Burning the meadow

 It has not felt like spring the last couple of days. Sunday and Monday morning the temperatures were 17°F and 18°F, respectively. It was a balmy 29°F today. The good news is that it has been sunny for several days, which is always good for my mood. We are supposed to have another 1.5” of rain tomorrow, although we often see that number decrease significantly before anything falls from the sky.

At 11:00 yesterday morning, Terry called me. “Today is perfect for burning the wet meadow. I need to do it before the wind changed.”

I had just finished exercising and was about to step into the shower, but I got dressed again and went out to watch and/or help as needed.

“This won’t take long,” Terry said.

He was right. He started lighting the fire at 11:06. This picture was taken at 11:08.

Starting the burn

The wet meadow is, at present, a failed restoration. It looked good for a couple of years, but one year it flooded for a long time, and I couldn’t get in to do anything about the reed canary grass. Now it is mostly reed canary grass. The only native that has been able to compete is a tall aster that I have never been able to identify. As the burn progressed, the aster stems make little chimneys of smoke. They must be hollow.

Smoke coming out a "chimney" of a hollow aster stem

At 11:15, the meadow was already half burned. The burn coverage was good. The fire only went around two small spots.

A line of fire 8 minutes into the burn

Terry will mow the area a couple of times. Perhaps this year I can do something to beat back the reed canary grass.

We keep increasing the number of migrants we see at the bird feeders. Our favorites aren’t back yet. The red-winged blackbirds have been moving through for awhile, but some are now settling in and chasing the smaller birds from the feeders. Hilda used to get so mad at them! But a bird’s gonna do what a bird’s gonna do. Also in this picture is the first brown-headed cowbird I’ve seen. Hilda didn’t like them either, as they are nest parasites. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I used to think that was a pretty low-down thing to do until I learned that it was an adaptation to a mobile life. Cowbirds follow herds of larger grazing animals, probably bison originally, and they can’t be tied down to a nest.

Brown-headed cowbird (left) with a red-winged blackbird

Grackles are back too. Its head has a pretty iridescence. I suppose it gets the bad rap from its harsh call and tendency to travel in large flocks. Like blackbirds, they can probably do considerable damage to a field of corn.

Grackle

I do not have to use my imagination to see that the gold finches are turning yellow. This one is ahead of the curve. I bet he gets the best girls.

A goldfinch gets his breeding colors

Oh, those turkeys. We had a big tom displaying to four hens last Thursday.

Four turkey hens, left, one tom, right

The tom never got much closer to the hens. Once he was all puffed up, he couldn’t move fast. He strutted slowly toward the girls, and they walked away at a much faster pace. He dropped his tail, folded up his wings, and tried to catch up. But as soon as he started displaying again, off they went.  Dude! Too early to be laying eggs!

Hey baby! Hey baby!

He finally gave up. Here he is, looking dejected. Poor Tom.

Where did everybody go?

 

Rain

 I am so late with this week’s post that it is almost next week! I’m having the kind of week I hoped never to have in my retirement. Meetings, social engagements, rushing around, going to bed late, getting up early. Heck’s a-poppin’! The cleaning ladies have just left, so I have some time at last to sit down in a clean house and catch up on all that has fallen by the wayside in the last four days.

Terry’s birthday was Sunday. I made pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. I planned to make carrot cake, but neglected to consider that I was out of carrots. Terry likes pumpkin bars just as well. I was down to the last nubbin of nutmeg from a rather large tube of whole nutmeg that I bought about a hundred years ago. I had the foresight to buy another jar. When I opened the new jar, I found one of the most ridiculous uses of plastic ever—a shaker top with holes that were less than half the diameter of the nutmeg. Note that there was a firmly glued seal on top of the jar which meant the shaker top did not even function to hold the nuts in for shipping. It is as if the manufacturer thinks we need MORE plastic in the world. I think not.

This week's nomination for most ridiculous use of plastic

It has been a rainy week. It’s gloomy, true, but we need the precip. It’s good to see the ground thawing and the grass turning green. Rumor has it that there is cold weather and possibly snow this weekend. Nothing is a surprise in March. After the first inch of rain, some large animal woke up and had a nocturnal foraging trip to the bird feeder. Terry had some choice words about the hole that was left behind. The animal apparently didn't have the brains to figure out that there weren't any more seeds below the surface.

Hole beneath the bird feeder

He intended to fill it in, but found that the birds scratching around for sunflower seeds were doing a pretty good job leveling the ground.

Birds working to fill the hole in

The whole chicken run is a mud pit. I took this picture awhile ago when there was still some snow outside the fence. The muddy feet that are visible on the chickens has not changed. It looks like they are weary black socks. Of course, muddy feet mean muddy eggs. It wipes right off, but still seems like a lot of work compared to bringing in clean eggs. It’s an attitude problem on our part.

Chickens with muddy feet

In another three weeks or so, depending on the temperature, we can move the girls down to the apple orchard. It makes me a little sad because I have gotten completely spoiled by the automatic coop door. Once they are in coop 2, I will be constrained to let them out in the morning and put them to bed every night. The weather will be nicer, though. It’s not such a bad job. I enjoy having a little walk outside at sunset, at least until the mosquitoes hatch.

It won’t be long until spring!

 

 

Signs of spring

 Now that I’m done with my vacation pictures, it’s time to get back to pictures from home. We are still having some frosty mornings. The cardinals and finches spend their days flying from the apple trees to the bird feeders and back.

Cardinals and house finches in an apple tree

On February 21, Terry called to tell me the turkeys were back! He  had been anxiously awaiting their arrivals. We usually see a bunch of toms first. I got one picture with all 8, which was hard and not a great picture because they refused to stand in a group. Note that there are two turkeys on the far left, as evidenced by two heads.

8 tom turkeys

Since that first sighting, we have only seen 7 toms in the group. They are regular visitors to the feeder, scooping up fallen sunflower seeds in their big beaks. Their feathers are gorgeous in the sunlight with the iridescent bronze, greens, and golds.

Eating sunflower seeds with plumage shining in the sun

I saw my very first red poll for one day on March 3, then he was gone.

Transient red poll, front, with a house finch

On March 5, a thousand red-winged blackbirds descended on our property, raising a ruckus. They moved on the next day, and we are still waiting for the group that will take up residence.

Part of a huge flock of red-winged blackbirds passing through

I saw a deer early one morning. It seemed to be limping. When I looked closely at this picture, I saw that it had scrapes all along its back. Coyote attack?

Deer at sunrise

If the light is just right, and I squint a little, I can imagine that the goldfinches are starting to turn gold.

A goldfinch looking a little golder around the face and shoulders

And if that is not enough of a sign of spring, the robins came back on March 8.

Robins! A sure sign of spring

They were just in time for another round of cold weather and flurries. Also caught off guard was this one bluebird. I couldn’t decide which picture was cuter, so I’m including both. It was sheltering by the deck and about as fluffed up as it could get. So cute!

Bluebird in the snow

Another picture of the same bluebird. Which is cuter?

Soon I need to start cleaning out the high tunnel and preparing for the first planting. Winter seems to last forever, yet spring always takes one by surprise. It’s nice to be getting some of our bird friends back.

Florida, Days 9-12

 Saturday, February 12

As the end of my time in Florida drew nigh, activities and pictures decreased as we spent more time doing fun things like laundry and packing. Jane and I went out Saturday afternoon to look for gopher tortoises at Bowditch Point Park at the end of Fort Myers Beach.

On our way, we stopped at Trico Shrimp Co. and Seafood Market to get shrimp. Jane called ahead to order it shelled and deveined. We brought a cooler along, and Trico always packs the shrimp container in a bag with ice. It would be fine until we got back to the condo.

Trico Shrimp Co., Fort Myers Beach's hidden gem

When we got to Bowditch, the parking lot was full, but it was late enough in the afternoon that several cars were leaving, and we were able to get one of the vacated spots. We walked up to where Jane and Jan had seen a tortoise in a burrow earlier in the month. Jane and I split up. Soon we were each gesturing frantically to one another, trying to silently indicate that we had found the turtle. It’s over here! No, it’s over here!

It turned out there were two turtles, completely out of their burrows and foraging on the scant vegetation.

The tortoise I saw first

Jane’s turtle was eating less and hoofing it to the shrubs and trees at a surprisingly fast pace for a tortoise. In fact, when we turned our attention to the other tortoise, this one disappeared into the undergrowth.

The tortoise Jane saw first

My tortoise was stuffing its face in complete oblivion to our presence. Nom, nom, nom!

Our tortoise hunt took much less time than we expected, much like our search for burrowing owls. I had gotten lucky with the wildlife spotting this trip! We left the park with 45 minutes on our one-hour parking permit.

Our next stop was a Super Target to stock up on snacks for the Superbowl. As I suspected, the prices were much less than at the Publix on the island, but it was a larger store, and we had no idea where anything was. We went to where we thought something out to be, couldn’t find it, picked up a substitute, found what we were looking for two aisles over, went back to return the substitute, and so forth. It was pretty much one giant random walk through the store.

Then we sat in a traffic jam to get back to the island.

We got back in time for happy hour and the sunset.

Sunday, February 13

The big event for the day was the Superbowl. Jan’s friend Sheila came for the sunset and game. While it was still light enough to get a decent picture, one roseate spoonbill few into the lagoon. I grabbed the camera and went down to the beach. The observers on the 9^th floor thought I would move closer, but I had realized that the spoonbill was keeping itself at a constant distance from me. Every time I took a step, it moved away and equal length. So I got what pictures I could.

The Superbowl was a pretty good game, we thought. We had way too much food, but Jane and Jan still had some time to eat the leftovers.

On Monday, we took Jan to see the owls on Cape Coral and tried to go to Matlatcha for lunch, but hit a truly awful traffic jam, even by Florida standards. Cars were not moving at all. We did a U-turn and went back to Fort Myers and had a less than outstanding lunch at Salty Papa’s Shrimp (although the sign actually said “S rimp”).

On Tuesday, I flew home, and boy, were my arms tired!

 

Florida, Day 8

 Friday, February 11

We had a big adventure today. We drove down the Tamiami Trail to the edge of the Everglades. Probably a lot of us don’t pause to think about where the name “Everglades” came from. It’s just a name. It wouldn’t surprise me if many people don’t even know what a glade is, other than air freshener. A glade is an open space among trees. Everglade is a big open space, now often taken to also mean swampy. Here is a picture of the Everglades.

Glade, forever

The first thing I learned on our trip is that there are two kinds of vultures. I only knew about turkey vultures. There are also black vultures. Turkey vultures have pink skin on their naked heads; black vultures’ heads are black. The lack of feathers is an adaptation to their habit of eating carrion. Feathers would harbor organisms of decomposition from the food. (Why did the vulture get kicked off his flight? He wanted to board with more than one carrion. Ha ha.)

Black vulture

We left the Tamiami Trail to drive a loop to the north through abandoned drainage ditches. I’m sure draining the Everglades seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be disastrous. It has not been easy to reverse the damage. In any case, some of the ditches remain, and birds and alligators hunt fish there.

We saw juvenile ibis, a black-crowned night-heron, a kingfisher, many, many egrets, anhinga, tricolored herons,  little blue herons, and wood storks.

Juvenile white ibis

Black-crowned night-heron

Kingfisher

Great Egret

Anhinga

Tricolored heron

Little blue heron

Woodstorks

We saw an alligator on the opposite side of the canal. That seemed like a good place for it.

Alligator on the opposite shore

We also saw a brown and white bird that Jan thought was a limpkin. When I looked closely at the picture, though, it was obvious that the bill was too short and thick. Because it was yellow (visible in the flight picture), I’m calling it a juvenile black-crowned night-heron. Its wings had a pretty pattern when it flew.

Juvenile black-crowned night-heron

Juvenile black-crowned night-heron in flight

We drove down to Everglades City for lunch at the Camellia Street Grill. We sat outside by the water. Jane and Jan had fish. I had a pulled pork sandwich. The food was good, but pricy.

Waiting for lunch

After lunch, we drove the 24-mile loop through Big Cypress Swamp. It seemed odd to see a red-bellied woodpecker on a palm tree. Quite a different setting from the bird feeder at home.

Red-bellied woodpecker

Big Cypress, like most cypress swamps, had trees emerging from water. The best places to see anything were the breaks in the trees where the road crossed culverts.

Big Cypress waterway

We saw an anhinga in a tree.

Webbed feet just don't look right in a tree

A great blue heron among the cypress trees,

Great blue heron among the cypress

A great blue heron that did not have any fear of alligators. This alligator was right at the side of the road. We did not get out of the car.

You would not think this was a safe place for a heron to hang out

The trees were adorned with bromeliads.

Bromeliads in the trees

We saw another alleged limpkin that probably was a juvenile yellow-crowned night-heron, based  on its short, thick, black bill.

Possible juvenile yellow-crowned night-heron

This is an adult black-crowned night-heron.

Another black-crowned night-heron

We saw a red-bellied slider,

Red-bellied slider

A green heron,

Green heron

Another great blue heron,

Another great blue heron. Hard not to take the picture when they pose so nicely.

And an alligator that was taking up so much of the road that it was hard not to run over its tail. It was enormous.

An alligator that did not seem to care much about the fate of its tail

It was getting to be time for sunset. We wanted to go to Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge to see flocks of water birds come in to roost. Jan and Jane had been there last year and seen hundreds of birds.

We did not have the same luck this time. We went to a two-level tower that was mobbed with birdwatchers. It was a lovely night, very calm. I got a nice picture of a great egret and a coot (or possibly a gallinule) with reflections on the water.

Great egret in the sunset

We did see flocks of ibis come in, wave after wave. Since I hadn’t seen the spectacle last year, I was impressed. It was a nice way to end the day.

Ibis coming in to roost