Today at Flamingo—Ellen still has a cold, Steve takes a ride and some backyard birding.
Dawn broke with clear skies and 52° temperatures, but Ellen woke with her's at 100.3°, with a sore throat and a cough. No birding for her today, just drugs and rest. After breakfast Steve finally got on his bike for a ride along the park road. It has the typical Florida elevation profile—dead flat, with the only “hill” being the bridge over the Buttonwood Canal, about a 5' climb. So it was 26 miles of non-stop pedaling out to Nine Mile Pond (which is nearly 13 miles from Flamingo) and back with breaks at Mrazek Pond and West lake to check out the wildlife...birds and alligators.
There weren't many of either to be found. Mrazek had the most with about a hundred Green-winged Teal, a few other species and a very large Alligator. There was almost nothing at West lake but a single Pied-billed Grebe, two Alligators and a very inquisitive American Crow who took a liking to my handlebar bag. Nine-mile pond had the most diversity, most of it flying over. The highlight I barely saw...White-crowned Pigeons. There were three that I saw, but only as they flew out of one tree and disappeared into another. This is primarily a Caribbean bird and the Keys and the Everglades are the only places it is found in the U.S.
By the time I returned, Ellen had camped out in her Kermit chair in the screen house, a spot where she would spend most of the day recuperating. She looked better after the drugs and fresh air. I even served her lunch in the gazebo.
As you can see, it was a nice spot to spend the day.
Up in snowy Massachusetts, the contributors to the Massbird mailing list were undaunted by the blizzard and, instead of reporting the day's notable sightings, these intrepid, but housebound, birders reported on their backyard and feeder birds. They did this during a storm last year and it was taken in good spirits by most, with an occasional grump who thought it inappropriate for the mailing list. They were ignored, obviously.
After lunch we did a bit of of our own backyard birding. It was prompted by a Red-shouldered Hawk who landed in the palm tree right behind Speedy, who was followed by a Great Egret who came by hunting along the edge of the field (a long way from a wetland).
Here is the entire set of our backyard birds:
Full-size slide show
After the backyard birding I rode over to the visitor center for the afternoon ranger talk. I was rather early so I wandered over to the Marina and saw these non-birds hanging around:
Full-size slide show
The talk was on “Tropical Treasures”. In this case, some of the trees of the Everglades and how they got here. There are no temperate climate trees in the Everglades, only tropical varieties. This part of Florida is really part of the sub-tropical Caribbean, from a flora standpoint. He had wood samples and seeds from some of the trees, Caribbean Mahogany, Red Mangrove, Knickerbean, Poisonwood and Coconut Palm.
The Mahogany arrived from the Caribbean on the wind since it has seeds that float through the air; they look like Maple seeds with a single wing. The Mangrove and Knickerbean seeds floated here. The Poisonwood was an example of seeds carried by birds, in its case the bird was the White-crowned Pigeon, who are partial to its berries. The palm, interestingly, did not float into Florida, although it might have eventually, but was brought by man. It both accidentally arrived and was deliberately imported. The accident was literal—shipwrecks. Coconuts were carried as emergency rations (the original MREs) by early ships plying the Caribbean and when one wrecked off the coast, the coconuts floated ashore to take root. They were also brought here deliberately to establish coconut plantations in the Everglades.
So much for today's natural history lesson.
When I got back, Ellen had rallied enough to want to take a short walk. She grabbed her binoculars and headed over to T loop. I think she was hoping to track down the Barred Owl we have been hearing in that direction every evening and morning. She saw a few birds on her short walk, but no Barred Owl.
She was feeling well enough to do the prep for our dinner of Weir River Farm Grass-fed Belted Galloway burgers and Everything Orzo (and orzo salad). She did the orzo and patted out the burgers. I did the manly thing...grilled them. It was a tasty dinner. An excellent end to the day.
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