Field Journal: Birding at Brooker Creek Preserve

(Karl and I along with our team leader participate in a bird census at Brooker Creek Preserve. A research PhD at Brooker Creek developed this citizen science project almost 20 years ago in conjunction with an expert from the local Audubon group. It survived volunteers coming and going, research staff coming and going, budget cutbacks which reduced the routes counted, and countless other challenges, but still goes strong using the same methodology, and on two of the original four routes.)
Tuesday morning started dark and colder than expected. The drive to start our route, in an ATV with no windscreen, froze us before we counted the first bird. Luckily, no cloud cover meant the sunrise that greeted us when we arrived managed to thaw us out a bit.

Photography on these hikes primarily serves for identification purposes. The spotting of species of birds and counting is the purpose of the hike. I always carry my Canon 50D with the Canon 100 - 400 mm lens. All the shots are quick, hand-held, and usually at 400mm with me wishing for a bigger lens for the shot. Even the blurry, far less than perfect photographs often perform an important function. In addition to confirming a bird identification, they provide proof for some of the uncommon sightings we make and confirm them for the official records.

This morning started slow. The birds, obviously smarter than us, chose to wait until the sun began to warm the air and the insects began to move about. We counted 41 different species by the end of the hike. We also count number of individuals in each species. A juvenile Bald Eagle sat near the top of a tree, looking around for several minutes. We did see an adult too later in the hike further back on the route. Palm Warblers darted around everywhere, and American Robins flew overhead. We heard and saw many Sandhill Cranes.

I heard the call of the cranes getting closer, and looked up to find them directly overhead. Sometimes the best photographs are up.

We heard this White-eyed vireo before we saw it.

A Red-breasted Merganser swam in a pond with a group of Hooded Mergansers. The Hooded Mergansers are beautiful, but very skittish that morning. They remained on the far side of the pond and flew if approached at all. Even the 400 mm couldn't make a photo of them.



Old Ways: Making Sugar Cane Syrup

According to the sources I read, sugar cane once grew in every county in Florida. Now, growing of cane and boiling it down to produce Pure Cane Syrup takes place for the most part at festivals showing the old ways of Florida.

Karl took this shot at a recent event. We watched them work for some time, and returned two days in a row, fascinated by the various parts of the process.

Red-shouldered Hawk at Brooker Creek Preserve

Red-shouldered Hawks frequently fly overhead and call at Brooker Creek Preserve (Tarpon Springs, FL). On a recent bird count (an 18 year and still running citizen science project at the preserve) we spotted this one directly overhead in a tree near the bridge over the main channel of the creek.

 

 

He flew to another tree next to the trail, and watched us as we walked by. I compared these photographs to both my desk version of Sibley Guide to Birds and the Peterson Hawks of North America. Based on those illustrations, and the bird's behavior, this appears to be a juvenile.



Friday Photo: Piggyback Turtles

 

Standing on the deck overlooking Weeki Wachee Spring I noticed these turtles floating to the shore. The sky just turned overcast, so the light worked for this shot. I took it with a Canon G16. Once in Photoshop Elements, I did a minor crop. Had I used a SLR with a longer telephoto, I could have done the crop I wanted in the camera. Getting closer with the G16 was not an option!

County Fairs and Country Stores

We spent a lot of time on the road last summer. Family weddings and get-togethers took us to the western New York area a couple of times. After decades of air travel for our respective business careers, we now choose to drive. It's nice to see at eye level all the things we used to fly over.

 

 

 

 

An August, 2014 visit to the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, NY. The Erie County Fair is one of the oldest continuous running county fairs in the country. I grew up not too far from here, and growing up going to the Fair was one of the highlights of summer. We visited in August for a family wedding, and happened to hit Fair time. It brought back a lot of very good memories, but times have definitely changed.

 

My attempt at documenting the Fair in photography yielded several interesting photographs, but with the plethora of cell phone cameras and other cameras I noticed people no longer politely wait when they see a camera pointed, they simply jump in front to take their photograph. I unfortunately ended up with many less than flattering photographs of the backsides of people I did not know, and are not likely to ever see again. "Street" and "Event" photography poses many more challenges now than it did when Vivian Maier did her work.

We drove a different route last summer to western New York State, the place we both grew up but left long ago. Family still lives there, so a summer visit remains a must for us. Plus, let's face it, not a lot happens in west central Florida in July and August. After eight hours in the car, we stopped in a small place in Ohio. While perusing their tourist information, usually my second stop after checking out the room, I realized we stopped near Ohio Amish country. And, much to my amazement, quite near the Lehman's store. The next morning we arrived at opening, and spend a couple of hours wandering the 35,000 square foot, many roomed store. Started as a hardware store serving the Amish in 1955, the still family owned store provided me with the non-electric items I needed over the years.