. 

The last one is the Common White Dragonfly.

This looks like a Meadow Katydid.

A Blue tailed Skink and you can see one here also.

It looks like it is growing a new tail.  The blogger said that although this is called a Blue-tailed skink in the US, it is actually an American Five-lined Skink.  He added that the actual Blue-tailed skink lives on Christmas Island in Australia.


There weren't many frogs to be seen on this visit, and I looked really hard to find one.  The only reason I saw the handsome fellow below, was I noticed a young girl with her family leaning precariously over the boardwalk.  I asked what they were looking at and the girl pointed to the frog.

He is above left of center in the first photo below.  I had to lean far over to see him as he was out of almost out of sight just under the boardwalk.  

This is a Snapping Turtle.  Its head was visible with the rest of him under water.  He is prehistoric looking isn't he?

I have seen them many times at various places, mostly in the water and one time on land.  They can be huge and I figured our landlubber was a grandfather of snappers.  I gave him a wide berth as I have read they can be particularly aggressive on land even before reading the same at this link.  Also, though most of the time you only see their head tucked into their shell, they have long necks that can swivel really fast, and that mouth would do terrible things to your fingers.  Sorry for that image but forewarned is forearmed.  I like these creatures and have always found them fascinating, but it is sensible to have a healthy respect for all wildlife and keep an appropriate distance.

I saved these for the last.  Many of us know about the Eastern Tent Caterpillar.   They aren't at all popular.  When we first moved into our house almost 30 years ago, I was told by a neighbor that these caterpillars killed a tree in our yard and much to the previous owner's dismay, it fell on our roof.  We noticed another tree that was dead.  It had been growing next to it, and had to have it cut down before it did the same.  

The actual moth is a cute little thing as you will see here.  I was surprised to see the caterpillars around.

It seems to me that this year I have seen a lot more of these 'tents'.  They are usually a common sight going down the highway, on side roads too.

This is the last of our recent Huntley Meadow trip.  Always a great place to amble around.  I enjoy the woods but my favorite part is the walkway across the wetland.