Nature’s Bounty in a SW Florida Winter

As winter continues just past middle February we encountered a period of freezing weather around Feb. 3.  This photo well illustrates the devastating effects of the transient cold on mangroves and a Pond Apple in a tidal tributary of E Curry Creek Preserve in Venice.  The current crop of leaves is dead and the ultimate impact on the trees remains to be determined.  Certainly this shows why these tropical species are very near their northern ranges in this site.  Even non-native fish of tropical origin were affected- tilapia and this sailfin catfish were killed in ponds in the Englewood area resulting in a bounty for vultures.  The effects of the cold period on tropical green iguanas to our south was well reported in the news as these lizards fell out of trees in cold shock.  The sub-tropical ctenosaur iguanas from Mexico that have moved into burrows in my yard were hardly affected by the cold snap.  They basked on sunny days and were lethargic on cooler days and seemed relatively unaffected by the climatic change.  A male and female pair are shown that live under one of my sheds as they bask outside.

Although some plants lost leaves to the cold period others continued to bloom such as this necklace pod and coral honeysuckle.  Jessamine vines are beginning to bloom.  A monarch caterpillar was found feeding on a tropical milkweed and adult monarchs continued to feed during warm periods on Cape honeysuckle and other FL friendly non native flowers that were in bloom.  A Gulf fritillary is shown feeding on a Turk’s cap hibiscus which unlike most members of this group has nectar.

I made a visit to East Curry Creek Preserve and was pleased to see that there are numbers of beautiful mature long leaf pines present.  Unfortunately there are very few young pines such as this grass stage with a characteristic white growth tip.  The loss of many young pines seems to be a very unfortunate result of the park managers bush hogging the forest.  This was likely done to avoid using controlled burns with so many houses nearby.  Some dead mature long leaf pines have been cut down as a safety measure and it was very interesting to observe the annual growth rings which seemed to indicate ages of 80-100 years.  This correlates well with the closure of local lumber mills about 1920 when the majority of the forests had been cut and/or used for collecting turpentine.

I have had a pair of screech owls nesting in my yard for about 30 years and decided to add a predator baffle below the nest box for protection.  The female is sticking her head out of the box and seems satisfied with the new construction.  A lot of attention is being generated over burrowing owls in a nearby area which has become an artificial prairie due to mowing of the lots for sale.  For many years this area was covered with dense wax myrtle and attracted thousands of tree swallows that fed on the fruit in winter.  Now instead there are burrowing owls, shrikes, meadowlarks and kestrels living in what they perceive as a prairie.  This is all caused by regular mowing with large tractors pulling bush hogs and is a striking example of how “development” in this case has benefitted some birds.  A group of concerned citizens has been buying up lots and placing artificial burrows made form plastic pipes- this owl has obviously accepted this novel new home.

Some other interesting birds seen recently are a juvenile bald eagle without a white head and tail.  The diagnostic features which reveal its approximate age are the shape of the trailing edges of the wings.  The longer saw tooth feathers are remnants of the juvenile secondary feathers whereas the smoother feathers are the next/older stage.  Thus this eagle could be said to be a Basic 2/3 just over two years old.  A juvenile wood stork resting on the edge of a pond illustrates an unusual feature of the leg bones.  Note that the apparent “knee” bends backwards because it is actually part of the ankle bone which has elongated and the knee is up above.  A bird which is rarely seen when it is sitting still is this Wilson’s snipe which will fly up rapidly when disturbed.  I had seen it fly away on several other occasions and crept up slowly on it and was able to get a photo while it was hiding in plain sight well camouflaged along the edge of a wetland.

Despite a few very cold days and evidence of freezing and near freezing damage to plants and animals, life continues. These natural climatic episodes well illustrate how the flora and fauna of regions are specialized to cope with certain limited extremes of temperature.